Poll: I don't like UFC | Violence in Sport | Ronda Rousey status

[Batou667]

UFC seems like human bear-baiting if you ask me. The concept seems to be "what style of martial art would win if pitted against another?" with the rules that are intended to keep the participants from seriously injuring each other (like requiring gloves in boxing) removed.

That's what UFC was in its early days. A kind of real-life Street Fighter where some guy who only boxes goes up against some guy who only knows Judo and the hilariously bloodthirsty results play out in slow-mo technicolor.

Since then, regulations as well as the UFC's own rules have turned it into a largely homogeneous sludge of "soften up opponent with cautious kickboxing, win the match by violently hugging them for five minutes". The rules make it difficult for anybody who isn't a cross-trained MMA fighter to really shine. People no longer come to UFC to show that their discipline is the best, they learn MMA so they can win UFC. That's not necessarily a bad thing - it's essentially created a whole new martial art within the last 20 years, which is pretty cool - but in my opinion it's dull as hell to watch, and anything that reduces the variety of styles and techniques on display is retrograde. I think the market is ripe for a true style-vs-style competition.

 

[aba1]

I have 17 years or more (I have lost track honestly) of training in Judo myself and I have been fighting since I was a little kid. Its all fun and second nature to me so I can appreciate the UFC from a technical and skilled point of view. I think when you get to be around these things you kinda get used to blood and bruises and such where it really isn't that big of a deal. I think it scares or frightens off people but honestly its just a bit of blood and a few bruises it heals up and your fine no big deal. People at that level choose to fight because they want to and people appreciate their level of skill and athleticism.

 

[9tailedflame]

To me, i like UFC because it feels very honest. Sports exist as an outlet for our natural aggression, and football and basketball always felt a bit disingenuous in that regard. I'm not huge on sports overall, but i'll watch UFC before anything else, mostly because it does feel like it gets what sports are suppose to be and embraces that.

 

[happyninja42]

My personal opinion on the UFC isn't very different from any form of organized sports. I don't really care. Yes it's violent, but we are a violent species, we like our conflicts and struggles. And these types of sports are the safest way that we can replicate and appease our violent tendencies with a minimum of serious, long term harm to those participating.

I still don't care for any of it though, but I do understand the need for it on a base level for the species.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I personally dislike the UFC because it's not how I learned my martial arts.

What I learn is that there's no such thing as a Hold Barred or a strike that disqualifies you. I'm taught if I'm fighting the same person for more than 30 seconds, I'm doing something wrong and I'm increasing my chances of dying. Begin and simultaneously end a fight with a eye gouge, slamming the hell of my foot into someone's hip so running after me would be impossible, or smashing their knees in.

Now, realize, I've talked, smiled, and humbled myself through many altercations. I had only one fight in my life, and I've been on this planet three and a half decades. I don't want to hurt anyone. But if my wants were the only thing that mattered in life, this world would be a much better place.

I just don't see UFC fighters as the best fighters in the world if the only way I can prove that I'm better than them is if I have to fight their way and they are protected from my rules. I'm taught the second I get to the floor I'm dead. So I will gouge, claw, and tear to make sure you won't keep me there. If I can't do that and you trained to lay on top on someone and do your procedure and I can't do mine... you didn't prove you are a better fighter. You proved that you're better at your art than I am.

 

[Erttheking]

Yeah I'm not a fan. I get a little ways in before the novelty wears off and I realize it's two actual people brutalizing each other. I'm not making a moral statement, I'm just don't enjoy that.

 

[RedRockRun]

UFC isn't violent enough. I'll take boxing any day over MMA. There's just not enough striking in MMA in my opinion. Once fights go to the mat, I'm out. That stuff bores me, and frankly it's pretty homoerotic. Now just as long as boxing matches aren't clutch-fests, playing the numbers like Mayweather, there's some great action to be had.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Well yeah, Football is fucking savage. You're talking about a sport that cripples a ton of players, and ruins the brains of many more.

And did I ever once say that there weren't health concerns with football? No.

No one cares. People want their sports more than they want athletes to be healthy.

Who's to say that a person can't care about the players' health and care about the sport?

Everyone with a brain, when those sports and the players' health are two mutually exclusive things.

Except many people have been looking into ways to improve the situation and have been pushing forward many ideas.

