MMA on the news

Did anyone see the bit on the (BBC I think) news about MMA?

They were quite blatantly slagging it off, and trying to promote the act of banning it all over.

I am outraged at the amount of ignorance that was allowed to come through on it.

One of the first things that was said was "Self styled hardmen, EX-CONS and martial artists, all come to fight other other in this cage". The last statement was, "A lot of money is being made selling DVDs of this ultimate fighting over the internet, but frankly, the contents are so horrible, you wouldn't want to see it" I actually found the last bit quite funny, but overall it was such a blatant one sided argument, I think it's a disgrace.

They also interviewed a woman who leads a group who are trying to outlaw MMA, and she said it was to ensure there are no fatalities or serious maimings.

Next they'll be trying to ban all martial arts, and then they'll move on to rugby, football etc. and pretty soon, the only sport we'll have left will be golf. Except it'll be played with foam covered clubs, and a small, light foam ball, to prevent any fatalities or serious maimings.

This was more of a rant than anything, but I'm hoping it'll evolve into a discussion.

 

Ahhh, good to see my license fee's funding such well-researched, intelligent, unbiased reporting. And to think the BBC turned me down when I applied for a job with them because I was overqualified
A) There has been ONE fatality in an MMA bout since its inception (this is including the old-school vale tudo's in Brazil) and that was in I think Lithuania, and was attributed to a pre-existing condition
B) NO ONE can just step in there anymore so this whole "Ex Cons and self-styled hardmen" aspect is blatant crap
Did they have anyone representing MMA to provide a counter-argument? If not, I think a letter is in order. Don't these people have anything better to do than try and find things to ban? Who made this woman the moral police?

 

They had a couple of fighters speaking for about 4 or 5 seconds but other than that, the whole piece was completely biased against MMA and clearly formed in complete ignorance.

 

Typical. I'd like to think there will be some comeback from this; Ian Freeman has been known to write to newspapers etc and he's a fairly eloquent guy so hopefully there can be some dialogue over this, if he's got 20 minutes off from training for the next UFC that is
It's been my experience that people just don't understand MMA and when they first see it, it can appear brutal, but once I sit down with them and watch a couple of matches while explaining what's happening (especially on the ground) and how safety-conscious the referrees and staff are, not to mention explaining about how its far safer to knock a guy down and hit him once or twice more before a stoppage than to give a standing eight count, they tend to capitulate. My dad's hooked on Pride now, for example

 

Yeah, it's all ignorance.

It really annoys me how these "do-gooders" think they can go around forcing their values on people. It's not like the fighters are being kidnapped and forced to fight eachother. We seem to be changing into a society of complete wimps.

If it did get banned, there would be an uproar from the supporters. It would destroy my faith in our "democracy" if it happened.

I don't think it'll get completely banned though.

 

No, I reckon the worst that'll happen is that you'll get the god squad and the granny-brigade demonstrating outside events. Big whoop; that never works, it just gives you some entertainment while you're queued up

 

Aren't the boxing lobby campaigning to get rid of MMA as well?

 

I think several thousand letters from all MMAists are in order. Hell, I don't do MMA, but I'll write one

 

They always say "There is no such thing as bad press." The reason why so many things in the past have become popular is because people have been against them. Take Marlyn Manson for instance. Most of the reason he became so popular a few years back is because people were trying to ban his music.

I believe that this just proves that MMAs are becoming more and more popular.

 

Yeah, I agree with that, but I'm just annoyed on principal, that such a one sided argument was put on the news.

 

Screw it, no one trust the mainstream media anymore, and the thought of banning a MMA event is laughable, no politician would ever gain serious ground on it.

 

things like this make me happy to be an american.

 

So....... if MMA is so brutal, why aren't the after MAs as a whole, or even collegate wrestling, and boxing(which yes are MAs but some don't consider them to be so.) This is complete hot air, it's stupid to think that they can ban it. If they don't like it, TURN THE STATION, NOT ALL OF OUR STATIONS AS WELL!

 

This kind of thing happens all the time in America. The New York Times has Phil Mushnik or whatever his name is, there's all the state governers using the "human cockfighting, not in my state" lines whenever there's an election, and just today MMAWeekly posted a Fox News article along the same lines http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=554&zoneid=13. This is the first time it's happened over here, and it'll come to nothing, just more curtain twitchers with nothing better to do. I'm just annoyed that I'm financing such shoddy "reporting".
As for the boxing commisions, they're always trying to stop MMA, just like they have countless times with kickboxing/ muay thai bouts and K-1; the boxing boards are big money, but people are leaving boxing in their droves and they just don't want the competition

 

Actually, it can and already is. Some of our Canadian members on this board are this very moment signing petitions and working to defeat a draft legislation that would ban all martial arts or fighting competitons in their country other than boxing. The really scary part is the legislation is all but passed, the MA crowd is working from behind to have it changed! It seems impossible, but once you get too many extreme leftwing "protect the public from themselves" types in government these things actually do happen. Tank Gurl was leading the charge to overcome the Canadian law, I hope she sees this and lets us know what the status is now.

 

I hope that this doesn't happen, how ridiculous. The cool thing might be that the martial arts of Canada go underground and we might come up with some martial arts like capoeira or jail house rock.

 

Welcome to the world of cottenwool,this is the biggest problem facing MAs,O my god someone might get hurt,well if thats the case lets just stop living cos lifes full of pain.How many people have died in boxing? more than in MMA.
Christ more people get injured and die riding horses but noones trying to stop that!
Do gooders do no damn good!!

 

im more suprised that people thought more of the BBC. the 'impartial' part of their charter only means that they hide their bias better than most.

 

Well, this sort of crap appears once a while on the news...

In Holland, there was a very short fuss, when our government wanted to ban Boxing. According to them, it would cause too many brain damage, and too manydeads as a result. It's sheer nonsense of people who really know nothing about it. Ignore, keep practicing your art, and later you will all laugh about it.

The government knows that when you ban this sort of sports, it will only go underground, and result in all weird kinds of Fight Clubs.

 

Anyone want to dig out some e-mail addresses to send complaints about the article to? I didn't see it but if someone could find a transcript of it or something?