MMA is not a sport. Punching someone in the face is not something that is fun, and it is not a “sporting” thing to do. It is not fun for the person punching, and it is definitely not fun for the person getting punched. It is only fun for the individual watching all of this.
BJJ is a sport. Wrestling is a sport. Boxing is not a sport. An event cannot be a sport when your opponent is trying to change your life. Can you really call an activity a sport when you’re trying to hurt someone? MMA is not just about physical performance, it’s called “the hurt business” for a reason.
I also hate when people compare the pay scale of sports like basketball, football and baseball to MMA. People that fight professionally should get paid a lot more than they do now. – Especially the people that fight at the highest level.
Let me get a little fancy and cultured and tell you a story about Picasso.
OK, so Picasso was walking in a park in Paris, and a lady sees him and recognizes him, she runs up to him and says “Oh my God Picasso, I can’t believe its you. I follow you on instagram. I’m your biggest fan. Yadda, yadda yadda. ” And Picasso maintains his cool and thanks the lady for her support. Then the lady asks, “Can you draw a sketch for me?” She almost faints when Picasso answers “Yes” – OMG this is unbelievable.
So Picasso is doing his thing, and he starts drawing a sketch of this woman. He finishes his drawing and shows it to the lady, and the woman is super excited. She says “How much do I owe you for the sketch” Picasso in no uncertain terms looks at her and says “5000 francs Madam”. And back in the day that was like a million bucks. So this lady is livid now, and she says “5000 francs? That only took you 10 minutes” and Picasso replies “No Madam, It took me my whole life” – I think I at least got the last quote right
You see, mastery is the name of the game. Mastery gets paid. So when a referee tells a two-time BJJ world champion to stand up after another man is trying to change his life, I have a problem with that. The referee does not respect the man’s mastery. See my rant about refs here
In conclusion
I like to call MMA, boxing, and Muay Thai fights. They are sports to people that are on the outside looking in, but I totally separate them from the ball and bat sports. And while some people may argue that MMA is a sport because there are rules that the fighters should follow. I push back against that and say, those rules get broken so many times- sometimes on accident, sometimes on purpose. The protect yourself at all times rule, makes MMA not a sport. I love MMA, Its entertaining, Its artistic, Its visceral, but not a sport
The “how to be a complete Mixed Martial artist” infographic is unbroken. Check it out here