To be fair, high level athletes tend to be shitty people.

Quite a massive stretch to generalize thousands of people, many of whom are under a high level of scrutiny and exposure, as shitty because a small percentage of them get on the news for doing something awful.

Now you're assuming why I believe what I do, and you're wrong in that assumption too.

Oh, that's right, you gave an unbelievably flimsy connection between a drive to be the best at something and a person's general character.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Because it's Manly as Fuck. Personally I don't watch it. Humanity evolved past such base violence long ago. I prefer beating people up with sticks, it's far more dignified.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Yeah, because no one wants to admit that two giant men ramming heads at a combined speed of over 35 mph is unavoidably dangerous. No one wants to even think about a pro athletes joints, or painkiller addictions, and there is so much money to be made! So, just keep "working on it", while slowly phasing out non-pro athletics (which you're starting to see the very beginning of the 1st World). Where the billions are though, you will not see change, because money + popularity = immortality.

Or it could be a sign that people who may or may not love the sport care enough about the athletes to look for ways to better protect them. Actually, some are even theorizing that some protective measures have gone overboard, to the point where we've started introducing new ones. Basically, a lot of people have good intentions and are trying to protect players, who both choose to play the sports and are possibly more aware of the risks than we are. Does that mean everyone has good intentions? No. But I think we'd be selling a lot of people short to say that they aren't looking at players' health and really wanting to do something about it but not seeing it as needing to be an either/or scenario.

No, because I said what I believed to be true, and instead of offering your own view you decided to pretend that this wasn't just some dumb little forum.I understand how tempting it to pretend that you're in a formal debate when you want to hold someone's feet to the fire, then not when you want to scamper away. I understand, but I give 0 fucks for it.

1. I did offer my own view. But since you missed it, here it is more plainly: I DON'T THINK ALL PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES ARE SHITTY PEOPLE, BUT SOME PEOPLE HAVE A TENDENCY TO ONLY SEE THE ONES THAT ARE BECAUSE THE SCRUTINY THEY'RE UNDER MAKES THEM MORE LIKELY TO MAKE THE NEWS THAN THE AVERAGE SHITTY PERSON. There, I hope that clears things up.

2. If I saw this as a formal debate, I wouldn't be making sarcastic comments as much as I am, nor would I would all caps for humorous effect, nor would I go without constantly citing sources, nor would I...you get the point.

As a side note, I'm going to start going overboard with emojis to try to dispel the notion I'm just angrily pounding away at a keyboard all day, starting right now:

 

[spartan231490]

You seem to not understand the difference between indiscriminant violence and a sport. UFC is a sport. Is it violent? Yes. But both people in that ring signed up to be there. They're not grabbing people out of the audience, those are people who know the risks and want to do it anyway. If you think it's too savage and shouldn't be glorified, that's your opinion, but saying that UFC fighters are the "kind of people who would end your life upon meeting them in a dark alley" is just plain ignorant.

Also, your point about it being a skill that is no longer useful in daily life is idiotic because it can be equally applied to almost any game, sport, or contest in the world, not just UFC.

 

[not_you]

Honestly, being paid to punch/kick/choke someone else for the entertainment of others, or to 'prove' something for/of yourself...

I don't understand it...

Even things like Boxing and (to a lesser degree) wrestling are almost deplorable...

I just personally don't understand it... Not saying I'm 100% against violence for entertainment (points towards pile of PS3 fighting games)

But due to my workplace, I do catch quite a few of the "greatest knockout" countdowns of UFC, and what really disgusts me is the fact that someone will land a punch/kick and drop the opponent to the floor, they lose all control of their limbs (or at least seem to) and yet, the guy who landed that 'knockout' blow immediately jumps on them and starts bashing the head of a completely helpless opponent before the ref jumps in and stops the fight... (And even after the ref jumps on them there are-sometimes-another 2-3 hits landed, completely undefended)


I don't know, I just don't get it, I don't understand how people can find it entertaining when all it boils down to (in my eyes) are two gym junkies who want to do nothing more than punch things because it's illegal outside the "sport"...


*note* I don't mean to offend anyone here, this is just how I see 'fighting sports' in general... If you find it entertaining, good on you. I, personally, don't understand how you do...

