{"id":302969,"date":"2010-02-10T15:20:49","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T20:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"urn:newsml:sports.yahoo,yhoo:20050301:mma,article,yhoo-ept_sports_mma_experts-218812:1"},"modified":"2010-02-10T15:20:49","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T20:20:49","slug":"rookie-fan-at-ufc-109-captures-why-mma-is-so-big","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/302969","title":{"rendered":"Rookie fan at UFC 109 captures why MMA is so big"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why I’ve chosen mixed martial arts as a sport to specialize on? That’s often a question thrown my way when speaking to buddies around the country who work in sportsradio. <\/p>\n

You get that sideways look. "Really you like that more than NBA, NFL or baseball?" They just don’t get it and still look at the UFC, and other promotions as a circus, and one that only a small crew of fans follow. I know they’re wrong. You know they’re wrong but it’s not always easy to convince the non-believers. <\/p>\n

Andrew Sharp, an editor from SB Nation, attended his first UFC card this weekend and put into words nicely some of the things that make MMA so infectious<\/a>.  <\/p>\n

Screw the primal nature of fights and the blood, the first thing I mention is the melding of fight specialties and strategy.  <\/p>\n

\n

Differentiating between the styles—knowing which armbar comes from Brazlian Jiu
\nJitsu, or which defensive move comes from Wrestling—is beyond my purview, but
\ntheoretically, it makes for a chess match between fighters that’s impossibly
\nintricate, and highly intellectual," wrote Sharp. "A chess match, with chilling violence that will get your pulse racing and drain
\nyou of every last ounce of adrenalin after 20 minutes. So… Basically, the
\ncoolest chess match ever. That’s Mixed Martial Arts."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

MMA is a culture. The fans are like no other sport.<\/a>  <\/p>\n

\n

Sharp says, "It’s why the UFC can realistically launch a "nationwide network of gyms<\/a>" to train people, and it’s a pretty
\nemphatic example of the dedication that MMA fans have shown in recent years. Not
\nonly does the sport gain more fans every day, but they’re fans that become
\ndeeply invested in the sport. It’s not a casual hobby; people don’t like it,
\nthey love<\/em> it. It’s pretty impressive. I love the NBA, but I will gladly
\nconcede that most basketball fans are only casually invested in the regular
\nseason, and that’s being generous. With MMA and the UFC, it’s different."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There’s also the stories surrounding the fighters. They’re not just imaginary characters slugging it out for money. That’s why guys, with their careers on the line like Mark Coleman and Frank Trigg, were so intriguing to follow at UFC 109. <\/p>\n

Sharp said he sat right near Rob Emerson’s mother at UFC 109, "It was a good reminder, too. These fighters are human, with real families and
\nreal bones that break. That seems obvious, but it’s easy to fall prey to the
\nidea that all of these fighters are sociopaths, weaned on steroids and fighting,
\nand robbed of any of the qualities we’d associate with "normal" human beings."<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then there’s that moment on each card, and there may be several of them, that you’ll be talking about for weeks if not months after the fight. Sharp mentioned Chael Sonnen’s upset win over Nate Marquardt as the battle that made the biggest impression.  <\/p>\n

\n

"It feels weird to describe a bloody, vicious fight as beautiful, but it sort
\nof was. The determination of both fighters was just unbelievable, and neither
\none ever quit. Not Marquardt when he was being repeatedly bludgeoned in the
\nsecond, and not Sonnen, when he turned purple and probably should have passed
\nout. Somehow, both men kept killing themselves, and it showed. Strange as it
\nsounds, there’s something beautiful about that. It was a fight I’ll never
\nforget. Something to tell my friends about."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

MMA isn’t for everyone but it’s amazing what happens when you come to the event with an open mind. Somehow Sharp, from cheap seats, picked up on all the cool things. Yet so many veteran newspaper reporters and columnists can’t. Too often traditional media members walk away calling the fans morons, claiming they only feed off blood, muscles and violence. Maybe it’s a generational thing or maybe it’s the media who are the simple-minded knuckleheads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why I’ve chosen mixed martial arts as a sport to specialize on? That’s often a question thrown my way when speaking to buddies around the country who work in sportsradio. You get that sideways look. "Really you like that more than NBA, NFL or baseball?" They just don’t get it and still look at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4012,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}