Why Mixed Martial Arts is better the Boxing Essay

Why Mixed Martial Arts is better the Boxing - Essay Example The Brazilian Top Team has emerged as the most successful in the history of MMA (Sheridan, 92), closely followed by the American Top Team based in Florida (Sheridan, 112). On the other hand, boxing {decidedly better than the transparently put up fights by the exponents of professional wrestling} which was until recently the most avid followed aggressive sport in the country has slipped badly due to a variety of factors. Gone are the days when excited spectators thronged the route to the stadium, while those within the stadium paid homage to their boxing heroes like biblical masses (Rendall, 7). Boxing has now been reduced to preening, pompous gaited, one-dimensional public exhibitionists (Rendall, 29). People have traditionally been attracted to a sport that involves realistic, blood splattering aggression. In ancient times, the coliseums of Rome used to be filled to capacity during fights involving trained gladiators battling for their lives with swords, tridents, chains, nets, daggers and clubs {the recent Hollywood film The Gladiator starring Russell Crowe was a huge hit}. The famed bullfights of Spain where death-defying matadors take on massive bulls are a prime sport in that country, and a must-to-watch for those visiting it. Watching realistic, blood-spurting, spectacular fights stirs the caveman’s instinct within us as nothing else does. With its unique shock and awe approach, MMA satisfies the blood lust craving in sport. It is a ‘rough, rough’ sport where toughness is a vital ingredient (Sheridan, 48). It presents viewers with spectacular violence involving fights during which blood is splattered liberally and profusely, and where even limbs are broken frequently (Peterson) {the crab scissors throw or body scissors are the deadly techniques used to do this [Scott, 2]} as the fighters battle each other in an arena hemmed with black fencing ominously called