MMA is Boring!
I was talking to my dad about Mixed Martial Arts one day, and he told me it was not exciting to watch. My first instinct was to invite him into the ring. Then I remembered the whole giving me food and shelter thing all those years, and I decided just to listen for once.
The truth is many traditional fight fans actually find MMA boring. Those, like my father, who grew up watching boxing, don’t understand MMA. Boxing only covers a small portion of fighting. I thirst to watch more rounded fighters.
My dad told me that the fighters try to get the fight to the ground and then just lay there. I wanted to laugh at this, but the thoughts of getting grounded at 28 years old crept in and I suppressed it for now. Actually, I opened my mind the next time I watched a fight and tried to look at it from an outsider’s perspective. Understanding was gained.
The fighting on the ground would be very boring to watch, if you didn’t know what was happening. The ground game is as important to a fighter as Mickey was to Rocky. MMA fighters learn Jiu Jitsu for their ground game. Why? Jiu Jitsu is a Brazilian art that almost has perfected what to do when a fight gets to the ground. The difference between this art and others is it has been forged and perfected in the modern real world. It is a practical art that encourages your opponent to submit to the pain or get incapacitated to where they can’t fight.
I have been involved in martial arts for twenty-plus years and have competed nationally. I used to train for numerous hours, five days a week. However, one hour of Jiu Jitsu training spent more energy than anything I ever did because when the fighters are on the ground they are contracting every single muscle in their body to attempt to outsmart the other. The smallest mistake could expose your neck for a choke. Every move is calculated.
Keep watching you’ll learn what is happening. I promise.
that’s true brother! jiu jitsu rocks! although im just a beginner, when we roll for a 5 full minutes, i get exhausted. very different from boxing wherein you can stick and fly… here, you’ll have to be fast and mentally alert…
Comment made by charlbert on September 15, 2008 @ 6:07 am
I agree, mma bores me to tears. So what if you have perfected some “art” of ground fighting. I want to see men go toe to toe and punch to punch instead of watching some guy get bored into submission because another man is able to keep him from getting up off the ground. People who think mma is worth watching are the same people who think soccer is a real sport. Actually, they both bore me to tears.
Comment made by doc2guns on May 31, 2009 @ 4:25 pm
[...] want to close by addressing the person who said MMA isn’t a sport. MMA meets every criteria for a sport. In fact, I would love to have many other athletes take [...]
Pingback made by Buzzer Eagle - Sports for the Sports Fan » Is That Even a Sport? on July 3, 2009 @ 6:45 am
It is boring.
Just because someone doesn’t find it interesting doesn’t mean that they don’t understand it.
I understand baseball…. and I find it boring.
I understand mma…. and I find it boring and gay.
Comment made by icha on November 7, 2009 @ 11:48 pm
icha, sorry to take so long to reply. I found this comment by chance while reflecting. First off, if you choose to believe these sports are boring, I am fine with that. I am not a baseball fan myself. However, I pray that icha isn’t a name honoring “handball.” I watched highlight reels and wanted to carve out my own eyes. It offers the same level of excitement as curling during the winter olympics. Moral to the story, I would save the ‘gay’ comment and in your case even the ‘boring’ one.
Comment made by Joe Lawrence on November 15, 2009 @ 2:43 pm
i think icha pretty much nailed it on the head. usually when i am to say that mma is boring to an mma fanboy they’ll tell me i dont understand it. i think by now most casual observers understand whats going on. its still very hard to watch. i put it on par with watching golf.
Comment made by fdsdfb on December 12, 2009 @ 5:38 pm
MMA fans have very sensitive feelings.
They get too flustered when soemone does like their sport.
Hey, if you want to watch grown men in speedos, paint their toe nails and wrap their legs around each other…. that’s cool. Just don’t be too stunned when others aren’t hip to that jazz.
I wrestled in middle school and high school…. and I don’t like it. Yes, I get leverage and fulcrums…. so I guess I ‘get’ mma. But I just don’t like it.
I guess i’m old school like your pops who you were thinking about beating because he does like mma (then thought better off it because of how he took care of you) – *kind of disturbing that you would even think to fight someone who disagrees with you*.
I’m old school like your pops because I would rather watch boxing than mma. MMA fans like to say “but we’re killing boxing” – which I find hard to believe when I see that Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have brought in close to 5 million ppv buys for their matches alone.
Comment made by dongetty on January 16, 2010 @ 4:08 pm