The sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) has come a long way since the UFC brought it to the public eye in 1993. Gone are the days of groin punching as a method of winning a fight. Regulatory bodies have defined the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts in order to properly represent MMA as a legitimate sport and keep athletes safe. However, a dark cloud still looms over MMA as a whole; negative connotations and the inherent violent nature of the sport keep it from currently achieving the same level of popularity as football and soccer. But the shadows of MMA's past also have far-reaching implications on a smaller scale. I would like to tackle an issue that I have encountered as a direct result of MMA's reputation.
I am a graduate student researcher as a reputable university, and as most people do, I wanted to join a sports club here to keep myself sane. There are several martial arts clubs here, but nothing for the MMA enthusiast. I've strayed away from traditional martial arts clubs because of a lack of focus on practical techniques and just a disillusionment of the belt systems, but that's a discussion for another time. Because of this, I decided to try and form my own martial arts club/organization on campus, going through the application process and writing up the materials needed for the club to be legitimate.
Nearing the end of the application process, I was asked to come in for an interview to discuss the club's objectives and plans. It is important to note that within the application materials I stated that this club would be non-contact (with the exception of hitting pads) in order to foster a safe environment for training. Despite my reassurances that there would be no contact, I was informed that my MMA club would not be allowed to use campus space because of a potential liability in the event of an injury, and that the university did not want to be associated with a violent sport.
Needless to say I was rather taken aback by this decision. Other martial arts clubs on campus were allowed contact sparring, so why couldn't mine? I called the administrative body in charge of making these decisions and I was told that even though I was only intending for people to come train the techniques without contact (as ridiculous as that may sound), the term MMA was associated with too much violence. So now I have an MMA club that cannot meet anywhere, and only really exists on paper.
To be honest, I didn't really expect the idea of an MMA club to work considering none had existed before I got here, and there were bound to be some other MMA enthusiasts who had the same idea. But what really irks me about this whole experience is how little people know about MMA and how much they fear it. This sentiment is surprising to me, especially coming from a rather progressive university. To me, this raises a red flag that tells me people still are not comfortable with MMA, even with the meteoric rise of popularity with Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor bringing the UFC into the mainstream.
As a scientist, I am often advocating for bringing science to the public so that they can understand what is happening in research labs at a greater level than what they see on the news or in sensationalized titles on the Science subreddit. This same level of advocacy needs to happen for MMA if it is ever going to become accepted as much as traditional martial arts or any other sport. The road will not be easy; the violent imagery of MMA evokes too many negative emotions for the general public, and it will be quite the undertaking to make people look past it and recognize our beautiful sport.
