Daniel Liao Prof.

Presnell ENGL 1102 1 April 2012 Mixed Martial Arts The sport of MMA (mixed martial arts) is the most exciting form of competition that you can tune your television to. It is also the fastest growing sport in the world today. The word is spreading about this action packed intense form of competition in countries all around the world from America, Brazil, Canada, Japan and many more. Humans have always been enthralled in watching people pitted in the face of danger to see what the outcome will be. The Romans during the gladiator period would agree with that. What more is there to know about a sport that involves two individuals punching each other in the face? This will no doubt be answered in detail. Although the sport now seems to be a very mainstream sport it is still relatively new in comparison to other typical sports. The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), the sports biggest and most prestigious company was founded in November 1993. Japans fighting promotion, PrideFC, another major player in combat sports was founded in 1997 and has now been purchased by the UFC in 2007. The main focus of MMA for the most part has been all on the UFC.

The early days of the UFC were based on sayings such as, Can a wrestler beat a boxer? Two men well trained in their respected fields were pitted against each other in an eight-sided cage called the octagon. The fights had almost literally no rules at that time. To put this in perspective shots to the groin, usually the most obvious rule to place in a combat sport was allowed during the sports early days. Another interesting thing about these fights was the fact that there were no weight-class specific fights. An example of this would be Keith Hackney vs. Emmanuel Yarborough at UFC 3. Yarborough was 9 inches taller than Hackney and was also 400lbs. heavier than him.

In the late 90s the spectacle of the UFC was turning into a sport because of Senator John McCains crusade to ban the UFC calling it human cockfighting. At UFC 12 new rules were implemented to reduce the more controversial aspects of fighting while retaining their core elements of striking and grappling. By the time UFC 14 came around the gloves were made mandatory for fights. The sport had its big jump in popularity in 2000 when the Fertitta brothers and business partner Dana White purchased the UFC for 2 million dollars. This growth in popularity was due to better advertising, sponsorships, pay-per-view for events, the release of

home videos and DVD purchases, and the start of a reality television show called The Ultimate Fighter where competitors would live, train, and fight against each other to win the show. Since the 10 plus year reign of Dana White as president of the sport, over 40 fighters under the UFC promotion have become millionaires. That number is incredible considering the short span of time this sport has been mainstream. The most recent monumental benchmark for the UFC was its partnership with FOX. The UFC is now shown in over 130 countries globally and is on its way to expand even more. Mixed martial arts is more than just a sport it is a philosophy. Bruce Lee has been considered as the first true mixed martial artist. He was the first big combat icon to disown the idea that one fighting technique is greater than another, but rather to take all the good from each and put it together. In order to be a true mixed martial artist you must adopt different aspects of many different fight styles to make every part of your body a weapon. More than just the physical aspect of it is the mental aspect. Without the proper mindset fighters will crumble under the stress of the sport. A combination of physical and mental strength is necessary. MMA is all about adjusting to the situation under intense pressure like Bruce Lee once said Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

Mixed is a very accurate term for describing MMA. The sport has a large range of many fighting styles to choose from. All the way from karate to the lesser known Russian Sambo. A combination of both striking stand up skills and a ground grappling game is invaluable to a top competitor. A world champion boxer may find himself in trouble against a well-trained MMA fighter if and when the MMA fighter decides to take the boxer down and force him to grapple. All fights start off with both the competitors standing. When standing the fighters may have the tools of boxing, kickboxing, karate, or Muy Thai in their arsenal of delivering pain. Probably the most common of the striking forms is boxing, the art of punching and using footwork. Boxing uses effective jabbing technique to disrupt the opponent, keep them at bay, and to throw additional combinations. Boxing is also great training to develop movement while fighting and judging proper distance and closing that distance. Kickboxing is similar to boxing in the aspect of punching but with the added danger of adding kicks to the picture. Events other than MMA consisting of only kickboxing are extremely entertaining especially to fans that are more interested in seeing knockouts. Karate is one of the lesser-used techniques in the sport but is slowly making a rise. Karate is composed more of kicks rather than punches and has similar characteristics to fencing where a fighter will jump in to deliver damage and jump out to evade damage. The kicks tend to be flashier and are always a crowd pleaser when the kicks are on display effectively. Maybe the least commonly known of these is Muy Thai. Although many average people may not know of it, it is one of the more popular striking techniques to a fighter. What makes this technique different than the other ones is that in addition to the fists and the feet it includes

