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Old 03-28-2008, 11:22 AM   #13
Josh Reyer
 
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Location: Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi
Join Date: Nov 2005
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Re: Ultimate fights expand to include kids

Wow!!! Those videos were seriously slanted! The WBZ Boston one, especially. No objectivity, and no understanding of mixed martial arts. The AP video was better, but still ridiculous, referring to the sport as "human cock fighting" and referring to it as "bare-knuckle fights."

And the quotes from the kids? Quick soundbites, with no context at all. How often have we joked on these forums about applying nikyo to people, or taking out our frustrations on uke? What were those kids asked? What did they say before, what did they say after? The first kid in particular sounded like it was cut out of a larger sentence.

Despite commentary making it seem like these kids were engaging in "cockfighting", when I watched the video all I saw was children engaging in adult-supervised, low impact wrestling with all the joint-stress of an ikkyo, and heavily-padded sparring, just like you would see in any family karate or tae kwon do dojo. The video, of course, made no attempt to ascertain the grade levels and differences in training depending on age. They just made it seem like 6 year olds jump right in and start the ground and pound.

I'm beginning to think that the "Octagon" was just the wrong idea. It's given people an entirely wrong image. MMA may be paying for that now. Still, no excuse for such a hachet-job of journalism.

Josh Reyer

The lyf so short, the crafte so longe to lerne,
Th'assay so harde, so sharpe the conquerynge...
- Chaucer
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