another wildly inaccurate article, but this time it’s from my corner of the world. has great bits like “It’s madness. If this was the animal world, the RSPCA would come down on you like a ton of bricks”, “pound and ground” and claiming that MMA events have been here since 2007, whereas we’ve actually been having regular, small events since the 90’s.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/cage-rage-coming-here/2009/10/10/1255019652968.html
“It’s madness. If this was the animal world, the RSPCA would come down on you like a ton of bricks,”
People keep saying that. But people are fully able to express the fact that they want to get in a cage and fight. Not to mention it’s hardly to the death, like many animal fighting rings are (i believe).
If this was the animal word we’d have Tigers with TapoutT and other sponsors covering their fur training several hours a day and fighting every couple of months for big fight purses.
Doesn’t sound like the RSPCA would have much to do really.
That article sounds like something out of the Daily Mail (The UK guys will know what I’m on about). Typical knee-jerk reaction to something ‘new’.
Competitors are permitted to pin an opponent to the floor and punch or elbow them into unconsciousness in a move known as “pound and ground”. UFC rules explicitly ban fighters avoiding contact, faking injury or throwing in the towel, while the absence of a blood rule often leaves the octagon looking more like an abattoir.
and 2) No they do not ban throwing in the towel… is this guy just making shit up?
If I’m not mistaken, the rule goes along the lines of “no object may be thrown into the ring from either corner” (something like that). This rule doesn’t ban throwing in the towel. It enforces it. Once the corner throws the towel in the ring, they are essentially saying “please penalize my fighter so that this bout will no longer continue.” So, yes, throwing in the towel is banned, just as it is banned in boxing.
Right, but that doesn’t seem to be what the author is implying with his mention of abattoirs and such.
elvis sinosic has responded to the article.
http://www.watchkalibrun.com/2009/10/13/1084325/australian-mma-star-elvis-sinosic
at this stage, i think it’s important that MMA doesn’t get a lot of bad press over here. the general public has no idea what MMA is, and i’d hate to see the first impression ruined by more badly researched articles.
I know what you mean. I get the impression that he watched one round on the night before press-day and knocked up a sensationalist piece without even bothering to google it. Typical, lazy tat that gives journalism a bad name, not to mention the subject matter.
Nice post Danno, +rep
It was good to read Sinosic tearing the writer apart, he was surprisingly more articulate for a cage fighter with “inevitable brain injury” lol.
Honestly though, does sensationalism really rule Australia’s free media?
“pound and ground” WTF mate?
Track and field = human dog racing.
despite warnings that US-style cage fighting will fuel more violence on the city’s streets.
I would like to do something violent to whoever made that ridiculous warning.
Funny how in the US as the popularity of MMA has surged, our violent crime has dropped http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5504OD20090601
I’m not saying there is a connection, just that whoever made that warning is a fucking idiot.
Theres so much rot in that article i refuse to reread it to point it out.
The worst part is that these reporters did a 30 minute interview with a famous Muay Thai television announcer (Hammer) for this article and didn’t quote him once.
to be fair…
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=LearnUFC.Rules
list of fouls:
This is a country that doesn’t even allow blood in video games. Blood in real life must be mind blowing.
Uhm Australian rules football or Rugby WTF?
Have they ever seen one of those? I would much rather go a few rounds of MMA then play one of those sports.
The hypocrisy of man is outstanding these days. I can’t do that sport so no one should be able to do that sport. Look if people were dieing left and right doing MMA and I would be one of the first to say ban it. This is just not the case. The injury rate is just as high as any athletic endeavor.
Someone just didn’t pay the right politician off so he got his lackeys to write bad shit about it.
blood is allowed, but we don’t have an 18+ rating system for games. it only goes up to “mature audiences up to 15 years old”. basically the politicians think that games are only played by children, and the content needs to reflect that.
so - no hardcore sex scenes, no illicit drug use, and a certain level of violence is not accepted. for example, left 4 dead was fine. left 4 dead 2 may be banned because of the close contact chainsaw stuff. it’s fucking rediculous.
still, surprisingly few games get banned here.
I guess the Grand Theft Auto series was part of those few games?
In any case, is this writer/publication a big enough deal in Australia to actually affect public opinion? Will it actually impede the development of MMA in Australia?
When was this article published? I can’t believe I missed it! I am a regular contributer to the Sydney Morning Herald and this is exactly the type of thing I enjoy tearing apart.
nope, you can buy those games. it’s pretty rare that a game actually gets banned here. often the developers will make a couple of small changes to get it passed through.
fallout 3 was going to be banned, but the developers just changed the names of some of the drugs or something and all was well.
we really need an 18+ rating here. we’ve got the same rating system for everything except games.
it’s a pretty popular newspaper. as i was saying before, this may be the first impression of MMA for many people here, and that’s really worrying.