A Case for Olympic MMA

I am getting chills as I start typing this blog, watching the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Games taking place in London, Great Britain. What an honor it is to have the opportunity to represent your country in a sport you have been passionate about since you took your first steps.

The Olympics is truly a special time for many people around the world. The Games can give someone, some amateur (or pro if we are talking about the basketball), the chance to perform in front of millions worldwide and in front of their loved ones.

One of my personal favorite things about watching the Olympics is to see the vast amount of martial arts covered during the Games. From the Westernized styles of Boxing and Folk-style wrestling, to the Japanese inspired art of Judo, martial arts have left their mark in the Olympics for decades. Who is to say that we could, oh I don’t know, possibly merge all of these arts into one form of combat, allowing any athlete to use martial arts best acquitted to their physical stature (see what I did there?).  My point is this: why not have MMA be represented in the Olympics?

Now hear me out on this. I am totally aware of the potential dangers of fighting in tournaments with such a condensed amount of time, but skeptics said the same thing about MMA thriving past its infant years.  People like Dana White and the Fertitta bros adopted different rules to benefit the safety of the fighters in the UFC, so why not do the same for potential MMA events in the Olympics. The current pro-style formats, for those who are not too familiar with the sport, include 3 separate 5-minute rounds, with a 1-minute rest in between each round for non-title fights (A championship bout would contain 5 five-minute rounds).  Instead of these prolonged rounds, it could be reasonable just to have fighters perform in 3 2-minute rounds in a tournament style format.

As far as padding goes, most MMA fights just require fighters to wear 4-ounce, open thumb gloves. MMA in the Olympics could adopt the same protective precautions just as boxing did, where the fighters would wear 8-ounce gloves, along with shin pads and (potentially) head gear. As for the size of the tournament brackets, that would be up for debate. On the one hand, each weight class cannot be represented by a minimal amount of competitors – say, an 8-man bracket.

A lot of intricate planning would have to be devoted to making this event a serious, yet entertaining, spectacle to watch. There would obviously be plenty more skeptics resenting this idea, simply because there is too great a risk for this sport to ever occur in the Olympics. Yes, the Olympics only last for roughly two and a half weeks, and this is definitely a short time to allow a tournament to take place, but if there is a will there is a way.  I, for one, would definitely love at least the chance to represent my country in the Olympic Games in a sport I have been passionate about since I was a wee lad.

Classy JP

Why hockey needs fights

Video games can teach so much. I’ve learned of countless athletes throughout the years thanks to playing Madden, MLB The Show and NBA Live, to name a few games. I learned what on-field strategies work and how to build a successful franchise. My most recent lesson taught me the necessity of punching an opponent’s face. It keeps players healthy.

I started watching hockey three years ago on a recommendation from Coach Tom. Never interested before, I was amazed at how similar the game was to soccer. The game is all about passing, spacing and timing.

While the ratio of players/field size remains similar, hockey differs from soccer in that much smaller spaces are fought for. Corner kicks aside, soccer teams do not load the box with attackers trying to shield the goalie. Also, soccer defenders are not allowed to commit felony batteries to attackers standing in front of the goal as hockey defenders are allowed to do to opponents planted in the slot.

Hockey is a turf war. While soccer players are able to score from distance, hockey players rarely score from deep. The substantially lower goal size/goalie size in hockey demands pinpoint accuracy. Pinpoint accuracy demands close range. Close range demands turf wars.

As any Crip can tell you, big bad men win turf wars. Big bad men, by nature, beat up smaller men.

Back to video games. I own NHL 2012 and play it constantly. Something I’ve realized is that real NHL players don’t crush each other nearly as much as they could. Real life trips to the corner boards rarely end in the crushing hits I lay on Xbox. Part of that is because it hurts crushing people. But the biggest reason is because real NHL players know a crushed opponent means a crushed teammate.

NHL players believe in tit-for-tat. Your big, bad man hits my smaller skill player? Well my big, bad man is going to hit your skill player.

However, the problem is that hockey players never feel even. They are Isreal and Palestine. The only difference is that hockey players know how to solve their foreign relations problems. They fight. 

A few exchanged shots to the suckhole achieves catharsis. Rather than trading cheap shots throughout the game, hockey players simply match up their big, bad men and get it over with. The enforcer collects the frustration of his team and unleashes it on the ugly brute in front of him.

Fighting ensures that the game is played properly. By taking a minute to switch to boxing, the hockey player flushes the pent up frustration and gets the game back to pure hockey