THE IRISH MARTIAL Arts Commission (IMAC) has called MMA “pornographic, sadistic and voyeuristic to its core.”It’s a statement that is frustratingly ill-informed and tinged with bitterness.
When you Google ‘UFC’, you’ll see a highlight reel of knockouts featuring the most brutal action. But mixed martial arts is more of a game of chess than a sport for brutes.
Yes, it is fighting, but it’s also a highly skilled combat sport featuring the most incredible athletes on the planet partaking in the most primal form of competition there is.
For me, I decided to do MMA training when I came to a point in my life where I felt I needed to focus on something outside of my career. I had run long-distance triathlons and ultramarathons and was of the mindset that to achieve something great, I first had to put myself through horrible pain.
I figured that I’d make a documentary about my training over the course of a year or so and sell it to a TV station (which is what I ultimately did).
I trained twice a day, six days a week for the following 12 weeks or so and watched every single aspect of my diet meticulously. While that time was both mentally stressful and tough on my body, it was also the singularly most rewarding experience of my life – and something that ultimately changed it.
More than three-and-a-half years later I still train several times a week with my mentor Owen Reddy and the rest of his team.
Safety
The tragic death of MMA fighter Joao Carvalho after a game last April focused a magnifying glass on the sport.
But when it’s regulated properly, MMA is extremely safe, and that’s something that bottom-feeding phone-in shows and attention-grabbing headlines find way too easy to ignore. Look up the statistics for yourself.
Yet MMA has been ignored by the very governing bodies in Ireland, such as IMAC, that could make it safer.
Up until just a few months ago, local promoters could stage a show without legally having to abide by the rules and regulations of the recently formed Safe MMA organisation. This meant that small local shows didn’t have to have the medical requirements that ensure the safety of fighters.
Won’t go away
Not recognising, regulating, and funding mixed martial arts in this country isn’t going to make the sport go away. When you have someone as charismatic and successful as Conor McGregor as the figurehead of a sport, people want to know more.
The Irish football team’s success in Italia ’90 resulted in the likes of Robbie Keane and Damien Duff picking up a football to emulate Kevin Sheedy and Paul McGrath; now, a different generation of potential athletes is taking up Brazilian Jujitsu, learning about movement and gaining confidence. Some might gravitate towards actual combat and tournaments, others will drift away, just like any other distracted kid playing GAA or soccer.
It demands respect
I have met lifelong friends over the past three-and-a-half years that I’ve been training at SBG Charlestown.
I have seen, first-hand, the hard work, skill and sheer love required to compete in this sport – even at the most rudimentary level. It not only instills a level of discipline unlike any other level of competition I’ve experienced, it demands the respect of your opponent.
I don’t expect many other people to progress to the level that I did to educate themselves on MMA, but I would recommend some form of research before they write MMA off as ‘barbaric’. The incredible men and women who make it their lives deserve that, at least.
Regardless of what happens in Conor McGregor’s rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 202 this coming weekend, this sport is going nowhere. More and more people will become curious, try it out and become addicted, as I did – or not.
But if those same people decide that they want to push themselves and compete, they should be allowed do so with the full backing of a funded governing body.
Mike Sheridan is the senior editor of Entertainment.ie.
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