Thursday, October 23, 2003|
Found in the inside of our closet door: 11:47:12 PM |
Illustrated directons on how to knot a necktie. In German.
Detail. 
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I guess "Ultimate Fighting" has finally made it to the big time: here it is on the cover of the Times-Picayune. Seems there are a number of bars offering "tough men" the opportunity to fight for cash on a moment's notice, including a bar owned by the gym we trained at down here last spring, Ancona's. The world is full of surprises. 4:59:11 PM | My husband and I met in karate class in the mid-90s. Our gym was tough. Really. We studied Shidokan which bills itself as the "triathlon of martial arts" because it features bare-knuckle karate, Thai kick-boxing, and grappling. Actually, we did more than just study. I ended up earning my black belt, fighting in a couple of bare-knuckle, full-contact tournaments, and corner-judging a number of matches (and reffing one, for that matter). My husband won a professional tourney in Florida after fighting in a few amateur ones along the way. Unlike the so-called "ultimate fights" happening in bars across Louisiana (and a number of other states), all of the tournaments we fought in required fighters to apply with a doctor's note authorizing their health, and there were EMTs and/or doctors at ring side. At the fights involving kickboxing, an ambulance waited in the alley. It's not that ultimate fighting is more dangerous than other sports; in many ways, it's not. No doubt more people are injured playing weekend football than fighting in bars. Across the US players go home with concussions, mild to severe, after a day of football, lacrosse, soccer, you name it, and at virtually none of the games is there a doctor or EMT. Still, it would be impossible to regulate every pick-up game in every town. It's possible, though, to regulate every fight that happens in a ring. Professional fight promoters have fought for years to legitimize martial arts, particularly "mixed martial arts." This article points out how commissions drop the ball (most often, I suppose, because of the money it takes to do their jobs) and how many promoters care only for the bottom line and not the fighters. It's a shame, really. Watching two professional (or highly trained amateur) fighters in the ring is as exciting and fun as watching two professional tennis players on the court, or your two favorite football teams on the field. They are athletes, in the truest sense of the word. That so many people want to skip the training and jump in the ring for a few bucks, that so many promoters are wiling to accept these "fighters" and stick them in a ring completely unprepared, and that so many commissioners are willing to look the other way for a few free drinks is depressing. It's only a matter of time before the sport in all of its incarnations (professional and not) is outlawed. The ones who will suffer most are the fighters who've trained for years in a sport that rarely pays anything. Any professional martial arts fighter will tell you they don't do it for the money. It's for the love of the sport. And unlike the "fighter" the Times-Picayune talked to, they don't get in the ring for the "violence." It's about strategy and athleticism, like any other sport. The "fighters" who get in the ring on a Friday night with the hopes of winning a couple hundred bucks or a couple of free drinks aren't athletes, they're chumps. Their lives are put at risk for a few extra dollars in a promoter's pocket. Shame shame.
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Last update: 7/17/05; 10:05:38 AM .
