GPURS said:
I find it rather perverse, or maybe just sad that people like to watch this kind of stuff. But, I guess if a couple of dopes are going to beat the hell out of each other there will always be someone who wants to watch it. To me, this stuff is barely one level above wrestling, and only because wrestling is fake

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My only opinion after reading that is you don't understand it. They are among the best trained athletes in the world and when two guys can fight for 25 minutes and both are still standing, I think that has to say something about their skill level. It is definitely not a street fight, but I'd guess since you don't watch your only exposure is to something like this post showing a few fights, of thousands. Furthermore, had I posted a boxing link would you have the same reaction? I bet not, and many people such as yourself probably don't know this, but there's not much difference between the force of an MMA glove and a boxing glove. If you don't believe me try both and hit a heavy bag, the punches feel just as solid regardless of which one you use. There's actually more to complain about in Hockey than MMA as those guys aren't trained fighters; they're the street type fight goons throwing haymakers but yet the consensus keep it in the sport.
To the contrary my friend. I do understand it. I'm not trying to say these are untrained street thugs, as I'm sure that they train very hard. I just find it odd for a guy to train that hard just to beat the hell out of another human. I guess money is the motivation. And yes I feel the same way about boxing. When I was a kid I watched a fight between Ray "boom-boom" Mancini and Duk ku Kim(sp?), and they beat the crap out of each other for about 12 rounds or so. Around the 12th round, Kim collapsed, never regained consciousness and died later that night. Even as a kid I realized that this fighting thing was a sad "sport"..
Had my share of fist fights when I was a kid, and totally understand the self defense perspective of martial arts, but as I have gotten older I suppose I just kinda outgrew the pugilism thing....