It can be interesting to watch, but I can't really watch much of it for very long.
I don't think they should ban it or anything, although I sometimes wonder if gladiatorial games are in our future.
I have developed an interest and respect for mma simply because it seems to represent for me an experimental programme in refining and perfecting unarmed combat by selecting the most useful aspects of numerous historical martial arts. There is, however, one or two aspects of these sports which I dislike tremendously.
One of said aspects has to do with the entire “gladiatorial spectacle” which is evident at any match, with a large crowd of people of varying and questionable psychology seeming to “cry for blood”. This has always been evident in the boxing world, and seems to have naturally migrated to mma. In top mma matches, I find the match itself a quite interesting experiment in the relative merits of fighting technique, even while I find the crowd and its effects very disturbing. I wish these matches could be fought, recorded, and broadcast absolutely without speciation being present, but knowing the realities of economics and the human penchant for commoditization, I realize that that will not ever happen. So, I live with the disturbing people in the crowds, trying to ignore them as much as possible.
The other aspect of the sport that I dislike has to do with the personality of many of those who seem to be attracted to these sports, which seems to bear a relation to the crowd issue described above. I don’t have adequate knowledge of psychological terminology to describe the types of personality of which I speak, but they are associated with a penchant for vulgarity, with boasting and taunting, with the excessive wearing of tattoos (something I strongly dislike), and with a generally base approach to life. Conor McGregor is of the type, along with an apparent majority of mma fighters. I find them to be the type of personality which disgusts and angers me, especially for their lack of humility and their excessive affectation. It is notable that, with the exception of Jon Jones who bears only one tat, all of the mma guys that I like, who are among the best in the sport’s history (Fedor, Mirko, Igor Vovchechyn) bear no tattoos. I used to relish the sight of some tatted-up jerk getting knocked out by one of these guys. It is with no small amount of shame that I admit that most of the things I dislike about mma: the vulgarity, the boasting theatrics, the tattoos, etc., seem to myself to ultimately derive from American culture, which has become very vulgar, indeed.
So, there is a lot that I do not like about the sport of mma, even while I think mma an important experiment in fighting technique. I would prefer if it were just a private exercise, with matches held without spectation, thinking that might reduce some of the problems that I discern.
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