You may ask "Which group are you castigating? The lawmakers, or the parents who push their kids into this sport?"

Both.

Back when I was an EMT, our town used to host some regional martial arts competition, and seeing some of these younger kids and teenagers beat the snot out of each other was just... sketchy. But it was allowed and even encouraged as a legitimate sport despite the risk of broken bones, concussions (one kid we took the ER supposedly had half a dozen head injuries before). So, if society has no problem letting parents sign their kids up for sports where the object is to wrestle somebody into submission (honestly I don't want to know what the heck is going on here or here) or choke them out why is this Mixed Martial Arts program such a big problem?

In the absence of a compelling reason why this is so much worse than any other sport (to the point where the parents should be held criminally negligent for allowing their kids to participate) the law seems to be nothing more than a further expansion of the nanny state.

At least his spirit lives on in Nathan Orand, organizing ultimate fighting leagues for toddlers instead of shilling "Big Bag O' Glass" on SNL.  Looking at that video from the Today Show was quite the thing.  Actually, it didn't look that much worse than two kids duking it out on the playground, only these kids had padding on.  But, whoa Nelly, when that one kid picked the other up and was set to piledrive his head into the mat at the end of it, that does give one pause to question what the fuck these parents were thinking.

Yeah, I know kids can get hurt playing pick up games or skateboarding.  They can even get hurt playing Pee Wee football or Little League.  But the idea behind those sports are a bit different that MMA -- the stated purpose of which is to deliver a pummelling to your opponent until he is totally battered and unable to continue.  And added bonuses to fighters who can inflict a KO on their opponents.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

No mention of boxing by the Missouri people.  I'd be more concerned with Golden Gloves type programs if I was really worried about dangerous sports.  I used to box, and now do shootwrestling (similar to MMA, or no-gi with some MT and boxing) and there are some minor injuries here and there but nothing like the cumulative effects of repeated blows to the head and jaw common in boxing.  Boxing's heavy gloves offer much more protection to the hand, and the nature of the sport is even more conducive to "pummeling" and KO's than submission-oriented sports like MMA.  

That's why I switched- I'm getting too old to get hit in the face all night.  Getting smacked when rolling on the mat, when the other player is using his whole body jockeying for position and also actively preventing me from jockeying for position still stings, but it's nothing like boxing when my opponent is firmly rooted and turning his whole body into hard hooks to my dome.  Plus, when you're subbed, you know it ahead of time- it's a gradual application of the technique (in many cases you know what's coming based on your position and inability to get out of it before the technique is even applied); so you tap out, congratulate the other player, and get back to rolling.  The pain threshold is lower than the "fucked up for life" threshold.  In boxing, you don't know which punch is going to knock you out until you wake up.  You also don't know which one is going to give you TMJ; just like you don't know which cigarette is going to give you cancer.  There's a reason guys get "punch drunk" but not "kimura drunk."

MMA is so popular precisely because it looks more brutal than it is.  Sure there are the bloody faces here and there, and the sport is designed to foster that (ie elbows to downed athlete) because that's what sells pay per view.  UFC was able to buy out PRIDE because nobody in the US watches PRIDE- just like they didn't watch UFC when it first came out, big deal, "karoddy" guys and some judo guys in a ring who cares; was the mentality.  The fence and octagon and such were introduced to sex it up so people would tune in, and it worked.  The fact that it got politicians calling it "human cockfighting" [Juan McCain] and trying to ban it was an intentional side-effect and the absolute best advertising money could buy.

