Kids and MMA: Review and Commentary on ESPN's Outside the Lines Piece

Professional Mixed Martial Artist Bao Quach (Irvine, Calif.)
Interviewer: What’s your opinion on MMA becoming a high school sport?
Quach: I don’t think that’d be a good idea (laughs). In MMA, there’s a lot of joint locks and stuff, and I don’t think it would be too smart to put that in school, you know. People in high school are still young, and I don’t think they’re always smart enough to know like, you know...make (their) own decisions...some kid can probably kill some other kid on the street, and not know.

Mixed Martial Arts instructor Chris Onzuka (Aiea, Hawaii)
Onzuka: ... young kids that box very young, they think it’s safe ‘cause they wear headgear in the ring. They’re wearing big mitts. They can still get head trauma even if they’re wearing head gear. Anything that hits the head, it snaps their neck back. It’s gonna cause some damage. And cumulative damage is the key to anything. I mean Muhammad Ali would be the prime example. I mean that guy, he did the rope-a-dope, you know how much times did that guy really get hit in the head as much as he should have? I mean if that guy can have that, then anybody can have that. I don’t mind having kids fight, but at a certain age, definitely not very small children.

Professional Mixed Martial Artist Travis Lutter (Fort Worth, Texas)
Interviewer: How do you feel about MMA studios training kids?
Lutter: I’m not in favor of it at all. There’s no reason for a kid to train MMA. You know, it’s like, kids don’t have the control. Granted, they don’t hit very hard, but those gloves are really little. And you don’t know, it’s like the effects of soccer. Those kids using their head, you know the brain trauma that happens to those kids ...it’s like, I go to jiu-jitsu competitions where they have kids, and I won’t take my son for the simple reason, losing is such a big deal. And these kids cry and they don’t understand.

Professional Mixed Martial Artist Jason “MayheM” Miller (Hollywood, Calif.)
Interviewer: Do you think it should be a high school sport?
Miller: I think jiu-jitsu could be a wrestling type combination, like tappin’ each other out and that kind of thing ... But like, it would be harder to have MMA with like kicks to the head and that kind of thing. Man, you’d hurt each other.

Professional Mixed Martial Artist Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (Irvine, Calif.)
Interviewer: What do you think about mixed martial arts becoming a high school sport?
Jackson: I just don’t feel like it should be a high school sport. You know, it’s still kind of like fighting. Wrestling is kinda like fighting without punches, but MMA is fighting with punches. Parents won’t be able to, won’t want to see their kids come home with black eyes, and it shouldn’t be a high school sport. It should be something you choose after you turn 18. Cause you can’t be a professional fighter unless you (are) 18. So it shouldn’t be a high school sport at all. That’s ridiculous.

Professional Mixed Martial Artist Dan Henderson (Temecula, Calif.)
Interviewer: So how would you feel about MMA becoming a high school sport?
Henderson: It would probably be a little tough to make it a high school sport. The way it is, I think it’s more of an older person’s sport as far as the striking goes. I think if you can structure it to somehow change the rules a little bit, it could be a high school sport.
Interviewer: What type of rule changes?
Henderson:

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