MMA or violence - rioheroes.com

Nothingcompares

MMA or violence?

I just came across a website called www.rioheroes.com . It's basically a site (in english) that streams "live" MMA style contests from Rio in Brasil. However, there are a number of important things that make this different to the UFC we are all familair with now.

The rules appear to be UFC 1. The website says poetically there is a gentleman's/warriors code of honour of not attacking the groin, biting or fish hooking. However, head butting is permitted. The fights are fought in a make shift cage or on mats that look to be in basements. Spectators are as close to the area as you would be in a submission competition in ucd/sbgn. There are no gloves. There is a referee but I don't see what is function is other than to the stop the fight when one guy has submitted or being KOed.

Yes it's fighting in all three ranges full contact and the aim is to submit or knock you opponent out. Yes the fighters seem to be trained in Muay Thai/bjj something similar and are in good physical condition (they're mostly all ripped and the website says there have medicals and HIV/HEPc tests). But it does have that feel of being just violence. it doesn't feel like it's a sport or a contest with rules. It doesn't feel like the bouts are fought in a fierce but friendly competitive athmosphere, it's more like blood-lust. I don't know how much they're getting paid and what level of exploitation is going on, but the guys really look like their putting their bodies on the line.

Having said that, when I first looked at the UFC I felt the same. Repulsed at the sight of one man hitting another man aggressively who is in a compromised position. The guys, although formidable, on my brief look through some high-light reels don't appear to be Pro-MMA standard.

i have to say, I don't approve. It's the sport of MMA minus the sport. i feel people have the right to do what they want to do with their bodies (get tattooed, take drugs, get hit in the head) as they please. But I can't help but think some of these guys are getting exploited and their suffering is our entertainment. Double standards I know.

On a slightly different note, the website also links to cock fighting. Which is streams of actual cock fights. This is barbaric and inexcusable and because the two "sports" appear on the same page makes me suspicious of the rioheroes stuff.

Fozzy

The fighters are obviously trained to some degree in MMA and they seem happy enough to fight, so it doesn't appear as though they're being exploited to any great extent. I get what you're saying about the violence though, but that might just be due to a lot of the blood and all the guys screaming outside the fighting area

I find it kinda funny that they're marketing it as MMA without the "Hollywood drama", as it's exactly that which makes MMA appeal to the masses. Fights like that have been going on for years in Brazil though, haven't they?

Taking the cock-fighting site into account though, it seems to me like the people behind the site are doing it just for violence's sake and not for any sporting reasons. Still, guys like Wanderlei Silva and Royce Gracie came through from this sort of fighting, right? I don't see too much wrong with the actual fighting as long as there are some rules in place, but I don't agree with the website's marketing of it

dlofnep

It's NHB.

Nothingcompares

I suppose that's a fair but a little pedantic distinction Johnob.

dlofnep