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MMA’s Sporting Double Standard
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Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 4:17 am
by Danny Acosta
The obfuscation of mixed martial arts’ safety is nothing new to its fans, however, a recent report about the dangers of cheerleading raises another fact anti-MMA crusader and New York State Assemblyman Bob Reilly is likely to ignore: MMA is safer for the little girls of the world than cheerleading.
Remember the high school experience and a cheerleader on crutches is more likely to come to mind than a wrestler. It’s even a teen movie cliche that one of the uniformed bunch has a busted leg or a imminent bone snap from a cheerleading accident. But because cheerleading is part of Americana, and therefore understood on some level, it won’t be attacked, while rejecting mixed martial arts has become a standard for the mainstream.
The difference is purely aesthetic. It may look pretty, but the consequences of cheerleading are ugly. MMA–to the untrained viewer–appears to be base yet its danger is more assumed than the real blunt force trauma that comes from falling ten feet in the air completely unprotected. Jacob “Stitch” Duran goes on record frequently asserting the cuts that spill blood in the Octagon are superficial wounds. And again, the grappling component of MMA, which makes it safer than the concussive blows of boxing, is more of a momentary threat than a prolonged headache.
Every year American high school sports such as cheerleading and football bring about severe injuries or fatalities. Recounting MMA’s major in-action devastation, there are two anomalies in Tim Sylvia’s arm snapping against Frank Mir and Cory Hill’s leg snap versus Dale Hartt. That’s forgetting Renzo Gracie’s prideful popped arm resulting his own refusal to tap. There have only been two deaths in the sport’s history, Douglas Dedge and Sam Vasquez, both due to untreated or unknown existing medical conditions–unrelated to MMA itself. The collective injury record of MMA in North America since its November 10, 1993 debut–and in those days, it wasn’t monitored, thus it was far more dangerous than it is now–seems to be far emptier than high school’s yearly ledger.
State oversight makes MMA one of two sports (boxing the other) to be regulated by the government. If a fighter is caught with steroids, they are typically banned from competing for a year. This year Major League Baseball, star hitter and potential Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez was caught for steroids and is serving a 50-game suspension. He’ll miss roughly three months–a quarter of the time of an MMA fighter with far less financial backlash. For all its drug testing, MMA’s steroid roster over the last decade couldn’t reach professional baseball’s 2003 bust of 104 players if multiplied. Yet baseball is played everyday, at every age, without a second look and is not banned in any state unlike MMA. Factor in professional wrestling’s open reign across the U.S. despite its ungodly death rate and the argument against MMA feels draconian.
The fact is MMA’s most significant injuries have come outside competition–Frank Mir and Will Ribeiro’s tragic motorcycle accidents for starters.
It’s ban is simply a matter of misinformation and an unwillingness to learn, which should be alarming to voters that there is such a great resistance to a sport that would bolster the flailing economy on a state, national, even international level. From a political perspective, the sport of mixed martial arts is a scapegoat as easy as minorities or marijuana. It’s the video game of sports–a way for softball politicians to appear productive and advance their careers with vapid issues while suppressing real treatments for societal ills.
Politicians love to protect the kids, especially little girls, so take the aggression directed toward mixed martial arts and employ that energy into fixing the cheerleading issue while lifting the MMA ban, which will allow young women to explore other sports–less dangerous competitions–and become the next Gina Carano, Erin Toughill, Meisha Tate, Sarah Kaufman or Rosi Sexton. Champion the true characteristics of MMA like discipline and honor rather than instill the sport with false truths that would repel youth from engaging in a positive venture. The world’s current state of affairs cannot afford to sacrifice any positive avenue for children.
This is all a moot point considering MMA’s opposition is set, but I guess I’m just an MMA cheerleader. Thankfully I don’t have to devise any choregraphed cheers to inspire anyone to do anything. Frank Mir’s post-fight speech after defeating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira says it louder than I ever could.
“To come back and fight the best heavyweight to ever fight in the UFC and get a win over him after what I’ve gone through, it just shows… I’m proof you can do things. I didn’t think I could beat Nogueira. If I was a betting man, I wasn’t on Mir’s side tonight.” — Frank Mir, who thought he would never fight again due to a rehabilitating motorcycle accident, after defeating Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 92.
Blog. Out.
www.fightmagazine.com/acosta
Email:danny.acosta@fightmagazine.com
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18 Responses to “MMA’s Sporting Double Standard”
Leave a Reply
Man-o-man do you have this way wrong…check your stats brother.
http://www.cheersafety.org/2009/06/cheerleading-and-media-again-again.html
I’m not saying that one is more dangerous than the other - but don’t trounce cheerleading for your gain.
The most dangerous sports out there are football, hockey, and gymnastics, followed by lacrosse and wrestling according to this study you undoubtedly got your info from.
As a cheerleading coach I kind of feel like we (MMA & CHEERLEADING) while not similar in activity, are in the same boat. Both wanting acceptance for what we generally know to be a safe, fun, character building activity.
May both sports gain the respect they deserve.
