Couple things in my opinion...
1.) MMA guys fight through small cuts (which, on the head bleed big) and even though the damage is very minimal, people see it as incredibly violent. Blood on the face and their still swinging or working for a submission.
K831, I don't see bleeding as violent. What I did see as violent was Diaz vs Davis. Which should have been stopped because the face of Marcus Davis looked like a Picasso painting after the match. There was no need for a unanimous decision.
Blood is not going to be a problem unless it blinds the fighters, then the corner man will have to stop it, or the bout ends in a TKO. It's the ref's job to be responsible to protect the fights & stop the fights. Now some times we scratch our heads at the judgment of the ref. Some time we wonder why a fight can't continue. It happens.
2.) Lots of MMA guys are 18-30, shaved heads, mohawks, tat's, rippling muscles and determined (mean) looks as they enter the ring. That scares people.
The way a fighter looks doesn't scare me. Nobody is forcing you to watch. How those 18-30 males choose to express themselves is not up to me. I don't judge somebody as human being based on that criteria. I watch them for their martial art, or wrestling background to see how they fare against the competition.
You've got to look mean & determined to compete. It's called focus. Especially with your adrenaline is off of the charts. I'm relatively new to BJJ. But lets say you are fighting me. Would you rather go in there smiling wanting to shake my hand, or focused, & determined not giving away your game plan? I think you'd rather be focused. Because you'd respect my ability as much as I'd respect yours. It's about testing that ability & pushing yourself.
Surely you can stop being so shallow as to just people how on they express themselves. If you're scared by what two guys look like in a combat sport setting. I'd hate to watch you cry at a boxer getting knocked out, or tackles in football.
I think MMA has some brutality to it. I mean, they do want to hit each other. I just don't see how it is any more brutal than a lot of other sports. Those big stupid gloves boxers wear (I love boxing, by the way) allow them to just punish their brains with repetitive hits. I went to one of my little brothers foot ball games last week and parents are just screaming "hit that kid, hit him hard!" or "rush that QB, I want him seeing stars!"
MMA is a full contact sport so they've got to be aggressive to score points, or a knock out, or submission, in the allotted amount of round time. It's either 3 5 minute rounds, or 5 minute rounds. That's only strictly for the UFC. Different organizations have different rules.
Boxers wear 6 oz gloves. Heavyweights in the UFC wear 4 oz gloves. I'm not sure what size the other divisions wear. Maybe somebody can tell us or I will look it up. People get into the games. The point of football is to hit & hit hard. The point of MMA is to stop the fight by way of ko, tko, ref stoppage, submission, decision, or dq in rare cases. Which usually means somebody is getting fired if they get disqualified. The point of MMA is not to hurt the other guy, its to end the fight. It's up to the fighters to defend themselves. Just like in boxing. The only difference is in MMA you're seeing more than one form of fighting instead of seeing two guys punch each other in the face.
The other thing too, the guy who is gonna stand out to people who don't watch much is a freak (although talented) like Brock who pounds on someone like a gorilla, then spends his post fight interview talking about beer and humping his wife. Seems like brutal thugs. You wont see as much coverage when the winner runs over to his fallen opponent to be sure he is ok, then spends half his post fight interview talking about how great it was to fight so and so and how tough they are and how it could have gone either way on any night. That's just not exciting to put on Yahoo news.
That is not a staple of all fighters. This has also happened although completely different. Strike Force had a brawl with the Diaz brothers after a fight ended, another fighter came in when he had no business, and a near riot broke out. However, Dana White had a whip the dog session. Brock apologized & explained that was his WWE moment of the night, & it happened because he was so jacked up & won against Mir. He dominated Mir. So I can see his point. He also lost to Cain Velasquez too after getting caught.
Fighters make mistakes. Brock got sick & came back. He got humbled once by illness & a second time by getting his *** kicked. The point is people watch MMA because of the fights. Also because UFC Champions defend their belts pretty regular. Dana White doesn't tolerate any crap. He may be an ******* but he has to be in order to get business done.
Brock will come back as a better fighter. You can't judge a sport on the whole just on the mistakes of one guy. You won't find footage of Brock's past outburst because I'm sure the UFC made the edit, then destroyed it. Also they'll make people pull the video if they have it due to the Zuffa copyright.
In closing MMA is not for everybody. But it's not a bunch of scary guys fighting. Some of them be may crazy though. A lot of the guys fighting are happily married. Some aren't/ Who really cares. They are in great shape, are great fighters, & even if its not your cup of tea you shouldn't look it at as a bunch of scary guys.
Mixed Martial Arts.. you're getting to see a wide variety martial artists fight full contact. With the fighting champions of UFC you honestly can't tell me that any other combat sport offers more unless maybe its one I'm not familiar with because I don't get it in my area.
Enlighten me if so. I'll look it up on youtube. I love the sport, but I hate Strike Force & refuse to watch it.
