An insight into the 'world of the cage'

[Tez3]

A rather nice article by an Irish writer.

http://www.eveningecho.ie/2013/02/07/fight-night-gives-an-insight-into-the-world-inside-the-cage/

 

[Steve]

Not overly impressed by the author, frankly. Jumped out at me that he conflated all American MMA into the UFC. For what it's worth, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller promotions with a lot of fine talent. The sport is very popular in America, and there are always young fighters looking to advance in the sport and attract the attention of the larger promotions, like Bellator and the UFC.

There are three or four decent promotions just in the Seattle area. Sort of like saying that MMA in the UK is still just UFC. I know that tweaks your nose a little. Same thing.

Also, like it or not, the sport of "MMA" really didn't exist until Nevada sanctioned an event in 2001, and the unified rules were adopted. While there were certainly precursors to the sport of MMA (early UFCs, PRIDE, and the Pancrase tournaments in Europe, to name a few), the modern sport of MMA exists as a direct result of the unified rules and that first sanctioned event.

I was also disappointed to see him go from admitting to have an untrained eye, to concluding that the fighters would not take well to the finer points of boxing. Same old crapola, IMO. Essentially saying, "I don't have a clue what I'm looking at, but that won't stop me from sharing my uninformed opinion."

Ultimately, I was wondering what the insight was. What's the conclusion? The headline is that the fight night gives insight into the world of MMA? I saw no insights in the article, except that this guy has an alarming lack of interest in what his son does, to know so little about the sport in which his son competes.

 

[Tez3]

It's not a UK article though it's from Eire which is even smaller and where kick boxing was illegal until recently never mind MMA. there has only been two fight nights in the whole country so far, it's still a very exotic novelty there. I don't think the UFC has even caught on much. The Irish fighters I do know who train with John Kavanagh in Dublin have always travelled to the UK and abroad to fight never fought at home until a British promotion went there last month. It's an insight into the very beginning of MMA in a country.