Opinion: New York Assembly’s Theater of the Absurd
Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.
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Finally, mixed martial arts events will take place in the Empire State.
However, the wide range of opinions from assembly members makes you
realize how niche the relatively young sport remains, regardless of
how big the sport is becoming.
“Nearly naked, hot men rolling around.”
That’s a bizarre assessment that came from the mouth of Daniel J. O’Donnell. Somehow, he drew a line to “gay porn with a different ending” because, that makes sense. Fighting equals gay sex. Right on.
Charles Barron opposed the bill and referred to American slavery and brain trauma as the key reasons. Obviously, he never watched football or boxing. And for a progressive who is an advocate of African American history and heritage being recognized, it’s hard to see where the parallels are between slavery and MMA. Apparently, the idea that fighters are competing in a cage is an abomination.
Ellan Jaffee suggested that fighters are “maimed, or sometimes killed” and that the “violent nature” opposes an anti-violence message. Again, boxing isn’t a problem.
There are still people who believe that legalizing mixed martial arts competition in New York would lead children to attempt to replicate these dangerous moves in the schoolyard. I don’t know about you, but there’s a bunch of stuff you can watch on YouTube that is far worse than anything you’ll see in MMA. A twisted mind is a twisted mind and MMA isn’t going to make that mind any worse. But, for the sake of the argument, shouldn’t we ban video games, violent movies, pro wrestling and just about anything were two people hit each other? Hell, Tom & Jerry is pretty damn violent, but I never wanted to smash my childhood friends over the head with a mallet.
But Catherine Nolan knows that cartoons are not real life and pointed that out during her addressing of the bill.
“It’s a real person, a real human life, perhaps, from a poor background, finding his or her way out of that background the only way they know how -- with their fists,” Nolan, a democrat from the 37th district stated. “A person who is easily exploited because they perhaps don’t have the education, who look for that one in a million dollar.”
Somebody should have told her that there are many college-educated athletes who compete in mixed martial arts. They aren’t always from impoverished confines seeking to resolve things with their fists. They aren’t being exploited. They are making a choice to compete. Honestly, MMA falls far down the list of sports that are picked up by poor people. A little research would have helped her come to that conclusion.
Patricia Fahy and several others suggested that we should put “brains first” before legalizing. That’s kind of putting the cart before the horse, right? As long as football exists and the object of the game is to run full speed into the guy holding the ball, this suggestion is rather moot.
Ultimately, what you realize is that mixed martial arts is still a sport that a whole lot of people don’t understand. All they see is two people fighting in a cage and their perception is that this is a sport for savages. They look at a situation like the one with War Machine and believe that domestic violence is an issue that runs wild in MMA. But, you know, football has really had its fair share of domestic issues. Do you blame the sport or the individual?
Many fighters didn’t grow up beating people up for sport. The entire concept of martial arts was for self-defense and to only be used if someone is attacking you. And the attacker is most likely lacking the discipline that martial arts instill in an individual.
Fortunately, the bill was passed and New York will get their fair share of MMA events. If you don’t like the idea of mixed martial arts, that’s fine. But just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean that you ban the sport.
Is it violent? Yes. But so is America. And there are more important things to worry about than two individuals who choose to compete in a cage. If you don’t like it, don’t watch. But don’t try to prevent it from happening. Like it or not, that’s not the American way.
Andreas Hale is the editorial content director of 2DopeBoyz.com, co-host of the boxing, MMA and pro wrestling podcast “The Corner” and a regular columnist for Sherdog.com. You can follow on Twitter for his random yet educated thoughts on combat sports, music, film and popular culture.
