WITH MATCHES that seem to degenerate into unruly brawls, the Ultimate Fighting Championship surely isn’t for everyone. Senator John McCain once called the sport “human cockfighting.’’ And with tonight’s UFC event at the TD Garden looming, state lawmakers and Governor Patrick, who quietly legalized mixed-martial-arts events in Massachusetts late last fall, have been accused of giving into barbarism just for the sake of generating more tax revenues.

This criticism is misguided, and not just because it puts too much stock into the sport’s own hype. It also draws too sharp a distinction between mixed-martial-arts competitions — of which the UFC is the best-known — and the many longer-established sports that also carry some potential for injury.

As the name suggests, mixed-martial-arts combatants subdue their opponents with techniques taken from wrestling, karate, jiu jitsu, and a host of other disciplines. The sport’s bad rap is partly the UFC’s fault. Founded in 1993, the organization used to tout its events with the slogan “there are no rules,’’ a characterization that probably overstated the point even back then.

Still, by the late 1990s only a few states — mainly ones with a lenient regulatory environment, like Louisiana and Mississippi — were willing to play host to mixed-martial-arts events. As it happens, I attended a UFC event in Kenner, La., in those supposedly dark days. The crowd was pumped, but the fights I saw were brief, even anticlimactic.

Since the UFC’s current management took over in 2001, the sport has evolved more elaborate safety rules. While it continues to market the starker, more aggressive aspects of the sport to ticket buyers and viewers, the picture it presents to state regulators is of athletes who are committed, well trained, and in many cases quite well-compensated. While Ultimate Fighting may be trying to have it both ways, a gladiatorial blood sport it isn’t.

It’s easy to look askance at mixed martial arts because its history, at least as a professional sport in the United States, looks brief and a little seamy. But to do so sets up an artificial distinction between it and other sports that are potentially dangerous to athletes. The UFC’s safety record compares favorably with pro boxing. And the attention that’s belatedly being paid to concussions among pro football players should remind us that even the most established sports can take a grievous toll.

Mixed-martial-arts competitions produce plenty of bloody injuries, which should not be minimized. But if the mark of a legitimate sport is that it puts the physical well-being of athletes above all, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is far from the only athletic organization with questions to answer.

http://mmaanalysed.com/index.php?option ... s&Itemid=1

For the people unknown to this sport it is indeed often thought to be a sport that can be compared to a pub fight without the extra props like glass, chairs and so.

Some of the events this year also did not really give credits to the sports, like the Miller brawl or the after punch by Semtex. Those incidents are rare but lethal to the name of the game.

The sport is bloody and to some that is enough to stay away from it. While in some sports nowadays athletes are carefully sent towards a doctor when a drop of blood is showing and the doctor often puts on gloves to be on the safe side (I believe this rule was also made after for instance an NBA player was considered HIV positive), MMA fighters often continue with open wounds until the bell rings or the blood is going into the eyes of a fighter.

It will still take some time before MMA is accepted everywhere but they are getting there slowly

I hear ya Foxy. Step by step... Its the only sport worth watching really and people will learn that as soon as they give it a chance. MMA is unstoppable, a perfect concept of sport and competition, and great to watch!