This is an interesting post for me as I spent much of my youth studying various forms of martial arts only to move into the realm of cheerleading as a freshman in high school. I disagree with this post, I think there are inherent dangers with each sport, and ways to avoid them. I don’t think either sport should be “banned” per say, but I think regulation should be strictly enforced.
For example, I believe pretty strongly that a large number of the cheerleading related injuries that occur are because of under qualified coaches, and administrators who don’t take the proper steps to have their coaches certified. I live in the state of california and coach at a public high school. The default certification for cheerleading coaches at high school and college level is AACCA (American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators), but the certification is tied to a person and not directly to the persons relationship with the school. What this means is that the school cannot, BY SCHOOL LAW, pay for coaches to get certified. CRAZY!
I will be the first to admit that potential for risk in cheerleading is very high. We do a lot of difficult tricks that could end up in serious injuries. However, I would also point out that there are ton of inherent risks in MMA as well. Throws, slams, elbows and knees provide high impact on potentially dangerous parts of the body. The way this has been solved in MMA has been by creating specific rules to prevent too serious an injury, and training refs to protect their fighters.
What I guess it boils down to is that I don’t believe that either of these sports is more “dangerous’ than the other. I think both have risks and it is very important that we take steps to mitigate those risks and proliferate each sport so that more people can get involved.
I don’t really see how balking about how unsafe cheerleading is makes MMA any safer. But check out this article regarding how cheerleading injury statistics are put together: http://www.cheersafety.org/2009/06/cheerleading-and-media-again-again.html
…its danger is more assumed than the real blunt force trauma that comes from falling ten feet in the air completely unprotected…
Who is “falling” from 10 feet “unprotected”? Basket tosses are an advanced skill, and so advanced members only should be doing them. I don’t know of any bases (outdated youtube videos excluded) that would toss their flier then leave her unprotected.
…It’s ban is simply a matter of misinformation and an unwillingness to learn…
Wow, this sounds familiar. Almost like something that could be said regarding cheerleading injuries and their “statistics”.
…Thankfully I don’t have to devise any choregraphed cheers to inspire anyone to do anything.
So, cheerleading is horribly dangerous, and also not anything more then coreographed cheers? Are all cheerleaders airheads too?
CheerAlum: I was going based on the information based on the report (hot link available at the top of the blog that says “recent report.” I’m not trying to trounce cheerleading by any stretch. And I personally don’t have any gain from trashing it. I think that’d be a waste of time as is most negative energy. My blog was more geared about accepting MMA since we already accept more dangerous activities like football, cheerleading etc. which I mentioned in the blog.
Zachary Cohen: I agree I don’t think there is a more inherit risk in either (as I said, I was just going based off the report I saw on Yahoo)and both should be regulated.
April: I never said basket tosses don’t require skill. Someone can fall 10 feet in the air if they aren’t caught though just like someone’s arm can break if they don’t tap, which I mentioned regarding Renzo Gracie. My point with that quoted sentence is MMA looks dangerous, while cheerleading, throwing someone in the air, doesn’t look dangerous because we’re conditioned to accept that the person IS protected and will be caught. Choreographed cheers are just part of cheerleading; I never said that was the only part of it. I just chose that part of it to make my point that Frank Mir’s post-fight speech says a lot more about the character of MMA than I can, even if I took the time and effort to devise a captivating, say, cheer, that would be inspire people to act a certain way. I don’t think cheerleaders are airheads.
Thanks for all the feedback and schooling me on cheerleading folks.
Danny,
Glad you were willing to hear the cheer people out. :^) As was noted by everyone, including you, we have far more in common than you might think. But believe me as far as established accepted high risk activities go, cheer is still getting a hard time and really can’t be included in the list with football etc. I can’t recall the last time people and the media were up in arms over football or hockey safety. For whatever reason, the media just finds us to be a “sexy” story to chase after in its own twisted and badly reported way.
At any rate, I hope that both of our sports will gain in positive recognition and respect. Please take some small comfort in knowing that there are other athletic endeavors out there suffering from the same misperceptions and bizarre media frenzy as yours is.
Good luck!
Coach ~Jen
I hooked up with a cheerleader once. She was cute, but man she couldn’t give any …
wait a sec. -rewind-
I like the stuff you’re pointing our here Acosta dude. Not many folks would seriously, and effectively, be quick to make a case that cheerleading could be just as dangerous as MMA. If one wrong move is taken in either event it could definitely be detrimental.
Judging by the other comments, you could be onto something even greater and more creative here. Keep it up.
Oh. I’ll take my cheer now.
Bear,
Wait til my next blog: MMA fighters who would make great male cheerleaders. GSP anyone?
Great blog Danny. My youngest daughter who is 15 (and a stage IV cancer survivor) loves MMA and has been participating in the sport for 3 years. I must say all of the organization we have dealt with MMA have some of the best safety policies in sports period! As child safety advocate I have found it refreshing to see the industry leaders putting safety first! Keep up the great work.
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http://www.alexslemonade.org/newsroom/heroes/amanda-janaye-white
There’s good info here. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog. Keep up the good work mate!
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