Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi. . . Huh?

Sydney, Australia, February 20, 2009. Cricket anyone? No! MMA.

Specifically UFC 110.

And how did it play to the Australian Crowd?

Well from the cheering and enthusiastic yells and soccer chants of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi, it sure sounded like UFC 110 was a big hit. . . that is until the papers came out.

"Roar for Gore."

"Buckets of Blood."

Ah, my! Here comes the critics in the media to ruin my day!

What was worse was the comparison that one writer used saying, "You can't expect to change a 65 year old man's opinion about this sport."

Say what?

Well, this 64 year old woman happens to love MMA and thought the fights were awesome, even though they all didn't go the way I would have liked them to go.

Before I could jump on my soap box, my forty year old son felt obliged to remind me that when the first MMA fights began and pitted one style against another, with few rules and no weight classes, I was dead set against the sport.

Funny how I tend to forget that fact. Must be old age.

Being somewhat of a purist, I did not like the way MMA started.

Competitions within a single discipline were fine with me. I loved watching kick boxing and karate matches. Watching wrestling was a favorite pastime at our house.

Now that there are rules and regulations in MMA and the different techniques have been blended, (considering the individual fighter's preference and areas of expertise), I truly have grown to love the sport. Combining the fighting styles of many forms of martial arts brings back the philosophy of Bruce Lee to have no style above another or "the style of no style." 

What I fail to understand is that the Australian press is being so critical of my favorite sport. So here I go again, taking on my fellow writers.

In a year when there has been a tragic death at the Olympics in Canada as well as many injuries, how can a sportswriter be critical of a sport that involves the possibility of death or injury, a fact that the participants are well aware of when they sign their contracts prior to the fight?

Few Olympians (that I have had the opportunity to hear interviewed), mention the possibility of death or horrible injuries being the possible outcome of their athletic endeavors.

On the other hand, I do not recall any MMA fighter saying that they live in fear of being injured or dying in their sport although they are always cognizant of that being a possibility every time they enter the cage.

Look at the cauliflower ears, the broken noses (except for Wanderlei Silvas' newly reconstructed proboscis), crooked arms (Forrest Griffin), repaired spines, (Nate Quarry and Tito Ortiz), scarred faces, knees, (the result of endoscopic procedures) and missing teeth (Dan Henderson). Battle scars of which most fighters are proud and will tell the storey behind each and every one at the drop of a hat.

This is not a sport for brittle boned sixty somethings to participate in, although I hate to say that with so many fighters now extending their careers into their late forties, (Mark Coleman, Randy Couture), because who knows what may happen in the future.

When the participants in a sports event know the risks they will face and still are willing to sign on for the possible injuries, why should others object? It is not like a bull fight, dog fight, or cock fight where humans hurl the unwilling participants in a pit or arena to be tormented, torn apart and then slaughtered.

Unfortunately, I have been present at basketball games where participants have experienced injuries involving loss of blood, baseball games where batters have been rendered unconscious by a fast ball, and football games where players are removed from the field by stretcher and transferred to awaiting ambulances, then on to trauma care centers. Who complains about those being blood sports?

Well, the crowd at the venue appeared to appreciate the fighters' efforts, whether the late filing reporters did or not. When those same reporters start writing to complain about the blood spilled or legs broken in a cricket or soccer game, perhaps I will be more receptive to their message.

Grandma Dee loves her MMA!