It may seem ironic to the casual observer uninterested in mixed martial arts, but MMA fighters are spearheading a revival of what I believe has become a lost concept in professional sports: respectful behavior and sportsmanship.
What Senator John McCain once called a "blood sport" and led efforts to ban is now becoming a form of global spectator pastime, thanks to the efforts of
Dana White's UFC, Japan's now-defunct PRIDE and other organizations. Mixed martial arts did in fact have dubious beginnings more than ten years ago as bloody cage fights with more than its fair share of questionable and gruesome late stoppages, mismatches, and business problems. However, White has led the transformation of domestic mixed martial arts into an exciting and respectable competitive sporting event which, while not completely embraced by the American mainstream, is one of the most rapidly-growing sports and realistically threatens to completely supplant pro boxing and wrestling as the king of pay-per-view receipts.
One of the most ironic aspects of a fighting sport with negative (and exaggerated) connotations of fighters beating one another senseless is the high level of sportsmanship demonstrated by the fighters in the UFC and other major fighting organizations. Part of this is owed to White's and others' efforts to clean up the sport with consistent rules enforced by state-sanctioned referees, but it's the mutual respect for one another displayed by participants of this combat sport that separates it from professional basketball, football or other sports where athletes earn a king's ransom simply for signing a contract and wearing a jersey. In addition to the efforts to legitimize MMA with unified rules and state-sanctioned events that require fighters to be medically licensed, the backgrounds of many fighters include the ancient disciplines of Asian martial arts in one form or another, as well as competitive college wrestling. Very few professional mixed martial artists have no background or training in one of these two, and this easily explains why mixed martial artists fighting in the UFC and elsewhere today demonstrate a respect for the rules, the sport, the audience, the referee, and their opponents. As soon as the final round ends, many fighters embrace in solidarity out of mutual respect for the sacrifices made in this ultimate form of athletic competition. While those who criticize the sport and attack it as McCain did (he has since revised his position somewhat) may call it a "blood sport", they fail to see the irony of the excellent example of good sportsmanship set by the participants. Mutual respect; the sport is what it is, it is nothing personal, and when it all ends, it's only a competition. The examples classy fighters set by treating one another with dignity is a great lesson for everyone.
Perhaps this phenomenon is owed to the relative youth of the sport in its current form; many organizations, including UFC, still spend nearly all their revenue trying to grow the sport and bring it to a bigger audience, and as a result professional fighting athletes in MMA aren't yet saddled with more money than they know what to do with. Hence, perhaps they are not spoiled by riches and hype and adulation in the same way as athletes in other professional sports.
Perhaps I'm wrong altogether, but for the time being I'm happy to see the fine examples of sportsmanship set by respectful, compassionate fighters like UFC's
Clay Guida, George St. Pierre, or
Anderson Silva, all of whom make a clear distinction between competition and personal conflict. If more of the sport's critics actually took the time to watch a fight free on Spike TV some time, they'd be too busy thereafter watching every PPV event religiously to have anything to complain about. It's a great sport with great people, and with proper management it will continue to just get better.