 

[Amir Kondori]

There is a level of intelligence and athleticism in one on one fighting that is seen in UFC bouts that is very entertaining to watch. It brings the joy of watching humans performing at their peak, with intense competitiveness. I can't tell you why I find that compelling but I do, be it in a UFC match, the NBA, or even esports.

I am not bothered by the violence because it is mutually undertaken and it is typically done with professionalism and good sportsmanship. No one, or at least nearly no one, is trying to cripple their opponent. They are trying to beat their opponent and further their own fighting career.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

I don't like the way young children are being shown it.

If you don't like the fact that parents are showing their kids a violent sport, then take issue with the parents. This would be like saying "some parents show their kids porn, therefore I hate porn".

I don't like the glorification of the kind of people who would end your life upon meeting them in a dark alley.

Just for clarification, are you saying that UFC fighters would kill you if they ran into you on the street? Have you ever actually met a UFC fighter, or watched a single interview with one?

I guess, if you're the kind of person who thinks acute martial danger is a key component of a human's daily skill requirement.

Define a "human's daily skill requirement". If you're a farmer, knowing how to farm is a daily skill requirement, but knowing how to read a tax form is not. On the other hand, if you're a Tax Accountant, it's reversed. Your "daily skill requirement" is dependent upon what your job is and what your life is. So no, knowing how to do an armbar or a single leg takedown is not a "daily skill requirement" for an Electrician, but it is for a Professional fighter. So what?

 

[stormtrooper9091]

well too bad it offends you, chumley, it won't go away just because it makes you upset. I suggest writing about it on tumblr. But

" I draw comparisons between the surge in popularity for UFC in recent years to the growth of ISIS"

this is absolute bullshit, I can't believe an actual person wrote this with a straight face



right, now that I got it out of the way, I think UFC is the new boxing, a variant of lowest common denominator entertainment where kids can get edgelord and claim it's all real deal unlike that wrestling crap.

I don't really prefer UFC over K1 myself but I'm a bit of a sucker for kick boxing event because of how much I liked stuff like Bloodsport back when I was a kid

 

[sky pies]

this is absolute bullshit

I suppose you're another one of the vigilantes out there who have somehow guessed that I'm connecting the UFC with ISIS in some way. I cannot even comprehend the ways in which UFC could be connected to ISIS. All I'm saying is that the two things have both risen as a result of hitherto unexpected levels of openness to violence amongst younger generations these days.

I said 'compare', not 'connect'. Have you seen combat as extreme as UFC? Have you seen violence as extreme as ISIS? Why have these extreme things come about? Because we have been pushing the bar higher and higher and this is what it takes to be the most visible presence these days.

This just puts Boko Haram into starker contrast, since they manage to be complete monsters without the benefit of a new age social media machine.

---

well too bad it offends you, chumley, it won't go away just because it makes you upset. I suggest writing about it on tumblr.

I don't want it to go away?

I think UFC is the new boxing, a variant of lowest common denominator entertainment where kids can get edgelord and claim it's all real deal unlike that wrestling crap.

I reckon you're right ~_~

 

[R.K. Meades]

...due to my workplace, I do catch quite a few of the "greatest knockout" countdowns of UFC, and what really disgusts me is the fact that someone will land a punch/kick and drop the opponent to the floor, they lose all control of their limbs (or at least seem to) and yet, the guy who landed that 'knockout' blow immediately jumps on them and starts bashing the head of a completely helpless opponent before the ref jumps in and stops the fight... (And even after the ref jumps on them there are-sometimes-another 2-3 hits landed, completely undefended)

In a ball sport, you are taught to play to the whistle. A competitive fighter is taught to keep swinging until the referee stops the fight-- never leave a bout in the judges' hands, as they could have been asleep the whole time. Few people have the raw power to score a Mark Hunt 'walk-away' knockout.

I don't like the glorification of the kind of people who would end your life upon meeting them in a dark alley.

Just for clarification, are you saying that UFC fighters would kill you if they ran into you on the street? Have you ever actually met a UFC fighter, or watched a single interview with one?

Exactly, competitive fighters are generally the kind of people who don't go looking for a scrap on the street. Those who do have a mean streak - and aren't earning big money in a professional promotion - just take security work. Try working the door at a club. There'll be a steady stream of unruly idiots who are stupid enough to pick a fight with somebody who'll ring their bell.