I'm probably behind the curve in offering my editorial, but nevertheless....

Last last Saturday I wandered down to the local version of sports bar to watch UFC 100. I was mainly interested in the Lesnar/Mir fight, but unfortunately I didn't last long enough to see it. The bar was standing room only, and after being on my feet for almost two hours, I gave up and wandered home. My back feels a lot better than it used to, but I'd reached my max. I didn't get to see the Lesnar/Mir fight live.

I did, however, find it the next morning on the Internet. Lesnar rode Mir like a kiddie ride outside a Walmart and scored an easy victory. He then proceeded to insult Mir, the event sponsor, and flip-off the crowd. Wow.

I'm not naive. The UFC is about making money, and the way you make money is to entertain people. Yet ask a fighter why he's there, and very few will say they go in the ring to entertain fans. There are lot of easier and less painful ways to go about entertaining people than fighting inside a cage. Those that say they do are fooling themselves. They might hope the fans are entertained, but the reason most of them go in the ring is to stand in front of the cave and test themselves in combat.

And when the dust settles and one man stands with his hand raised, axes are buried, man-hugs exchanged, and respect granted. Most of the time.

Maybe I've swallowed the Kung-Fu stereotype, but martial arts is supposed to have a mental and spiritual aspects. It's supposed to be about exploring yourself, developing discipline and growing all aspects of your being--mind, body and spirit. The renowned Japanese swordsman Myamoto Musashi found that the more sought excellence in his martial training, the more he sought excellence all things.

People get into martial arts for different reasons. They usually start out of a desire to learn some self defense skills or for fitness. Once basic skills are learned, some students quit while others continue to study for many different reasons; they enjoyed the exercise, they like advancing in rank. Maybe they get into sparring and enjoy the competitive aspect of the sport. There are even some thugs who take advantage of their skills to have power over others. They like to fight and they like to hurt people, usually by taking their martial skills down to the local bar.

Lesnar acted like a thug. His behavior was bad for mixed martial arts and set a poor example for the younger fans who might one day want to step into the ring themselves. There are a few other thugs in the sport as well, although I've never seen one carry it to as far an extreme as Lesnar did. Fighters like GSP and Diego Sanchez are examples of how MMA is much more about yourself than who you step into the ring with. These are the fighters we should be talking about, not Lesanr and Henderson, who struck a downed opponent he knew wouldn't be getting back up again. He can cliam 'the ref didn't stop me' all he wants, but that second shot came out of a desire to punish, not to win.

Nevertheless, the actions of Lesnar and Henderson will be good for the UFC's bottom line. Fans love to watch athletes they hate as much as those they love. Many of them value the violence over the sport and enjoyed seeing Bisping get that extra whack. Tickets will sell, pay-per-views will be purchased, shirts will be worn.

I was glad to hear White came down hard on Lesnar. I was glad Lesnar apologized. I'm sure he was caught up in the moment. Maybe he was having a WWE flashback. Maybe he, like Chris Leban, can move beyind the combat aspect of the sport and use as a means to self exploration and personal growth.

I just hope as MMA continues to grow, the mental and spiritual aspects of martial arts won't get left behind.

(reposted from my journal, July 1st, 2007)

How it starts: two men enter a cage.

How it ends: one man's hand raised in victory.

This is not to say that participation in combat sports is limited to men only, but it is a fact that the vast majority of competitors (and fans) are male.

To the casual observer, these combat sports, called Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), seem nothing more than two men beating on each other until one quits or gets knocked out or the fight ends and the judges pick a winner. Frequently there's blood and knocked-out teeth, black eyes, split lips and and occasionally more serious injuries, such as broken bones or concussions. Man-on-man combat for sport has probably been around since we got together and formed our first communities; the UFC and other MMA organizations are just a modern rendition brought to the mainstream. They've evidently done something right. The UFC generated around $250 million in 2008 and is still growing. That's a lot of people watching. But why?

I can't speak for others, but I can for myself and the best answer I can give is is pretty simple: there's something compelling about seeing two men go at it until one quits or is unable to continue.

Despite my enjoyment of watching, I hesitate to call myself a fan. I don't memorize names and facts, records and measurements, or who holds what belt. I recognize the big names (most people do, another tribute to MMA's growing popularity), but my interest isn't the athletes, it's what they do. I envy the way these men put aside the restrictions of civilization and, for a few brief minutes, reduce (elevate?) themselves to their animalistic essence. I think this appeal is at the root of the the explosive growth of MMA fighting.

Inside every man is neolithic need to test oneself against another, to stand over that piece of meat at the cave entrance and defend it. We're animals, hardwired for survival after a million years of evolution. And survival, until recently, meant the violence of defending yourself, your shelter, your food and your mate and offspring against those who would take such from you or do harm to those you cared about. Armani suites, power ties, manicured nails, Axe Body Spray and feminism have not relieved us of this innate compulsion to go toe-to-toe and see who walks away.

We can deny it -- society demands that we do -- but that doesn't make it go away. I wager that even those men who decry and denounce combat sports feel their blood stir at the sight of it, and in the back of their mind is the question "what if...?"