MMA critics are ignorant, cynical windbags

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/02/2009 (6363 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every now and again, it’s a good thing for an employee to have their usefulness defined by those that employ them.

In my case, when I ran into Free Press editor Margo Goodhand at the Manitoba Athlete of the Year dinner less than a month ago, she reinforced what my sports editors have been trying to hammer home with me for years. As a weekly columnist who moonlights as a professional athlete, my job here is to provide the readership with content that stems from my unique perspective as an entertainer in the wide world of sports.

And as someone whose opinions have been forged by this background, I often find myself bewildered and at odds with the viewpoints that I read and hear regarding professional sports in Winnipeg.

For instance, one week ago today, I opened this fine newspaper and read on page A6 that I was a "ghoul" for attending my first-ever mixed martial arts exhibition at the Convention Centre, according to Winnipeg Coun. Grant Nordman — who would never, ever, under any circumstances, call me a ghoul in person — and that, lo and behold, what I was actually watching that evening was not sport but "barbarism," according to my fellow columnist, Lindor Reynolds.

Well, call me Conan and transpose me to the land of the undead, my friends, because I haven’t seen so many thinly based knee-jerk opinions since I had my reflexes checked with a mallet hammer last training camp.

You see, I’ve been watching MMA since way back when the first one ever came out, which actually was somewhat barbaric in 1993, and have been working out of late with some kick-boxers. At its inception, the only thing that was taboo about MMA was eye-gouging and maybe hair-pulling — and I’m not even sure about the hair-pulling thing. It was kind of like when they used to play football with leather helmets and no face masks — what were those people thinking?

But since, things have evolved. MMA is no longer about 300-pound men pummelling the nether regions of 180-pound men, and professional football keeps spitting out these newfangled helmets that are designed to prevent concussions instead of inflict them. Who would of thunk it?!

But in all seriousness, to those who practise mixed martial arts, are involved in it, or have been watching it — outside of overreacting to an isolated incident that occurred 11 days ago — the sport is a hell of a lot safer than professional football will ever be, and I don’t see too many people calling for the suspension of gridiron in Manitoba, even though we went 8-10 last year.

Truth be told, in the 12 years I have played professional football, I have had two of my former teammates die in their 20s and 30s from the state of physical disrepair the game left them in. As well, one player I used to play against died during training camp because of the extreme conditions (Korey Stringer), and I have heard of countless other collegiate and high school footballers losing their lives playing a game that is one of the most lucrative and revered professions in all of North America.

What you didn’t read about that night at the Convention Centre was that if you looked at the other nine fights scheduled on the card that day, no one else was hurt, outside of some superficial injuries. In fact, at least two of the MMA contests ended in seconds, with very few, if any, punches being thrown, as submission techniques were employed and the losers tapped out without harm or foul. Imagine a glorified street fight — so says Lindor Reynolds — ending without a punch or kick being landed to your opponent’s face. What barbarism!

Those who have watched the sport of MMA grow and develop into what it is today understand that it is an extremely technical, strategic and professional discipline that is no more dangerous than any number of professional sports. Since I started watching it in 1993, I have never heard of any participants being killed during or after a bout, or since retiring from the sport — as happens all too often in football.

But who knows? Maybe after a similar aberration occurs one day in the CFL (didn’t Jason Tucker break his neck in 2008?), we will once again hear the demands for bans and suspensions from those who exploit tragedies in order to fulfil their own disguised agendas.

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.