The video below shows two young boys, both under the age of ten, taking part in a grappling match, inside a cage, in front of a crowd of severely inebriated adults.
Yes you read that right. …
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I can barely watch adults in this brutal sport.
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Karate, Judo and other styles. …
Michael Vick goes to prison for dog fights. But this is legal?
Thanks George.
13 comments ↓
“Michael Vick goes to prison for dog fights. But this is legal?”
Michael Vick went to prison for committing a felony. If he wanted to stay out of prison, all he had to do was not commit a felony. There’s no need to try to downplay his crime to try to make a point.
Frankly, for a gymnastics fan to suggest some other sport be outlawed for kids strikes me as hypocritical. Some may claim how safe gymnastics is WITH PROPER COACHING. How many times has Jordyn W. been injured already? Injured despite her proper coaching. And that’s just one kid. Face it, parents putting their kids in harms way in the name of sports greatness is not about to be outlawed anytime soon.
The video says the kids are not allowed to punch, kick, or strike in the matches so they’re basically just wrestling. Do you think it ought to be illegal for kids to take up wrestling? Do you think it ought to be illegal for kids to take up karate or some other sport where punching, kicking, and striking IS allowed, albeit with padding. Not that you still can’t end up with a broken whatever anyway.
We talk about how important it is for gymnasts to be able to perform in a worlds type setting. Well, these kids are training to be MMA fighters so their end goal will have them fighting in front of drunk adults, I guess. Might as well get the experience now.
Its just wrestling with different rules and techniques, if you have something against wrestling then I can see you having a problem with this, but having competed in grappling for years I can tell you young and old compete safely and with respect for each other in competitions across the globe, in gymnasiums usually (research NAGA competitions) the fact that these kids are in a cage is probably what actually disturbs people, but they are NOT cagefighting, lol.
And if you dont think severely inebriated adults (parents) are at most baseball, hockey, footballs games then you’ve obviously never be to one in the United States. Sad but true.
Grappling is an amazingly technical sport, like playing chess with your body, it’s really a thing of beauty, safe as any other physical sport and deserves more respect.
mma is a great sport. for kids too if (!!) done porperly. doing mma or wrestling in a bar as a kid in front of drunken adults – not so much. most kids should start out with boxing and wrestiling and the like anyway. no drunken adults at the ring/mat here
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dog fights are disgusting and banned in most parts of europe for a reason. there is no proper way of training a dog to kill another dog. that’s just sick and not a sport.
Dog fighting is banned in the US too. By the way, it’s not some sort of super secret ban that Mr. Vick wouldn’t have known about.
I don’t like fighting (except verbally, and except Catching because it’s just a show !), but I am not sure this is worse than in other fight sport such as boxing, taekwondo, kickboxing, etc…
I don’t know either if the crowd is “severely inebriated”, it’s impossible to say just watching this video, as we barely can see the audience.
And I find this journalist extremely unprofessional : instead of a fair and neutral investigation, which could have been interesting, he is just desperately trying to push all protagonists to say that the kids were forced or badly treated, to make more audience.
My main complaint with MMA is concussions. But I’ve done ZERO research into how many they suffer in that sport.
Sher, dog fighting should be banned. All concur.
But you come across as condoning cage matches for kids under 10.
That’s much worse than WAG so far as I’m concerned. Do you disagree?
Rick, how and why are cage matches worse than the same matches on a boxing ring or a taekwondo tatami ?
Look at this for example : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kWicBSg9ns
This is not in a cage, but according to me, it’s as violent as your MMA video, even if the kids have protections (which is normal as they hit each other in this sport, MMA is only wrestling).
Just to be clear, I don’t support MMA, as I hate violence and I don’t like fights in general.
But if you want to forbid MMA for kids as we see on that video, you also have to forbid all other competitive fight sports for kids, because they are all as violent and dangerous.
“But you come across as condoning cage matches for kids under 10.”
That’s because I am condoning it. As I understand it, they are not fighting under the same rules as the adults. It shouldn’t matter that they are fighting in a cage.
“That’s much worse than WAG so far as I’m concerned. Do you disagree?”
I do disagree. It would be worse if they were fighting under adult rules but since they’re not I’d actually have to say WAG is worse if just for technical reasons. Technically, any kind of fighting sport is more useful in life than gymnastics. Like it or not, fighting can be a useful skill. There are some mean, mean people out there. When handing over one’s valuables or running away doesn’t do the trick, being able to defend oneself effectively might be a lifesaver. It might keep a person from getting raped. It might make their husband think real hard before slapping them upside the head. Only on MIOBI will young toughs be scared off by somebody’s vicious back handsprings.
“Rick, how and why are cage matches worse than the same matches on a boxing ring or a taekwondo tatami ?”
Exactly.
I haven’t seen the data in a while, but if I remember correctly from research done a decade ago, the amount of brain trauma injuries in MMA/NHB competitions at the time were nowhere near as severe as what happens in boxing or in American football.
Boxing gloves don’t protect the opponent from impact force- they’re designed to protect the wearer from injuring his fists. So he can hit with full force anywhere on his opponent’s head without risk of breaking his fists. The sport of boxing is such that fighters are made to withstand a lot of accumulated pounding on the brain- not good.
In my mind boxing and MMA are both far worse and more dangerous than WAG. But I could be wrong.
[...] I’m getting grief for criticizing the “sport” of children’s Mixed Martial Arts. [...]
Are you serious? people you need to understand that the rules protect the fighters. Sure i wouldn’t mind doing this and having someone watch. how is this different from boxing? so what if there is hand to hand combat. Who cares!! let them do what they do. MTV (although trash) has a show called Caged where 18 yr old are doing this too. why is that not wrong? also, more injury comes from idiots who don’t know when it’s time to TAPOUT! no shame in losing… there is shame in having your shoulder dislocated though.
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