For the uninitiated and unappreciative, the UFC is a thuggish and bloodthirsty spectacle, but on closer inspection, you can soon see that it is so much more.
The UFC is a sport on the rise. The poster boy of the organization, Chuck Liddell is gracing the covers of serious sporting magazines and appearing in hit television shows, while its pay-per-view numbers are setting new records. Over the last few years the sport has gained what it lacked for so long, credibility in the eyes of sports fans.
The UFC began in 1993 as the brain child of the legendary Gracie family from Brazil. The aim of the sport was to pit fighters from various martial art techniques against one another, to ascertain which style was the best. Many different schools were represented, from stand up fighters trained in kickboxing, savate and taekwondo, to those who were well versed in grappling and submission techniques such as jiu-jitsu, shoot wrestling and judo. It was during these early days that the UFC earned its reputation as low brow and sadistic entertainment. There were few rules and many of the fighters were more sideshow oddities than genuine athletes. The UFC was on an unstoppable slide to irrelevance.
The savior of the UFC was current president and former boxing trainer Dana White and his financial backers, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, millionaire casino owners from Las Vegas. The group went about restructuring the sport, reinstating time limits for bouts, introducing weight classes and creating new rules to discourage the image of barbarity. However, in some regards the UFC still tries to maintain its bar fight aesthetic and cultivate an underground appeal. Never is this more apparent in the use of the Octagon, a dramatic device straight out of a bad 80’s action movie. The Octagon is a wire cage from which there is no escape, both physically and mentally. The audience is made to feel that they are watching an event that is borderline illegal and very dangerous, in an effort to add to the thrill of spectating. This only does a disservice to the sport, detracting from the talent and dedication that is required to participate in an event that incorporates so many martial disciplines. A UFC fighter must not only be an excellent stand up fighter with boxing and kicking skills, but also be able to engage his opponent at ground level in exhausting and technical wrestling bouts.
Boxing is known as the sweet science. It may seem an incongruous name for a sport that features such imposing figures as Mike Tyson or Sonny Liston, but when demonstrated by the most talented practitioners like Ali or Sugar Ray Leonard, a savage beauty can be found. This beauty is harder to find in mixed martial arts, it does not feature the fluid, balletic motion of boxing. As suggested by some of the sport’s terms, ground and pound, sprawl and brawl, MMA can be more about asserting your savagery on your opponent than displaying your skill. Unlike boxing, the knockouts of UFC are often sickening, rather than exhilarating. The fighters are intimidating and heavily muscled figures compared to the lean, athletic physiques of most boxers. But just like boxing, the UFC possesses a primal and universal appeal that cannot be denied.
For both boxing and mixed martial arts are sports with the ability to provide contests that are more than a test of skill, but a test of character. It is in the cauldron of the ring and the Octagon that the fighter confronts his fear and proves his physical and mental courage. The great fights can transcend the sport and become mythical in proportion, its protagonists lionized and their feats recounted in hushed, reverent tones. Boxing already possesses a rich history of fights that reached such dizzying heights, the Thriller in Manila, Hagler versus Leonard and Corrales versus Castillo, just to name a few. It is only a matter of time before the fights of the UFC are recalled in the same manner and its fighters held up as the pinnacle of athletic achievement. The UFC proves that the spectacle of violence holds an unexplainable attraction and will be with us for a long time to come. It may disgust, or it may excite, but the fight game will always retain its ability to move.
