UFC: The Downfall of American Sports

Not long ago, Americans saw things differently. MMA was an abbreviation recognized by few unless they were frequent visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or were active in Mennonite Mutual Aid.

The octagon was the two-dimensional figure that stop signs take the form of. Jim Miller was a mediocre quarterback that played for seven NFL teams, and Mac Danzig sounded like the distant relative of one of the Misfits.

Now, to a rapidly expanding American population, MMA stands for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, “The Octagon” is the cage-enclosed ring where it takes place and Miller and Danzig are successful pro competitors (Miller has a record of 14-2 while Danzig is 19-7-1).

It is the lingo of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a sports association that, as its popularity rises, represents a lower moral order and a lack of traditional athletic values.   

As nearly all sports fans now know, UFC has pushed its way into the mainstream of American culture. Spike TV broadcasts fights on basic cable multiple times per week. On ESPN’s Web site, the page that supplies news and opinion for mixed martial arts can be selected just after boxing and just before Olympic sports.

The site also features MMA Live, a weekly 30-minute program on the sport that previews and recaps notable fights as well as updates the MMA fan on news they need to know. On the Sports Illustrated Web site, MMA shares a page with boxing.

However, the majority of articles, including the page’s current centerpiece and all three columns, all discuss MMA not boxing.

UFC materially exemplifies less-than-flattering aspects of today’s society.

Matches are short. Dwindling are the attention spans of Americans that once could enjoy an entire book or inform themselves on the politics that affect their everyday lives.

Matches are brutal. Blood stains the ring’s surface and the faces of many fighters are hard to look at by the end of most UFC events, taking society’s long-lived fascination with violence from Xbox and Mel Gibson movies to the reality of live television.

But perhaps more than promoting the clichéd societal ills such as apathy and violence, UFC represents a degradation of competitive sport by way of its embrace of rage.    

Aggression is an important component to a successful athlete. An offensive lineman needs aggression to hold back the attacking defensive end. A pitcher needs aggression to brush back a hovering batter and establish control of the plate. A guard needs aggression to attack the basket, no matter how much bigger the center protecting the rim is.

None of these things can be accomplished with an indifferent attitude.

In all of these situations, however, going beyond aggression to rage would lead to a negative outcome.

The lineman would be called for a holding penalty. The pitcher would plunk the batter, leading to a possible ejection. The guard would barge through the lane without control, throwing an elbow or knee at a defender which would result in an offensive foul.

Athletics have always been about controlling negative emotions and turning them into positive energy. The team or individual that is both aggressive and composed will be successful.  Those that are enraged and undisciplined will not.

UFC has turned this idea upside down.

Rage is rewarded in “The Octagon.” MMA is a sport in which the fighter that strikes first usually wins. The fighter puts all of his or her negative energy into one brutal attack, culminating often in a bone-bending submission move or repeated blows to the face.

The mentality of the golfer that knows one three-putt on the first day of the U.S. Open does not spell the end of his chances at victory is absent. So is that of the boxer who knows that he cannot throw the haymaker in the first round at the expense of his defense. In a UFC bout, the mind is turned off and the basic instinct of rage determines who wins.

Rage is the only explanation for the way heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar bashed in the face of Frank Mir with abandon at UFC 100 this summer until the official halted the fight (the fight went all the way into the second minute of the second round).

Rage is also the only explanation for the way the victor publicly demeaned his opponent and sponsors after the match.

Violence is not what is wrong with UFC. Football is violent. Hockey is violent. Boxing is violent. All are great sports. It is the embrace of the instantly brutal type of violence derivative of uncontrolled rage that de-legitimizes the sport.

While other violent sports punish rage via both officials calling penalties and the natural law of winners being in control of their emotions, UFC encourages it.

Nevertheless, those who choose not to watch MMA will still need to put up with it as the Nielsen ratings rise quicker than any other sport. It looks like Mennonite Mutual Aid will need to change its name.