Because I turned a lot of attention to martial arts, after leaving the Witnesses, I got a lot of connections with people in the martial arts and fighting world. I have sense stopped training, after many years and black belts. I just got sick of it, and wanted to do something else. In that time, I have seen ultimate fighting go from something you saw on television to something we do in my own town. About a year ago, I got a call from my old sensei, saying that he needed some judges and wanted to pull in some of his old black belts to judge. Now keep in mind, when I was into martial arts, I did it for the skill, the discipline, and the knowledge. I did not enjoy the actual harming of another person, unless it was defense and even then, that was not something that brought be joy either. So to me, the skill was to be respected. So I go down to judge and this is my first time seeing ultimate fighting first hand. I was judging with a five other people, men and woman. We are next to a cage and people come in and fighting one another. They do not use boxing gloves, they use gloves that basically looking like bicycle gloves with a small amount of padding at the knuckles (I stress small). The rules are basically ...
1. No strikes to the grown
2. No strikes to the back of the head or spine
The winner is decided by ...
1. Knock out
2. Submission
3. Tapping out (When you give up)
4. Ref Calls it, something wrong
5. Judge decision at end of 3-5 round.
You might think this sounds harmless. A little boxing match, right? Wrong. I watched people come into the ring and just get the crap beat out of them. One guy got knocked out, so hard the paramedics were trying to revive him, he was having a seizure on the ground and threw up. Another man bleed so bad from his nose that there was a puddle of blood about two feet wide in seconds. Saw three arms broken, one jaw, a couple arms come out of socket, and ribs broken. Woman were fighting too. One girl took a hit to the stomach so hard, I could not image that would not have her dealing with medical issue for years and another got knocked out and sent to the hospital. It was like watching "gladiators", the audience loved the blood and pain, and cheered for more. People got hurt, they yelled louder.
I have now judged six events. Finally a month ago, I stopped. I got so sick of it. It just seemed to be, not human. I can not believe how much blood I saw, throw up, and even one person pissing their paints because they were in so much pain. Now, I hate to suggest laws to regulate things. I do, however, understand why so many states are trying to ban this kind of fighting. Some cities in the west, have already put city bans in place. Which means people just do it in the next town.
What do you think of this fighting, do you like it? I suspect some do, as the matches have huge attendance. I also bet, many people never heard of this before or even knew what it was about.