When M mentioned in his online dating profile that he liked ‘mixed martial arts’, I barely registered it.  I feel that way about most sport; not fundamentally opposed, just vaguely indifferent.  Yes, anything that gives me an excuse to go to a pub, and drink and shout has a certain appeal, but I’ve just never found it in myself to really care.  So with this mention of ‘cage fighting’ pretty much ignored in favour of the many other noteworthy statements on his profile- veritably overflowing with noteworthy statements as it was- we exchanged messages, texts, we met, and we were pretty much together, give or take a couple of conversations, from that point on.  Little did I know, the spectre of this ‘cage fighting’ loomed, and it loomed large.

The closest thing to mixed martial arts (or ‘MMA’ if you’re an acronym enthusiast) I’d ever watched was a few rounds of boxing. I’ve never found it particularly hard to understand why people enjoy boxing; whether it’s a sport you like or not, watching two athletes take part in something so skilled yet fundamentally, well, kind of barbaric, is something I can see the appeal of.  I’ve just never liked the feeling; the enthusiasm for wanting to see one man beaten into submission by another.  I don’t want to bay for blood!  Traditionally, I’ve disengaged and removed myself from the room.  In the populist view, take away the ‘gentlemanly’ rules of boxing and you have cage fighting: no rules, bloody, akin to human cock fighting (that might be something different altogether, come to think of it). Amoral.  Without a doubt, the most palatable and easy introduction to MMA is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).  And that’s where all your preconceptions seem to implode.

They have lights!  They fill massive sporting venues!  They have celebrities in the audience!  The UFC is the sort of production that makes it easy to acquiesce and say reluctantly “go on….”. I didn’t become a fan right there and then, and I didn’t fill with excitement at the idea of sitting down to watch ‘the fighting’ on a regular basis.  But the barrier was gone.  My inner geek had been teased out and had seen a whole world of boring stats to learn, and a cast of heroes and villains to get to know. A whole subject I’d never given a moment’s thought to, but that there is just so damn much to know about. You have two men matched to fight; weighing up to 19st, whose muscle and mass can be completely different, who are inches apart in height, and have completely different skills.  There’s racial diversity like you’d see in barely any other sport.  It’s easier for the rich kids who can afford to train all the time, of course, but there’s fighters from every background, country, and class. Wiry little fighters like angry whippets, waiting for the opportunity to grab their opponent and wrestle him to the ground. Heavyweights who slug it out for five rounds, each with knockout power but barely able to stand at the end. And so my introduction to the weird and wonderful world of MMA was a headlining middleweight title fight on a UFC event. A fight that was a proper game changer, an upset, an iconic battle between Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva and Chris Weidman.  It took that fight to expunge those feelings of middle-class guilt and unease with combat sports: I wasn’t sold, but the line had been crossed.

There are amusing and eloquent characters in MMA, as there are in every sport and especially in a promotion like the UFC that is shown on Fox in the US. They’ve got the money to throw at supporting programmes and hype that can showcase fighters’ personalities, skills, and rivalries.  It has the advertising and sponsorship revenues, and is able to invest in huge Vegas events.  That’s not to say that other promotions, like Cage Warriors and BAMMA in Europe, aren’t fun too, they just don’t have the ridiculous glitz and faux-respectability of the UFC.  But that’s not what’s drawn me in.  That can all be fun, and I’ve watched some fights that had me on the edge of my seat and looking from between the fingers I’m hiding behind, but the thing that gets me excited, the thing that makes me actively go and read this here and that there, are the women fighters.

Only fighting in the UFC since March 2013, women MMA fighters have, I imagine, had that same hard road that so many female athletes do in comparison to their male counterparts.  Lack of interest from the public, fewer chances to compete, next to no prospect of making a living from the sport.  But with the UFC’s purchase of Strikeforce, a rival promotion, and the establishment of a women’s division in both the UFC and Cage Warriors, it’s all starting to change. There’s also an all women MMA promotion called Invicta that was starting to gain traction globally before it was snapped up by the UFC. It’ll be weak for a while as the pickings will be slim, and there will inevitably be fights that allow dumb-bone MMA fans to continue to dismiss female fighters.  But, competitors like ‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey, an Olympic judoka and a big enough star in the US to be launching her Hollywood career with appearances in The Expendables and Fast & Furious franchises, will pave the way for a generation of female fighters.  And as a woman in love with a man who loves fighting, and a feminist who sees the work we still have to do on equality in this world, it’s quite exciting to see how these women are going to get on in such a male-dominated arena.   And if that’s the way I have to sell to myself the reality of watching women break each other’s arms, then, for now, so be it.

Epilogue: I wrote this in January 2014 and apart from a few additions and edits, it’s the same article I originally put together. However, I have since found myself enjoying MMA more and more. I’ve loved going along to the events- UFC, Cage Warriors, and BAMMA- and I’m loving having my personal favourites and developing my own knowledge and opinions. With the launch of season 20 of the UFC’s reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter, which is all-female and will crown a straw-weight champion at the end, women’s MMA is bigger and more exciting than ever. We’ve just seen world-class boxer Holly Holm signed to the UFC in the same weight class as Ronda Rousey and Cat Zingano returned last night after almost a year and a half away, and great personal tragedy, to a convincing, exciting, and emotional victory.

When I wrote this piece my interest in Mixed Martial Arts was just beginning, and it was an exciting new world. I don’t feel that the piece above is my best writing, but I did want to be true to those initial feelings and put it up. Eight months later, this is a sport that has really captured my imagination, and I can’t imagine this is the last you’ll hear about it from me…. Who knows- if you give it a go, you might surprise yourself!

You can read my TUF 20 episode reviews over on Schpunk!

Picture credits:
Ronda Rousey – USA Today
TUF 20 Cast – Wombat Sports

Laura

I believe I am destined for great things, despite all evidence to the contrary!