four other weapons. Muy Thai is heavy in the use of both elbows and knees, more so than any other style. Muy Thai only bouts will consist mainly of kicking as its key weapon with the use of elbows and knees. Punching is surprisingly thrown in low volume. Effective strikings main goal in a fight is to end the fight by knockout or technical knockout (referee stoppage), if a knockout is unattainable than its goal is to hurt the opponent as much as possible and earn a decision victory.

In MMA the fight may start off standing, but this is not your everyday boxing match. More times then not the fight will end up on the ground somehow. The main way of taking a fight to the ground is by taking down the opponent with wrestling. Wrestling is said to be the main cornerstone of a good mixed martial artist. A good wrestler can use his strength to either take the fighter down or prevent himself from being taken down. Good use of wrestling allows a fighter to dictate where the fight stays either standing or on the ground. Wrestling has been given some criticism from fans due to some fighters who will use wrestling to grind out decision victories. Some fighters have been known to avoid simply take their opponent to the ground and hold them down in order to win the fight. This is due to the fact that fights are timed and many judges see the fighter who delivers a takedown as winning a fight. But wrestling can be exciting

to fans as well. Some takedowns, known as slams, have been used to hurt and even knockout opponents. Once the opponent is floored ground and pound can commence which is the common term for throwing punches and elbows to a grounded opponent. Other than ground and pound, wrestling by itself is rarely effective in finishing a fight, which generally leads to a decision victory.

The art of BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) is a chess game when fighters are both on the ground. Position is everything and if a small mistake is made that mistake can be capitalized to end the fight. BJJ is very different from wrestling. BJJ is more focused on technique rather than strength and its main goal is finishing the fight by submission. A submission is complete when the opponent taps (form of surrender) or when they do not tap and pass out from a choke. Submissions can come be implemented in numerous ways, but most commonly in the form of chokes. Some chokes that can be included are; rear-naked, guillotine, north-south, and triangle, with each having different variations of execution. Non-choking submissions can be in the forms of; arm bars, leg locks, kimuras, and cranks. BJJ is a brilliant form of combat that makes it ultimate goal to end a fight without inflicting an ounce of pain.

So a fighter has become a master of all these combat styles. He has now been selected to fight for a championship belt in the middleweight 185lb class. How will he prepare? Fighters will generally spend about a couple of months in preparation for a big bout. In preparation the fighter will continue to hone his skills and create and game plan to take on his opponent. Watching his future opponents previous fights and finding his weaknesses will allow him to formulate the game plan so he capitalize on them. When all the information is gathered the training commences. Skills that are needed for the specific fight will be drilled into the fighter until he masters it even more. Along with increased skill the fighter will work on his strength and cardio. The fighter is careful to balance the two. With too much strength comes a lot of muscle. Muscle size and strength is directly proportional to fatigue over time in a fight this is because increased muscle sizes uses more oxygen than normal and builds up lactic acid. Cardio is key to surviving this championship fight that can be potentially 25 minutes long (5 rounds 5 minutes each). With his body in top shape he can maintain his form and composure in the fight. He can throw his techniques and grapple without worrying about not having enough energy to do so.

