Fresh Loaf

Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir at UFC 81.

The sport of Mixed Martial Arts reaches in a landmark  on a number of levels this Saturday in Las Vegas with the pay-per-view broadcast of UFC 100. In many ways the hoopla surrounding the UFC’s one hundredth televised event is one of both a birthday party celebration and in many ways even a vindication of sorts. Not only has the sport survived years of struggle but it has grown feverishly while securing respectable and lucrative sponsorships from corporations including Harley Davidson Motorcycles and Budweiser beer for starts.

UFC 100 finds the once struggling combat sport of MMA (previously categorized as “human cockfighting” by mainstream sports media and politicians alike) and its number one brand name in that of the UFC suddenly in a position of monumental hype. And the hype is working well. It’s growing increasingly difficult all these years later to find even non-fans who have not at least heard of some the heavily marketed names within the sport. (more…)

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There’s criticism flying around in some circles that Atlanta’s first UFC event is a bit lackluster. I have witnessed some say that the card is merely a collection of former champions tossed out into the economy as nothing more than an event to keep fans occupied until the return of Randy Couture at UFC 91. Couture’s return to the cage may have threatened to steal the wind from the sails of UFC 88, but nothing could be further from the truth. Especially from a local perspective.

UFC 88 is a stacked card built of one of mixed-martial-arts most famous stars in that of Chuck Liddell.  Not to mention that massive popularity of fighters such as Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin. But in Atlanta, there’s the long history of civil rights movement and African-American fame. Especially in the sports arena. And it is this idea that paints in my mind a fact that not many seem to be acknowledging currently.

Continue reading at the Full Contact Talk site.

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Full Contact Talk caught up with Chuck Liddell and Rashad Evans as they both prepare for the headline fight this Saturday at UFC 88. Rashad says he’ll take The Iceman down at least once and that he’s not afraid of the former champion’s punching power. Meanwhile, Chuck Liddell says it will be a lot of work for Rashad to take him down and keep him there if he does so. Liddell also gives a brief response on Randy Couture’s return to the octagon, a potential future fight against Forrest Griffin and Brock Lesnar’s current state in the UFC.

Download all episodes at the Full Contact Talk site.

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It would require possibly 10 separate blog posts to fully explain the long and complex history of Mixed Martial Arts. But consider this a crash course for the curious interested in learning about the sport’s past in a quick, convenient summary.

For those not in the know, MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is an acronym for a rapidly growing combat sport that found its beginnings in 1993 when a family of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialists, known as the Gracies, hosted North America’s inaugural Mixed Martial Arts pay-per-view television event. Coined “The Ultimate Fighting Championship,” it was more or less an open challenge to martial artists of all styles from around the globe to attempt to defeat a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu specialist for a $50,000 grand prize.

Brawlers of all walks — from Sumo wrestlers to Karate experts — heeded the call, but in the end, the Gracie family dominated the event by way of one of its youngest family members at the time, Royce Gracie. Many longtime MMA fans and analysts often refer to the debut UFC event as an infomercial for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. And the event and the success of the BJJ style of fighting set the mark for future competition and laid the foundation for what we know today as professional Mixed Martial Arts.

The phenomenon America witnessed by way of Royce Gracie in Denver at the McNichols Sports Arena on Nov. 12, 1993, was a complex and historically twisted form of physical combat born from an even more confusing and international genesis. Ancient Greece, Japan, Thailand and Russia are but four of the many cultures that contributed to what MMA has evolved to in 2008. And it was originally a friendship between Scottish and Japanese immigrants in Brazil during the late 1800s that bridged the ancient Japanese fighting style of Jiu-Jitsu with the Western world, and laid the foundation for what the Gracie family unleashed on the international martial arts community in the early ’90s.

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Mixed-Martial-Arts is a sport. Yeah, you read it right. It’s a sport. Heck, it’s even a vastly popular sport. And it’s coming to Atlanta via Phillips Arena on September 6th by way of UFC 88 — which will be one of the organizations major pay per view events this year. For a large number of people, mixed-martial-arts is the primal definition of sportsmanship.

An evolved yet ancient form of hand-to-hand combat where two men of equal attributes battle one another until one falls and the other basks in the glory of cheer and admiration. And it’s every bit as much a chess match as it is a clash of fists. Often constructed from more physical intricacies than a typical team of men tossing rubber balls around, mixed-martial-arts still struggles somewhat to break through to a higher level of mainstream success where the sport is recognized by media and humanity alike as much more than just some gladiatorial blood spectacle or some sort of violent pornography.

Over the next few weeks, I will blog about the coming UFC event and serve (for lack of better words) as a local ambassador for those Fresh Loaf readers who possibly dislike or misunderstand the sport of mixed-martial-arts. Or even those curious few still sitting on the metaphorical fence. In the coming weeks leading up to the event, I hope to at least achieve the goal of transforming the often negative cliche of mixed-martial-arts and its fan base.
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