Collette and I are big fans of MMA (mixed martial arts) a full contact form of combat sport that combines boxing, wrestling, ju jitsu, kick boxing and other martial arts styles. The UFC is the most popular promotion in the sport but there are others like the WEC and Strikeforce.
At this point in time, MMA, by any promotion, is illegal in Ontario. You can buy a UFC pay per view (and more people do here than any other province in Canada) but you can't go see a live event. The reasons for this are a little obscure, and a little specious. A lot of it has to do with the viewpoint that MMA is "barbaric" and that it's a blood sport, that it is too dangerous for us sorry silly plebes (that would be us, you know, the people that vote these people into office and pay their salary)
That it is a blood sport, there can be no doubt. This is fighting. Real full contact fighting, it is not professional wrestling. The fighters in this sport are skilled in a wide variety of martial arts and they know how to inflict damage. Fighters get bloodied, they get knocked out, in that way it is like boxing which, by the way, is perfectly legal in Ontario. You may see more blood in an MMA bout, partly due to the four ounce gloves (boxing usually uses eight ounce gloves) and the inclusion of elbows and knees as legal weapons; an elbow can cut your scalp like a knife blade and scalp wounds really bleed.
The specious part of the argument is that MMA is ipso facto more dangerous, more violent, more lethal than boxing. Bullshit. There has never been an in ring death in professional MMA. There have been hundreds of deaths in boxing. You can rightly say that boxing is "older" than MMA as we know it, that it's been around a lot longer and it may be logical that over a hundred plus years there may be more deaths. But there are still deaths in boxing, every year, and there never have been in MMA.
Of course there are injuries in MMA. It is a contact sport. Guys get hit, kneed, elbowed, kicked, that get put in submission holds that make you wince just to see it. Guys get cut, shoulders get dislocated, brains get sloshed around and that leads to a knockout ... But of course people get injured in boxing too. And there are rules in boxing, like the standing 8 count, where a guy has basically been knocked out, ,but not unconscious, and is allowed to "recover" for all of 8 seconds and then, still dazed and wobbly and disoriented, sent back into a pair of fists ... Most MMA promotions have stricter rules, the fighters are allowed to tap out of submissions and refs are quick to stop fights if they think a fighter can no longer intelligently defend himself, somethings too quick in my opinion
So MMA is dangerous, no doubt about it. More dangerous than boxing? Almost certainly not. And as for injuries and physical punishment, probably less dangers than professional North American football. Yet boxing is legal in Ontario, as are the CFL and the NFL (the Buffalo Bills play a couple of games a year here in Toronto)
All of that may soon be changing. It seems likely that MMA may soon be legalized in Ontario. It is already legal (and incredibly popular) in Quebec, and Alberta and B.C. I doubt that this has much to do with giving people what they obviously want (judging by the popularity of MMA pay per views in this province) I suspect it has a lot more to do with tax revenues. God know this provincial government, who squander billions on ineptly run programs (E Health, the Ontario Lottery) and their own inflated salaries, need money coming in from somewhere, and I'm sure there are many tax benefits to reap from from MMA shows.
MMA and boxing are not the only blood sports currently being debated in Ontario. Right now there are hearings being held, concerning the violence and danger of amateur, organized hockey in Ontario. Yeh, hockey. You know, Canada's true religion
There have been a lot of injuries to young people playing this sport in recent years. Yes, of course hockey is a contact sport, checking is part of the game, but it seems that more young people are being exposed to harder and harder contact as time goes on. Kids are getting hurt, and I'm not talking about fighting here, just from the "contact" part of the game, to the point that people are beginning are taking note of it.
The head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs was asked to weigh in on this and his basic response was: Hey, it's a contact sport, it's all about rough play, you don't like it, play golf, Nancy... But that is from a man who works for the NHL, which is a commercial entity. Although the NHL made noises, a couple years back about cracking down on overly aggressive play, it doesn't look like they really have. And I understand why. The NHL is not representative of all hockey. It's a business, driven by customer demand. And their customers seem to demand more violence. No doubt that hockey, on the professional level, is also a blood sport
So here you have hockey, which is more than a sport in this country, many people see it as part of our culture. And there is concern that the violence which drives the commercial product is filtering down through the amateur ranks, and effecting the well being of kids. But the answer seems to be: We don't care if the NHL is affecting the health of our children, we need it to be bloody to sell. Just like boxing. Just like MMA And still, the UFC etc are not welcome to set up shop here. One wonders why
Perhaps, in the business of blood, it's perceived that there is only so much blood to go around. And only so much cash to sop it up
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