Mixed Martial Arts: A New Kind Of Fight

(CBS)  This segment was originally broadcast on Dec. 10, 2006. It was updated on July 23, 2007.

Walk into any neighborhood and if they're playing football on one corner, basketball on the next, baseball on the third and a fight breaks out on the fourth, everybody's going to run and watch the fight. Hand-to-hand combat is strangely irresistible.

These days the national street corner is on TV, where millions are now being drawn to a new kind of fight called "mixed martial arts" or MMA. Not long ago the sport was banned as too vicious for decent society. But mixed martial arts came back swinging. In April, a fight on the Spike cable channel was watched by more young men than the NBA playoff game broadcast at the same time.

Correspondent Scott Pelley reports how a contest, once reviled and banished, has become one of the fastest-growing sports in America.

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Pat Miletich, one of the greatest coaches of the sport and Brazilian Renzo Gracie, who helped invent it, are among the pioneers of mixed martial arts in America.

"You cannot hide who you are once you step on the ring. If you're a coward, they will show it," says Gracie. "You can't hide. It doesn't matter how much money you're getting paid. On the moment that that bell rings … you forget about everything else. You think about survive, and you think about beating up the other guy."

The name Gracie is to mixed martial arts as Ford is to cars. In Brazil in the 1920's, the Gracie family invented a new jiu-jitsu. They challenged all comers and nearly always won. They brought their challenge to the U.S. in the 1990's in a contest of styles – boxers, kick boxers, wrestlers and jiu-jitsu masters – to find out who was the ultimate fighter.

"What do you say to people who watch an MMA fight and say it's barbaric?" Pelley asks.

"For them to understand my sport, I know it's gonna take a little bit, you know, for them to accept and understand," Gracie says.

"What's to understand? You're pounding a guy, choking a guy into submission," Pelley remarks.

"It goes far beyond that. The first impression is, hit him, knock him out, hurt him, but believe it, it goes far beyond that," Gracie explains. "There's so much technique involved, that I, to be honest, I think when I see a good fight, I think it makes a Russian ballet look like a uncoordinated body movements."

He admits that it can sometimes be a bloody ballet. "But the blood is the source of the whole thing. Believe – it's not blood that's coming out, it's a little bit of pride that you're putting out."

To prevent too much of that kind of "pride" spilling onto the mat, fights can end in a number of ways. There's a knock out or a submission, a throat squeezing or bone straining hold that would do real harm if the loser didn't tap his opponent to signal surrender. And if the tap never comes, the referee can always jump in.

"It used to be boxers were called – 'Okay, this guy's the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.' Now it's, 'No, you're the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.' These guys are the best pound-for-pound fighters," Miletich tells Pelley.

Miletich blended all those combat styles into one.

"Look, most people are more familiar with boxing. So how do you compare MMA to what we're used to seeing?" Pelley asks.

"I would compare boxing to MMA as – you know jeez, checkers to chess. You know?" Miletich. "If you take the branches of a tree, all the techniques, if I do one submission hold on you, you have three different ways to escape. That's three more branches. And I have three more moves off of each one of those branches. And then it just keeps going from there. It's very complex."

This entire sport suffered a stone cold knockout just a few years ago. Back then, there were virtually no rules. Fighters could stomp, kick to the groin, there were no time limits, and no weight classes. Critics called it human cockfighting. It was barred in many states and banned on TV.

"In the late 90s, the reputation of the ultimate fighting championship was what?" Pelley asks.

"Uneducated gorillas that liked to go in there and basically kick the crap out of each other," says Dana White, a former amateur boxer who thought the fights might be just the thing to draw an audience that advertisers often want most – men, ages 18 to 34.

That group has been disappearing from TV audiences. White convinced investors to buy a league, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC. He adopted rules for the safety of the fighters and got 18 states to sanction the fights.

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[costandino1]

gracy family did not start the brazinlian gracy juijui.the kodokan judo instatute from japan sent an instructor to brazil to teach the head of the gracy family judo .it stemed from that.

[terrij1164]

Please, Stop saying it is young men or men only who truly LOve and Enjoy the MMA fights & fighters. WOMEN love it also!!!!

