Mixed Martial Arts: A New Kind Of Fight

MMA Is Becoming One Of The Fastest Growing Sports In America

(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.

[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?

[dunedain11]

Gabriel,

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. 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 have been 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?

[crisvale-2009]

Great program nice to see mainstream TV noticing the popularity of this awesome sport. My brother started practising MMA last year and has turned me onto the sport. He found this website that carries MMA instructional books if anyones interested (tuttlepublishing.com). He is on their mailing list and got a coupon code (tote60) for a free tote bag. I hope the IFL grows like the UFC did last year and gets more coverage. Kudos to CBS for just bringing up the sport whether they own SPIKE TV or not.

[rgabriel01]

so what happened to my critical comments? does CBS only publish supportive fan mail?

[eurosportfan]

Address the following, then, zzz1232,

Why are there so many steroid cheats in the game? UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia is one, as is a previous UFC heavyweight champion, Josh Barnett. Former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort recently tested positive for steroids as well.

Want me to go on?

Stefan Bonnar was busted for steroids after a recent UFC fight. Nate Marquardt was also busted after his UFC fight against Salaverry.

It goes on and on.

Making sure to comment about this as it relates to the story presented on 60 Minutes, I'll again point out that the current ownership and management of the UFC has perpetuated the lie about the advent of rules in the cage. The rules were in place BEFORE the current ownership was in place. It's all over the internet, so I can't imagine that the fact-checkers couldn't have found out about this.

Fluff piece.

[zzz1232]

(Read 3, 2 and 1 below first, in that order) Finally, it is worth mentioning that MMA still suffers from many misconceptions. Among these is that MMA competition is little more than a chaotic brawl, similar to any bar-room fight. In fact, these athletes possess extraordinary skills. Many fighters have attained expert status in two or more sports and the successful ones have synthesized the most effective aspects of several completely distinct sports into one unitary system. Simply put, if the public is still impressed by a black-belt in a martial art, or an olympic-class wrestler, they ought to be doubly impressed with the top MMA fighters. Also, it should be noted that the sportsmanship observed in MMA is an example for the rest of the sporting world. With very few exceptions (Tito Ortiz comes to mind), MMA fighters display graciousness in both defeat and in victory, often hugging and commending their opponents at the end of fights. In an age where endzone dances are the norm and basketball players lash out at the audience, MMA is a refreshing reminder of why we came to value athletic competition in the first place.

[zzz1232]

3.) We allow sports with high injury rates to remain legal in our society because one of the fundamental ideals upon which our jurisprudence was founded is personal autonomy. If someone wishes to participate in an inherently dangerous activity, we ought to let them, unless their participation represents an unjustifiable risk to others. In other words, the men and women who compete in mixed martial arts ought to be allowed, given their decision to compete is made freely and well-informed of the risks. This is why we allow football players to compete, this is why we allow people to sky-dive and this is why we should allow fighters to participate in mixed martial arts.

[zzz1232]

(Continued from below) Granted, there is significantly more blood on display over the course of an MMA event. But the point I am making is that, unless the blood is indicative of substantial injury, then we have no justification for barring a sport simply because it is bloody.

2.) Even if the sport produces relatively high rates of injury, it is inconsistent with our society's moral values to ban the sport. Consider professional football. Football has one of the highest rates of serious injury in all of professional sports. Yet, as a society we consider it a great achievement to play in the NFL. Furthermore, we have no qualms about watching the game as a form of entertainment, notwithstanding the fact that many football fans are attracted to the sport because of the possibility of "huge hits". If this sounds unconvincing, imagine how popular football would be if the NFL abolished tackling and replaced it with two-hand-touch. The point here is that, even if there is a substantial risk involved in participating in a sport, and even if the crowds are attracted by that risk, we aren't justified in banning the sport.

[zzz1232]

rgabriel01, I think you are right to chastise CBS for their one-sided reporting and their hidden agenda. They have done themselves and their viewers a great disservice. Mixed martial arts is certainly a very controversial subject and should be treated as such by agencies purporting to be news sources. Honest discourse between credible sources is the only reliable way for society to work out what it is comfortable with and what it should treat as undesirable.

That said, I do believe that eventually MMA will and indeed should be accepted as a legitimate form of competition and entertainment. In order to explain this belief, I would like to gesture at a few facts which tend to show that MMA as a sport and as a spectacle comports with contemporary morality in the USA.

1.) Despite your legitimate concerns about the credibility of those who claim that the MMA is safer than boxing, it isn't clear that those claims are false. While it's true that you see more blood in MMA, this isn't necessarily a sign of more (or more serious) injury. Consider high school wrestling. Wrestling matches often include several bloody noses. Does this mean we should ban wrestling? In other words, is the presence of blood enough to warrant a ban on a sport? Obviously not.

[filmboomer]

Did your producer NOT look at Gracie's pupils????
They were almost the entire size of his corneas, making his eyes appear BLACK!!! This man was high on some sort of speed (crystal meth or whatever) during this interview. Did NO ONE see this??? And what does this say about this sport?

[Jasonian18]

i consider fighting the best way to challenge your body and take it to its limits i don't agree with the bloodiness i prefer the wrestling style with full out fighting it gives more of a rush like punches to the stomach and just a full out brawl no facce hits and just driving your body to its limit its a rush and you feel great afterwards only your pride hurts if you lose in that kind of fight.