The fighter now knows the benefits of having a good balance of both strength and cardio, and will properly train each accordingly for the rest of the duration of his training camp. The two months have passed and his chance at the title is 24 hours away, but wait what is this? His fight is for the 185lb weight class, and he weighs in at a whopping 203lbs. In the next 24 hours this fighter must go under a process called weight cutting. This is the process of rapid weight loss in order them to compete at a lower weight class. There are many ways to do this including going into a sauna to sweat out water, taking diuretics, or not eating. Dehydration, which can be included with the sauna method, is a very common form of weight cutting. Though the benefits of weight cutting do not always outweigh the negatives, competitors will often use this method to gain an advantage on the smaller opponent. It is seen quite often for fighters to drop 10-30lbs just before a weigh-in. So our future champ has now jumped onto the official weigh-in scale and hits 185lbs. Perfect! Our fighter rehydrates back to 203lbs and rests for his big day tomorrow. His time is now! The lights are on him, his music is blaring as he walks down the path leading to the cage. He is the big underdog, almost nobody has heard his name before this fight but hes been through 2 months of hell for this crowning achievement, and nothing is going to stop him, not even the champion. He walks into the cage, jumps and up and down, shakes his arms, throws a couple of punches into the air and waits for the champion to arrive. The champion casually walks down the aisle towards the cage, climbs in and skips sideways along the full perimeter of the octagon feeling the presence of the crowd that he has become so familiar with. Something is different with the champion for this fight though. His face has an uncharacteristic look of uncertainty. Could this be due to the champions hurt rib caused by a training camp accident? The referee calls both our future champ and the current champ to discuss the rules and

touch gloves. The two touch gloves and the champion bows to show respect before returning to their respective corners. Our fighter that we journeyed with is the prideful, confident, and relentless wrestler Chael Sonnen. The champion is none other than the pound-for-pound number one fighter in the world Anderson The Spider Silva. The title of number one is well deserved as Silva has dismantled every single one of his opponents with little effort and set many records along the way. Nobody has yet to touch The Spider in the UFC, and our fighter, Chael, is hungry to become the first.

Chael jumps to the center of the octagon at the sound of the bell and quickly presents himself as the dominant presence in the cage, something Silva is not familiar with. Chael uses his boxing to bob n weave and throw combinations eventually landing, hitting Silva in the face and wobbling him enough that Silva has to catch himself by putting his hand on the floor. With Silva already half-downed Chael utilizes a takedown to put him on his back. Now Chael uses his patented ground and pound and dishes pain to the hurt Silva. Punches thrown here and over

there, elbows flying, ear slapping, hand to mouth smothering, you name it Chael was throwing it at the downed Silva. The bell rings and Silva survives the first round. Chael has already made history being the first man to actually hurt Silva and walks to his corner confident as ever. The second round begins; both men stained with each others blood. Chael takes no risks and takes Silva down right off the bat and continues his ground and pound. This same process will continue for all of the third and fourth rounds.

Everyone is baffled. Nobody expected the champion to be dominated and especially this badly. Silva continues to show his warrior spirit by not yet giving up but his championship reign is inevitably about to be over. BING the bell for the fifth and final round sounds, and like before Chael takes Silva down for a beating. A minute passes into the round and Silva shows pain in his face, but continues to survive. Chael can smell victory as the crowd cheers for the underdog. Chael a little gassed from continually punching takes a small break on Silvas chest. Silva, on his back as usual, slips up his leg in front of Chaels arm and over the back of his head. Places the ankle of that leg into the knee joint of his other leg; locks them together; pulls down with his remaining strength and screams as he exerts all he has left. Chael has been caught in The Spiders web and begins to panic and struggle only making it worse. The crowd begins to

scream with emotion unsure of what to think of the situation. Our fighter, Chael Sonnen, taps to a triangle choke with 3:10 left in the fifth round. Three minutes and he would have been the new champion, but destiny had other plans that night.

Wow! What a fight! MMA is sport where anything can happen at any given time. Even against all odds something amazing can happen and the outcome will be completely altered. With all this excitement in just one fight, it can be understood why this sport has exploded onto the scene and has experienced light speed growth. Hopefully an increased knowledge of the sport has been gained and others can get onto the actions as well.