MMA Bashing: Mainstream Media Fails to Research before Drawing Conclusions

For the politicians that call it human cockfighting, I don’t think that if you surfaced up some of the dirt that the politicians are doing, people would accept them as politicians ... The politicians make the laws, the rules to support their campaign, whether it’s hurting the poor people or the rich people.  There’s always gonna be a victim.  And in this game, because I believe they don’t benefit from it yet, they’re gonna call it human cockfighting.  What’s the difference from boxing?  You get in a boxing match and you beat the [hell] out of each other with a glove ... I think people gotta open up their capacity of thinking and look at the big picture, not the small portion that benefits them. 

Randy Couture (9/26/2006): Well I think that anybody that takes the time to get past that initial impression or to take a closer look at what’s going on when these combatants step into that cage [will] realize there’s a lot more to it.  It’s not just human cock-fighting; it’s absolutely a sporting event like any other sporting event.  It just happens to be in a combative environment.  So people get hit.  People get knocked out.  You know, it’s no different than boxing or kickboxing or any other Olympic martial arts combative sport.  So I don’t think those arguments hold water for very long ... As far as other sports go, people want to talk even about the sport of wrestling and all the weight cutting, but no one mentions all these over weight football players that drop dead from these two or three a day practices ... But because it’s a revenue sport and it’s so much in the public eye, people don’t mention it as much.  And it’s kind of irritating and they’ll pick on our sport for no particular reasons. 

Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson (9/24/06): And in our sport, we can give up any time we want.  We can give up if we’re too tired, you know what I’m sayin’.  If something’s hurt, we can give up.  In boxing, you’re not allowed to give up like that.  That’s like, looked down upon.  So that’s why my sport, in my sport there’s more to it than just trying to knock somebody out, you know, you can try to get the referee to stop the fight by just getting [your opponent] to not answer anything, and submitting him, and stuff like that ... football [is] way more dangerous.  Rugby, you ain’t got no damn helmets on, or pads.  I think my sport is probably safer than soccer. 

One might argue that the above quotes are biased, given that they are being expressed by mixed martial artists themselves.  However, expertise by those in sports medicine have advocated that MMA is not nearly as dangerous as the mainstream media portrays it to be (see Part One and Part Two interviews with Dr. Johnny Benjamin). 

Yes, MMA has its problems, as do all sports and non-sporting organizations.  Unfortunately, mainstream journalists are attempting to create a moral panic over MMA by communicating embellished rhetoric in hopes of bumping up their own ratings.  Before questioning MMA’s strategies used to entice viewership, perhaps first, journalists should look at their own work and ask if it is based on objective research, or simply on unfounded, ratings-motivated hype. 

 

David Mayeda, PhD, is author of Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society, the first research-based book that examines MMA from a political standpoint, based on in-depth interviews with 40 mixed martial artists, including Antonio McKee, Randy Couture, ‘Rampage’ Jackson, ‘MayheM’ Miller, Dan Henderson, Guy Mezger, Chris Leben, Frank Trigg, Travis Lutter, and Chris and Mike Onzuka. 

 

Non-internet Resources:

Lewis, R. (2006). Why haven’t we banned boxing? Neurology, Vol. 6 (23), 5-6.

Schwarz, A. (2007 May 31). An answer to help clear his fog. The New York Times, p. D7. 

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?