With proper supervision and instruction, and some reasonable precautions (ie no heel hooks during rolling, etc); kids are just as safe practicing MMA as they are in the boxing gym or on the football field.  There are plenty of rules in UFC designed for fighter safety (ie no soccer kicks to downed athlete, although they're allowed in PRIDE and nobody's been Reeve'd by one), and there's an etiquette in any MMA or shootwrestling gym that exists to prevent injuries- just like there are "rules" and etiquette in weight rooms and on the basketball court to prevent injuries.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that MMA gyms can actually be better for kids than your run-of-the-mill strip mall karate class, because there is no focus on bullshit "self-defense" secnarios.  I've trained in my fair share of strip-mall belt mills, and visited countless others; and it never ceases to amaze me to see these people teaching kids to take guns or knives away from attackers.  Of course now, with MMA being popular, the same Kenpo doughboy that was touting his school as "reality-based self defense" during the Krav Maga craze of the 90's now has "mixed martial arts" on his shingle.  But it's still the same stuff- practice these katas in front of a mirror and do pre-arranged stuff against a stationary opponent and you're ready for The Street®!  Not that I have anything against katas or traditional martial arts (in fact my respect for them in their proper context tends to get me shouted down on martial arts boards, because these days everybody is a billy-badass cage fighter just like they were Krav Maga special forces billy-badasses 10 years ago and aikido master billy-badasses 5 years before that).

I still think it's a bad idea to teach middle-schoolers to take knives away from people, or housewives to take knives away from people; because in addition to getting them killed if something like were ever to happen in their suburban enclaves, I think it makes them less likely to avoid conflicts.  I think MMA style gyms are better for kids because it gives them a competitve outlet and teaches them to think of it like a sport; and not something that is going to give them an upper hand against a gun-wielding crackhead at the ATM.  They get to impose their will on others in a controlled environment without repercussions (this is also why police/military frequent MMA gyms, not because they think they will use it on the battlefield).

I'm a parent, and should my kid choose a martial arts school or an MMA gym, I'll definitely let him- it's probably safer than playing pickup football after all.  But I won't let him delude himself into thinking a colored belt is going to make him into Batman or something.  For self defense a gun is the more often than not the only answer; and in the case of a brawl, I'd much rather him be used to taking a punch and going all out against a resisting adversary than relying on some stilted Ed Parker stuff.  By turning fighting into a sport, and giving him an outlet to impose his will on other fully resisting people, I believe he'll be less likely to get into fights- and be able to spend that much more time on learning how to recognize and avoid situations that might result in one.

Michael Vick sits pondering his fate.  He thinks...my football career is over...they took my kennel away.  What will I do?

Suddenly, his eye falls on a magazine on a table in the day room.  What's this?  Children Involved in Ultimate Fighting?  Hmmm...kids fighting in cages?  Tough little buggers.  I wonder if the wee tots need a physical trainer....hmmmm, Bad Boyz Camp has a nice ring.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

I agree that it's stupid to single this sport out because of possible injury (as people have mentioned, football et. al. are probably almost as bad).

I worry more about kids thinking they can fight when they can't necessarily.  The martial arts used (such as they are) in these types of competitions are all well and good when you're as strong or stronger than your opponent, but when you get someone bigger than you it starts to become problematic.  It takes serious skill and, as cliché as it is, discipline to be able to handle someone bigger than you.  I consider myself a competent martial artist, but it's unlikely I would prevail against a real cage fighter; not because their kung fu is better, so to speak, but because they're much stronger than I am.  So if a 12-year-old is pretty good size for his age and can whoop up on other 12-year-olds, what happens when he gets pissed at and decides to start something with an 18-year-old who has 80 pounds on him?  There are people out there who can handle themselves against someone three times stronger or whatever, but that takes an immense amount of skill and practice.

I knew a kid back in the day who did tae kwon do and was probably pretty good, at least in a tournament setting (more on that in a moment).  The problem is this gave him inflated confidence and he was much quicker to start something physical than most people are.  This became a problem sometimes; I think I was a couple years older (maybe), but I definitely had a longer reach and was just generally bigger.  We never got into a full-on fight or anything, but the little we did do did not go in his favor.

The other problem with this is it's dangerous, I think, to teach kids to fight within a tournament setting without a very clear understanding of what that does.  If one of them really does have to defend themselves, they're going to be limited by what the tournament rules say you can and can't do.  So it takes a serious level of self-control to be able to separate the cage from a real-life fight, and I wouldn't ascribe that to most kids.

Q: What do you think of western civilization? Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.

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