Extreme Fighting A Sport?

Geez, the Sac Bee has written about some local cat in the sports section a few times and today there's a feature in the scene section on another extreme fighter, caged fighter, whatever.

What are we doing here? Two guys or women get locked in the ring and anything goes until one guy/gal looks like hamburger. Arenas are packed. Women look like they want to stuff money in the guys' trunks.

I think Russell Crowe and the lions in the movie Gladiator.

Is this sport or do sports sections have to appeal to the lowest common denominator to attract readers?

James Raia
www.byjamesraia.com

 

If boxing is a sport, mixed martial arts fighting is a sport.

 

Like SC said, I'm not sure MMA is that different from boxing ...

 

I guess they're choosing to appeal to MMA fans over people who boycott proper grammar when they're making their prejudicial and loaded statements.

 

It's more of a sport than cheerleading.

 

Good call, desk warrior. There's always someone out there who can't have fun.
MMA, boxing, it all seems like American Gladiator with perhaps Vince McMahon doing the announcing. Covered Olympic Boxing Trials a couple of times. Punches are counted. Headgear is used. Seems about right.

 

This is not a question that is in any dispute.

 

Ding ding ding!

MMA is the wave of the future. It's kicking boxing's ass in every way possible.

 

The Saturday night show on CBS drew a whopping 8,000 to the Prudential Center in Newark.
Even the Devils draw better than that.

 

Yeah, but this was about TV:

http://www.observer.com/2008/kimbo-slice-and-mma-helps-cbs-rack-big-demo-numbers

"Fights" scored a 1.9 rating/6 share in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, according to preliminary Nielsen numbers. In men 18-34, the battles did a 2.6/10, 271% better than CBS' demo average in that time period (9-11 p.m.) during the entire 2007-08 season.

 

1.9/6 and 2.6/10 is still pretty low...and that's in their target demo.
I'm guessing the overall was 1.5 or lower, same as every 9-11 pm CBS Saturday.

 

There are plenty of boxing shows, that, without title fights, draw less than 8,000. For a sport that has been built up from scratch and has only been around not even 20 years, that's a pretty good crowd.