To think Cage fighting for eight year olds

[Springyknickersohnovicars]

Should be illegal?

Children as young as six are taking up the controversial sport of "cage fighting", alarming medical experts and sports officials.

The violent sport, also known as "ultimate fighting" , combines martial arts, wrestling and boxing but with few rules often looks like little more than a brawl.

It has come over here from the states, parents are in a club, drinking, baying for the chldren to carry on fighting even when they've been hurt.

I know it is legal, and it shouldnt be IMO but what kind of "parents" want their children cage fighting? What chance have these children got in life? I wonder what should be done to protect these children?

Or do some think it's no worse than boxing?

I am rather intrigued as to how "working mans club" is suddenly morphed into "den of sin"

(We must have really boring social clubs round here, that's all I can say... most disappointing).

ive never seen working mans club so full tbh. oh except when i got married in one had reception at one- no cage fighting involved

So you didn't even give him a fighting chance

Mayorquimby

I can mate, because the journalists watched a video without actually looking at what's happening inside the octagon, there was no striking at all

Think about it, if journalists had done some basic research on the match, they wouldnt have labelled it a kids exhibition grappling match at an adult mma event, but instead they made it "kids cage fighting" and clearly we both know that people wont do their own research to see if journalists actually know what they're on about with th story, journalists can get away with a lack of research nowadays, despite google being alble to correct any flaws quickly

Kids show martial arts discipline in exhibition at MMA event. Vs Cage fighting kids

Now which is true ? And which will make headlines ? Lazy journalismi

Even the BMA got involved, and their opinion on mma is full of flawed arguments, in this case, they tol saw this as cage fighting and suggested they do judo instead! It is judo, minus the gi ..

Had the journalists correctly identified the sport, any parent with a sense of martial arts would have supported the actual sport (perhaps not the environment though)

It would be like calling the australian football league, soccer because its on a field and you kick the ball, and accepting because its got a ball and you're on a field the journalists are write

I hope people now realize grappling is a safe martial art, and that the mma cage is for safety

UK brands that get airtime, UCMMA & BAMMA, are cheap and tasteless show, UK brands like ommac and cage warriors are still underground but focus on martial arts more than the old school theme

The UfC built on a barbaric cockfighting image has transformed the sport massively

RubberDuck I dont think a childs exhibition match should have been at a cheap adult mma event

Apologies jsingh, i thought when you wrote
"
The martial art itself was branded as cage fighting via poor journalism,"

you were referring to the sport as a whole rather than this particular fight, and I was talking about the actions of UFC/Cage rage etc. who actively traded on the image of lawlessness/brutality especially in the early days for greater publicity. Obviously I misinterpreted your point

Have to admit it, after my initial gut reaction and my prejudices against 'cage fighting', even though I have never witnessed it or really know anything about it - I do think much of this is maybe over reaction and ignorance and falling to the questionable shit stirring tactics of the press. Looking at the video and hearing articulate commentators on the topic , i prefer to keep an open mind on this.

Mayorquimby, I probably could have been clearer

It doesnt help that the british public see alex reid as the face of uk mma

Watch the build up to his last fight v jason barrett, its wwe stuff, he's an average at best fighter, with a poor record, and not dedicated to the sport compared to being on tv

People like ross pearson and mike bisping should be the faces of uk mma

Begony .. When i initially saw the bbc headline i was disgusted too, but with in seconds I realized it was poor journalism creating a frenzy over something very little

"RubberDuck I dont think a childs exhibition match should have been at a cheap adult mms event" - no, I agree, but the emphasis seems to be this is at a working man's club, so therefore beyond the pale.

Personally, I don't like the idea of children's martial arts - not from a sense of horror or fear for their safety (all good reputable clubs will be very aware and take full precautions and as I've mentioned before, a good number of high-contact clubs won't allow young children at all), but because I don't think they're actually that useful until they're in their teens. So many are structured to race through a belt system really quickly that they can give kids a false sense of security.

BUT I can see they have value in self-discipline and confidence. And I definitely don't think they should be banned. And I can see how this "cage fighting" incident has been completely overblown by the press.

This was not cage fighting; this was submission grappling.

If you watch the video closely, you'll see that no punches, kicks, elbows, or knees were thrown--that's because, in a submission grappling match, strikes of any kind are not allowed. That's why the boys aren't wearing gloves; if they aren't punching, there's no more need for them to wear gloves than there is for a Olympic wrestler to wear gloves. Likewise, since they won't be taking any punches to the head, there's no need to wear headgear (although grappling without headgear can result in a cauliflower ear).

Comparing this to the Ultimate Fighting Championship isn't accurate; it's like comparing rugby to flag football. The overall games are the same, but the specific rules are very different. The North American Grappling Association's rules are much closer to what was going on:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Grappling_Association
nagafighter.com/index.php?module=rulepage

(scroll down about halfway down the page until you get to the section titled NO-GI GRAPPLING RULES)

As for the boy crying afterwards, he was crying for the same reason the boy in blue is--namely, he lost the match, and he isn't old enough to handle losing yet: