robinreed wrote:marquette wrote:robinreed wrote: perverted boxing
Comments like this are insulting and show your ignorance. If it's not for you, then don't watch. Keep the commentary to yourself.
Sorry Marquette I did not know you were not an American. The difference is that I being born and raised in the USA believe in freedom of speech. You coming from a foreign land obviously find that an inconceivable idea. You see here in the USA we believe people have the constitutional right to express their opinion even if others do not agree with it. How was this done in the country of your birth? Did the state or church tell you how to think and what to say? That would not be a defensible situation for any true American.
Indeed, you do have freedom of speech. The fact that you bring up a legal right that applies solely against the government on a privately run board shows a stunning lack of understanding of the U.S. government. Regardless, my guess is that the admin won't, nor do I think he should, ban you for what a amounts to a relatively minor, if repeated insult. However, since this is a private forum and, as far as I know, the admin is not a government entity he would be perfectly capable of banning you (or me or anyone else) for whatever reason he chose because, and say it with me, "civil rights apply only against the government." See? You learned something.
In regards to MMA, while I have very low expectations of changing your mind due to your initial comments and the tone of this conversation, I'll explain a little bit and maybe you will be a little more open-minded going forward. MMA is a sport populated by athletes of varying backgrounds and nationalities. While a substantial portion are from the United States, there are many from other countries including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Ireland, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia. It is a highly regulated sport with full physicals required the day before competition. There are strictly enforced rules and fights are scored by 3 judges on a 10 point must system, much like boxing. Many of the athletes involved are former collegiate or olympic athletes, a good percentage of which possess college degrees (not as common in boxing). MMA has fewer instances of concussions and less cumulative brain damage than boxing when compared to boxing. The compensation for mid level MMA fighters is higher than for mid level boxers, though admittedly boxers like Floyd Mayweather make considerably more than their MMA counterparts. Health insurance is provided by the UFC for all UFC fighters, which is in stark contrast to most boxers who are on their own. The UFC, while it has numerous issues, provides a professional umbrella with standards of professionalism not found in boxing, ergo if some MMA fighter goes on a racist rant as Mayweather is known to do he gets kicked to the curb fairly fast.
Let's turn to the history of the sport. MMA, although it has somewhat barbaric modern origins, has existed in one form or another since the ancient Greek Olympics when it was known as pankration. It was somewhat lost to the western world, but continued in Japan as a sort of my-style-vs-yours competition. Its first reintroduction to the west began in Brazil in the early 1900s. There, a Japanese judoka introduced the Gracie family to basic judo techniques. The Gracie family built off of this foundation and began creating a martial art form which would become known as "Brazilian jiu-jitsu." The Gracies then set about testing their style against other forms of fighting, including boxing and various Japanese martial arts. In the 1990s the Gracie family introduced their martial art to the world at UFC 1 where a style vs style arrangement saw Royce Gracie and jiu-jitsu overcome much larger opponents from various Japanese styles as well as a wrestler and then top 10 boxer. While the early UFCs had sparse rules and could be described as "human cockfighting", but the need for more regulation was quickly realized and by 2003 we had the unified rules of MMA still in use today. Athletic commissions gradually began taking over drug testing and regulating responsibilities to the point that MMA is now regulated in every US state except New York and most countries.
As I said I don't expect you to read this, nor do I expect you to be open-minded enough to change your mind. Most likely you will be on my "foe" list after you do respond, but either way this will be my last post on the matter.
This is my opinion. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Class of '16