TOO RICH FOR OUR BLOOD

THIS SEEMS LIKE A POST ABOUT SPORTS BUT ...

It was just a few weeks ago that I wrote about the UFC brand of mix martial arts fighting coming to Toronto. I wrote that post because it seemed like a pretty sure thing after months, if not years, of speculation. MMA is a ludicrously popular form of sport and is "legal" in 8 provinces here and about 40 states in the US

We know MMA is popular here because Ontario is consistently one of the biggest markets for UFC pay per view events anywhere in the world. There are also MMA events held here, not fights but basically fan expos, that consistently sell out. There are many "home grown" professional MMA fighters from Ontario not to mention at least one genuine UFC superstar, George St. Pierre from Quebec. Which means there is a lot of indigenous interest in this sport here

The UFC wants to come here for those same reasons: The sport is popular here and we have a large home grown contingent. They know there's money to be had here and certainly with Toronto and its obsession with sports, there is lucrative ready made market.

The main official objections to the UFC coming here always seemed to be about its perceived barbarity, somehow more dangerous than boxing, though on paper, MMA is a "safer" sport than boxing, in that no one has ever been killed in a sanctioned MMA event. Most of the objections didn't makes sense, since we have many amateur martial arts events here, during which people are routinely injured.

I always felt that the real barrier to the UFC coming here was organized boxing. Boxing, particularly commercial boxing, hates MMA. It's a competition thing. I don't know the last time a really top flight boxing card was held here, with real stars fighting for a title; for some reason, that seems to have fallen out of favour. But I have no doubt that it would not take long to have a UFC title fought in Toronto, the money leads them.

Well, this week the axe dropped, and the blood that was spattered was the UFC's own. Premiere Dalton McGinty has said no to the UFC in Ontario. Why? Well, he has better things to concentrate on, like the economy and job creation and revenue ...

The UFC has proven that one fight staged in Toronto could generate millions of dollars in revenues. Think of taxes on ticket sales, parking, people using transit, taxes from the venue and then all the spin offs; staff for the venue, business like restaurants that will benefit, it's why Ontario loves sports, and why various levels of governments have always given tax incentives to these kinds of events ... they bring in money, both short term and long lasting

So why the denial to the UFC? My guess is the boxing lobby, a special interest group that is long established here and has lots of politicians on its side ... read that as, lots of politicians on their unofficial payroll. So really ...

... THIS IS A POST ABOUT POLITICS

When I started this blog I told myself that I wouldn't delve into politics. I had no interest in talking about political parties, individual politicians, platforms etc. Well, like a lot of my great ideas, that one had the merit of a wolf at a vegan convention; he could agree all he wanted with the philosophy, but we all know what's going to happen when he gets hungry.

You can't avoid politics. Because politics is government and government is us. But it's an "us" that I don't seem to have any connection to. I mean, ok, the UFC coming Toronto is not a vital decision, but health care is, and education, and public transit and libraries and .. These are complex, ever evolving issues that effect us all at some level and those levels change with the times. Yet the only time we get to have our say is every four years .. It's like the Olympics. And like the Olympics they happen, but I can't control what they comprise of or how they're run and or what happens ...

Maybe MMA should be an Olympic sport. Because you know damn well Dalton would love the Olympics to come here; we'd pay for them, pay more than we were told, a very few people would make a lot of money, and the rest of us would be shilling out for years to cover the cost. Now that's economics a politician seems to understand

THE MMA IN ONTARIO: THE BUSINESS OF BLOOD

A couple of events, concerning professional and amateur sports, have recently eclipsed each other in Ontario and it has me thinking. And we all know where that could lead. So buckle up.

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