Unpopular take perhaps but fuck combat sports and football. It’s people just constantly bashing their brains out and not being able to think or articulate themselves clearly as CTE eventually encompasses their brains.
Don’t even get me started with the fanbase of both sports. I don’t think I’ve met an UFC fan that wasn’t heavily insecure about themselves. It’s the same energy I get from kids who become cops or soldiers because they were always afraid of being seen as frail, or even bullied.
Have you watched the documentary Felix worked on, Fighting in the Age of Loneliness? Kind of made me view fighting differently. They don’t let any of the people like you described off the hook, but they offer a unique perspective on them and the societal conditions that create them. Or at least that attract people to fighting.
I still don’t watch much UFC. It’s a little too violent for me. But I do respect it slightly more after watching the doc.
I learn combat sports to defend myself and my queer comrades. I watch ONE FC as fight study, and have learned to enjoy MMA.
That said, if every UFC fan vanished from the earth it would be a net win. It’s not as toxic as boxing, but it comes damn close.
Right but also no head stuff or at least keep the head stuff at a bair minimum. Don’t bash your brains people.
What most good gyms do is light contact “technical” sparring 95% of the time with “hard” (near full power) sparring in preperation for a fight.
That’s the part that gets me. I’m just not willing to permanently sacrifice fractional pieces of my ability to think in order to learn a specific fighting style. I just can wrap my head around it (lol)
I’ve taken martial arts where you don’t do head trauma twice a week and it was fun. I’m just not willing to concuss my poor brain, it’s damaged enough as is haha