[patssbagain]

As a longtime fan of MMA and the UFC, I am wondering how the fighters are checked for steroids and other performace enhancing drugs. I realize the Bonner recently got tagged with a suspension, but the conditioning of many of these fighters, some of whom are in their 30's, seems artificial. Does anyone know who tests the fighters and how credible the screeening is?

[rgabriel01]

All your comment proves is the dishonesty and moral bankruptcy of Hockey management and ownership. They promote and allow the very behavior that they outlaw and penalize.

However. UFC can't hide it's violence and intentional injury ,though many of its' fans and promoters try to have it both ways as well. On one corner of their mouth they like to stress how real and damaging and hardcore and street it is, then the other corner of their mouth tries to stress how safe and sportsmanlike and mainstream it is. Your argument is wierd as you try to validate the violence and injury of MMA by pointing to other violent sports. UFC is just a cleaned up streetfight. That is what they promote and a ground-and-pound and snapped arms are what the fans pay to see.

60 minutes prostituted itself AGAIN by having NO opposing viewpoints, unattributed safety claims and by NOT mentioning that another Viacom television wing airs UFC. Hey Scott Pelley - it isn't just 'a cable network', it is SPIKE-TV, a network owned by your company. Why hide that?

Again, this story was just like all the anti Bush stories 60 Minutes promoted in support of books published by Viacoms' publishing arm.

Would Don Hewitt have accepted this infomercial disguised as a new story?

Edward R. Murrow is spinning in his grave.

[ace0223]

First of all thank you cbs for running this story... Second and further more to these idiots typing behind cowardness and griping about mma and its to violent have you seen hockey forget about football,, and explore the realms of hockey there is no sport more violent then hockey these guys are allowed to beat the **** out of each other board check, were talking about guys getting stitches, missing teeth loosing fingers but yet they wont put ufc on mainstream explain that ufc is the fastest growing sports entertainment in the world i gurantee the first person who gets this to go mainstream will be rich beyon there dreams....

[zzz1232]

Rgabriel01,
Apologies. I mistook EurosportFan's post as yours.

[rgabriel01]

i didn't mention anything about steroid use. my critique was about CBS's lack of objective journalism on this issue. it was an infomercial

[zzz1232]

(Continued from above...)
Rgabriel01, my purpose in responding to your initial remarks was to point out that MMA is a legitimate sport and that your criticisms of the sport itself (as opposed to individual athletes or the sport's promoters) were unfounded. If you have responses to any of the arguments I set forth in my initial response, I would be very eager to read them. Otherwise, I am not really sure why you would bother responsing to this. No one disagrees with the claim that steroid use is bad. No one can deny that CBS's story on MMA was a self-promoting "fluffpiece." So what is your point? Should MMA be banned because of these unrelated facts?

[zzz1232]

rgabriel01,
Please understand that what I wrote was in defense of the sport of MMA, not CBS news. I will again state that I agree with your criticism of CBS. They have failed miserably as a news agency and it is clear that they haven't fact-checked to any reasonable standard. You are absolutely justified in calling this a "fluffpiece."
Regarding steroid use, I don't see why the transgressions of some individual athletes should impugn the entire sport. As dunedain11 said, the UFC has dealt with the infractions as it should, and hopefully more rigorous standards of testing will be introduced in the future. However, it would be naove to assume that athletes in other professional sports don't use steroids, so why pick on the UFC? Shouldn't pro baseball or professional cycling be held to the same standard? So the answer to your question ("Why are there so many steroid cheats in the game?) is: The same reason there are so many steroid cheats in any other professional sport - steroids make you stronger.
(continued above...)

[dunedain11]

RGabriel01,

To answer your steriod concerns, consider this, why were those men caught? Because they were tested. Every main event fighter in America is tested before and after the fight, along with a random sample of half the card. AND, they are duley punished, suspended from fighting for up to a year and fined. The aforementioned Silvia, was suspended and since cleaned up his act (he's been tested every main event, since he is currently the champion), and has won several bouts since his suspension. Moreover, you mention Belfort, and Bonnar, both of which are currently suspended!
In it's infancy, MMA has surpassed many manstream sports with the handling of this issue. I.E. BASEBALL, TRACK AND FIELD, even Boxing....Shall I go on?