Fedor Dismisses Brutality

In a video interview brought to blogosphere attention by MMAFighting’s Michael David Smith, noted enigma Fedor Emelianenko comments on the perceived brutality of his chosen profession.

“This sport is not brutal, but very interesting,” he says. “It includes all types of martial arts. Everything that all men do, all that attracts them to martial arts, is contained here in mixfight. It can be tough, but not cruel."

But it is exactly that -- a cruel, unforgiving sport that treats its participants like telephone poles treat accelerating cars. It’s a form of consensual brutality, sure: where violence typically denotes an unwilling party, fighters recognize the trouble they can find themselves in. But you cannot look at a ring canvas after 10 fights and call it abstract art. There’s nothing abstract about it.

What I don’t follow is the need for the sport’s supporters to homogenize things. Fighters are sliced open -- sometimes to the bone -- concussed, frequently injured, and otherwise put through a physical gauntlet that would alarm a trauma center. Mercifully, the damage is nominally regulated to superficial wounds, not the kind of life-rattling punishment suffered by boxers. (Watching a Spike broadcast of “Facing Ali” this week, with the number of retired punchers who needed subtitles to be understood, was maddening.) But it’s still a hurt business. Nothing wrong with acknowledging it.