Mixed Martial Arts "Mecca" Shuns Sport
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, head of the largest bank in the U.S., arrives to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 13, 2012, before the Senate Banking Committee, about how his company recently lost more than $2 billion on risky trades and whether its executives failed to properly manage those risks. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari) / Haraz N. Ghanbari
This story was written by GlobalPost's Sandro Contenta
If you believe Dana White, the charismatic president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the urge to reduce someone to a bloody pulp dates back to the beginning of human time.
"Fighting was the first sport," White told some 300 adoring fans at a downtown mall in Toronto last week.
"Two men were put on this Earth and somebody threw a punch. And if people were around, they watched it - you know what I mean?
"I don't care what color you are, what country you're from or what language you speak - at the end of the day we're all human beings and fighting is in our DNA. We get it and we like it," White said.
The problem for White and his sport, known as mixed martial arts (MMA), is that the government of Canada's most populous province doesn't buy his gospel. In Ontario, the sport is banned - both amateur tournaments and professional bouts.
You might think that the Las Vegas-based head of UFC, the most successful, privately-owned organization in what has been described as the fastest growing sport in the United States, wouldn't give a swift kick about Ontario's unwelcoming position. You'd be wrong.
White describes the province as the biggest UFC market in North America, judging by the number of pay-per-view subscribers for UFC fights and the number of Ontario fans who travel across the continent to attend UFC bouts. Ontario, he says, is the "Mecca" of mixed martial arts - a whirlwind mix of jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, boxing, kickboxing and wrestling.
In short, there is money - lots of it - to be made here. And that's why the 40-year-old White, bald and muscular, found himself pitching the sport in a Toronto mall, welcomed as a rock star by the converted, but given the cold shoulder by skeptical politicians.
Read the full GlobalPost story here.
Copyright 2010 CBS. All rights reserved. If you believe Dana White, the charismatic president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the urge to reduce someone to a bloody pulp dates back to the beginning of human time.
"Fighting was the first sport," White told some 300 adoring fans at a downtown mall in Toronto last week.
"Two men were put on this Earth and somebody threw a punch. And if people were around, they watched it - you know what I mean?
"I don't care what color you are, what country you're from or what language you speak - at the end of the day we're all human beings and fighting is in our DNA. We get it and we like it," White said.
The problem for White and his sport, known as mixed martial arts (MMA), is that the government of Canada's most populous province doesn't buy his gospel. In Ontario, the sport is banned - both amateur tournaments and professional bouts.
You might think that the Las Vegas-based head of UFC, the most successful, privately-owned organization in what has been described as the fastest growing sport in the United States, wouldn't give a swift kick about Ontario's unwelcoming position. You'd be wrong.
White describes the province as the biggest UFC market in North America, judging by the number of pay-per-view subscribers for UFC fights and the number of Ontario fans who travel across the continent to attend UFC bouts. Ontario, he says, is the "Mecca" of mixed martial arts - a whirlwind mix of jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, boxing, kickboxing and wrestling.
In short, there is money - lots of it - to be made here. And that's why the 40-year-old White, bald and muscular, found himself pitching the sport in a Toronto mall, welcomed as a rock star by the converted, but given the cold shoulder by skeptical politicians.
Read the full GlobalPost story here.
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This is the mentality that will keep humanity forever locked in a downward spiral of violence and mindless mediocrity.
So long as we celebrate all of the idiotic, counterproductive things that we do, we will never go on to achieve anything. There is nothing glorious or noble about two men beating each other senseless, it is simply a waste of human athletic talent.
We are at our greatest when we risk our lives and test our physical limits when we explore or push the envelop of what is physically possible.
Celebrating pugilism is no less stupid than to celebrate the rusting of an automobile...it is just wanton, stupid destruction of something useful.