Dana White blasts ignorant Aus hack male grandmother writer
There was a time when virtually everyone in the mainstream media thought mixed martial arts was akin to human cockfighting. The Fertitta brothers and Dana White purchased the league in 2001 and have educated the public ever since, ot the point that only pockets of ignorance remain.
But there are pockets of ignorance, and none on recent memory so pointedly ignorant as a column by Buzz Rothfield, Editor-At-Large of Australia's Daily Telegraph, excerpted below.
SINCE when is kicking, elbowing, kneeing, punching and stomping an opponent classified as sport?
On Saturday night on Fuel TV I witnessed the brutality and bloodshed of the UFC — apparently, and worryingly, the world’s fastest growing sport.
This was nothing but barbaric savagery that should be banned in this country.
The fact women were allowed to fight on the card was an even bigger disgrace.
The main event was between Aussie Mark Hunt and Brazilian Antonio “Bigfoot’’ Silva. The commentators described it as one of the greatest fights in UFC history. It made me feel sick.
And why are the competitors allowed to do all this inside a cage when it’s illegal on the streets? People have been sent to jail for less than what happened inside a cage on Saturday night.
Why aren’t the fighters at least made to wear headgear?
Why aren’t fighters getting protection from blood diseases?
Why do the referees and doctors allow mismatches and lopsided fights to continue?
I know the UFC has statistics to prove there are no more serious injuries than in boxing, but that’s not the point.
The beauty of all sport is the toughness and determination of its competitors. The pain they put themselves through to become the best.
The injury risks they face in rugby league and all the footy codes. At least their sport involves a large degree of skill — and it’s not just a contest to *violently bash another person into submission.
It is unfathomable that a writer with access to the Internet would not do even several minutes of research to learn that for example the sport is regulated by the government, and that there are blood tests, among countless other safety precautions. The remark about woman in sports belong to an earlier, ignorant age. The remark about it being illegal on the street is absurd, and applies equally to all combat sports. The remarks about mixed martial arts not having skill is disgraceful, and should be treated with contempt.
UFC president Dana White was made aware of the article, and responded characteristically.
Dana White @danawhite
•@telegraph_sport @BuzzRothfield that story makes me sick. Men like u have no clue what it takes to do what they did sat nite. #respectHvsS
•@BuzzRothfield how you can disrespect 2 men that did what they did shows what kind of a Man U are. Buzz light year u r the disgrace
The Daily Telegraph, presumably aware of the disgraceful work by their editor, went on to publish two far more inteliigent, informed, and insightful pieces.
•The brutality of the UFC is far better than gross mismatches in boxing
•A disgrace? Ultimate Fighting Championship is a bloody amazing sport
If someone had no familiarity with mixed martial arts, the first impression could indeed be jarring. The same thing would happen with for example auto racing. If you did not know the sport existed, and suddenly it appeared on your television, you might well ask why people are legally barred from going over 65 on the highway, but encouraged to double or triple that on a track?
If you looked into the fatality rate in the sport, you might be apalled. In the US alone the fatality rate averages 22 per year. A single crash in 1955 killed 74 people. By contrast, in the entire history of mixed martial arts worldwide, there have been six fatalities, most of them in unregulated fights.
Cheerleading has killed countless dozens of youngsters; no one even knows how many. One study identified 42 cheerleading deaths between the fall of 1982 and the spring of 2007, in the US alone, some seven times the number of MMA fatalities.
So, speaking charitably, what Rothfield needs is education. There is hope for him, the man who wrote "the beauty of all sport is the toughness and determination of its competitors." There are of course no tougher or more determined athletes that fighters, and, thus, there is hope for Buzz after all.
If you want to offer him an intellgent response, his Twitter is @BuzzRothfield. insulting responses would of course serve only to firm up his confusion, so, please, be respectful and informative.
You can also let the Daily Telegraph know what you think about their good and their bad articles via Twitter - @dailytelegraph
http://m.mixedmartialarts.com/mma-n...sts-ignorant-Aus-hack-male-grandmother-writer
©2013 Mixed Martial Arts llc.
Developed in partnership with Adept Mobile
