All Entries Tagged With: "UFC"

Dana White Commits Seppuku

If only Dana White, aka as “The Philly Soft Roll Boy” had a shred of true martial arts ethics and dignity to literally commit such a noble act. Such aristocracy is not in his make up. His last act, though, has effectively created the beginning of his, most welcome and needed eradication from his lofty reign I predict.

There is a lot of controversy, and conflicting stances regarding the UFC, and MMA. The questions really are about the style of combat sports that should be allowed. Boxing, wrestling, and kickboxing are accepted, mainstream sports. With a couple rule changes such as the use of a ring as opposed to a cage, and eliminating elbows and strikes to the head on a downed opponent the argument quietly fades into obscurity where it belongs.  This is where it eventually will go; it is just a matter of time before the more sporting rules of PRIDE fighting are applied. The true problem is the UFC’s, and MMA,  Dana White, and the powers to be that allow him to continue to promote his façade.

I have been a practicing martial artist for 35 years, making the gradual transition from violent, angry, young man, to philosophical, peaceful warrior. Many activities in life are dangerous to one’s health and safety. From my perspective, sport is sport. Through exerting yourself with full intensity in many types of competitions, the competitors fully accept the responsibility, and possibility of serious injury or even death to themselves and/or their opponent. Is face to face combat more violent than a blindsided, fully intent on physical damage, to a unaware, completely defenseless against the collision, football quarterback. Is face to face combat more violent than a pitcher throwing a 90 mph fastball at a batters head? In my opinion the mindset is where the ethics and moral questions arise. Just as one’s personal choice of health enhancing exercise is defined by that individual’s personality, so is their support of a sport. The choice of yoga, hiking, walking, weight lifting, pilates, endurance training, or martial arts as a personal choice of fulfilling the obligation to respecting, and enhancing our physical vessel are all good choices, if they fit the individuals personality, and physical requirements. Sports are physical culture arts. As with all art, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is determined by perspective, experience, and personal preference.

Mixed martial arts is not anything close to martial arts philosophically. It is simply a sport of hand to hand combat.  Martial arts philosophy is a belief that self-realization occurs only through intense conditioning, physical training and mental discipline. Although many of the competitors in MMA competitions are truly martial artists, many are just sport fighters with no interest, let alone understanding of the concept of self-realization. Do I watch MMA competitions? Yes I do. I relate to, admire, and respect most of these athletes in this ultimate, pure, man to man sport. There are competitors in MMA, such as Randy Coutour, Anderson Silva, George St Pierre, B.J. Penn, Frank Shamrock, Carlos Newton, Royce Gracie, Dan Henderson, Bas Rutten, and more that epitomize a martial arts lifestyle of ultimate self-realization through a base of physical culture.

The bloodlust attraction of no holds barred, hand to hand combat is certainly nothing new. In 648 B.C.E., the Greeks introduced the sport of pankration into the Olympic Games. The word pankration is a combination Greek words, pan, meaning “all,” and kratos, meaning “powers.” The sport was a very violent mixture of Hellenic boxing, wrestling, and submission techniques. Common techniques included punches, joint locks, choke holds, elbow and knee strikes, and kicks. Kicks to the legs, groin and stomach were quite commonly used. Standing strikes such as these were common, though the overwhelming majority of pankration bouts were settled on the ground, where submission holds and strikes were both accepted practices.. The only two rules were no biting and no eye gouging. The bouts could end only when one competitor was knocked unconscious, or submitted to his opponent by raising his hand. These matches often lasted for hours, and sometimes ended with the death of one, or even both competitors. The sport became the most popular event in the Olympic Games, and across the Hellenic world.

In a time of strangling, neutering political correctness, it is refreshing to see the purity of feelings, beliefs, and philosophy of life that the UFC’s front man, Dana White‘s foul mouthed, self serving, controlling, egomaniacal, emotional rants serve up. You have to give him credit for not playing the insincere, PC charade. But, to deny the negative impact in credibility of all combat sports he invokes and that his mindset, and philosophy is the antithesis of anything resembling martial arts, would be as blatant an ignoring of the obvious, as recognizing that his affected machismo, pseudo-badass arrogance, and need for attention is fueled by very deep seeded insecurities of his own identify, and manhood. In two successive weeks, Dana made absolutely sure that it is well known that he is a cretin of the highest order. First he shows his fickle loyalty with a very disrespectful criticism of, by his own account, the greatest fighter in the world, Anderson Silva. Then, just as the stench of his public defecation of lack of character began to fade due, his perennial need to be seen as a bad boy, or just an inability to think before speaking has him publish as a video blog a vile, sophomoric, ill informed tirade against a female reporter for the most highly read MMA web site online. Here is an example of Dana White’s unacceptable diatribe:

“f***ing retarded story … you f***ing moron … f***ing dumb … you don’t know what the f*** you’re talking about … shut the f*** up … whoever gave you that quote is a p***y and a f***ing f*ggot and a f***ing liar … maybe you’re the liar … everything that comes out of your mouth is f***ing stupid … You f***ing dumb b****. F*** you, Loretta Hunt.”

Mixed martial arts are here to stay, as it deservedly should. Just as assuredly Dana white will be replaced with a dignified, true martial artist who will take MMA to its place as a mainstream sport. The sport will thrive, and the competitors will be treated with the same respect and parity as other mainstream sports. Thanks, Dana, for doing the right thing, albeit, in a bad way.

Peace