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Innocence of MMA Essay

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Mixed Martial Arts is the most misunderstood, safest, and popular full contact sport in the

present day. Since 1998, there have been over 70 boxing related deaths, while in sanctioned MMA

events there have only been two! MMA has been around for centuries and it was not widely known

until early 1990s with the introduction of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The UFC at first was

considered violent, barbaric, and criticized by Senator John McCain, calling it, “human cockfighting,”

but in a 2007 interview with ESPN, he softened his stance and said,“Although it's not my favorite

sport, the UFC is making progress of cleaning up the sport from what it used to be.”(Smith 1).

Visually, MMA looks very barbaric and …show more content…

Since 2006, he has been clean and uses his story to encourage others with their own addictions. The

idea of judging MMA without getting to know it is brainless and shows the misunderstanding of the

sport.

In people's eyes MMA looks dangerous, but they don't know that it is safer than football and

boxing. Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker thinks so. Walkers stated in an interview, “People shy

away from it because they think it's a brutal, brutal sport, and I've said, 'Guys, MMA is safer than

football and boxing,' and they tell me they don't believe it. Am I not the most credible person to give

you the answer to that? Because I played football.”(Non 1). At 49 years old Walkers himself is in MMA

and won all two of his fights by knockouts. In recent years, in American football there have been more

than 400 fatalities, in boxing there have been 70 fatalities while MMA had only 2 fatalities.(Impact

MMA). Unlike boxing, MMA has many ways to win a fight. MMA allows tapping-out or submitting,

which is a common method of winning. A person can go a whole fight without throwing a single punch

because it's not all striking, a fight can go to the ground, wrestle and win by tapping-out or decision.

Boxing however, focuses on punching the head and body. Boxers take up to 500 hits to the head per 12

round fight while an MMA fighter was estimated to take less than 20 hits to the head in three five

minute

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