I take the liberty of speaking about a subject which is less intellectual but of a somehow public interest, considering how sports have a reasonable role in the moral education of citizens in general. They help in strengthening character, stimulate self-discipline, trust, tenacity. They serve as a legal escape for the aggressive component which is part of our animal inheritance. And I don´t need to mention their benefits for health, when practiced. An athlete who let´s himself be dominated by gluttony, alcohol, drugs, sloth or uncontrolled sexual activities can say goodbye to his stardom in sports. If he becomes a champion in anything, it will not last long – pretty soon some other athlete, perhaps less talented but more disciplined, will defeat him in the field, court, ring or “octagon” (in the case of “mixed-martial-arts” or, as this sport is commonly referred to, “ultimate fighting”).
I have always enjoyed fighting sports, even though I have practiced them too little and with little talent. My resistance has never been very good, so I got tired very soon – maybe a lack of practice. I tried some boxing when I was in middle school and some judo when I was a judge in the countryside city of Cachoeira Paulista- SP. The judo gym which I attended a few times was located in a neighboring countryside city, Lorena. There, I noticed that some of my rivals fell too easily, possibly to please “Your Excellency”. It was a time when judges were highly respected — a status which I am sure they will regain as soon as the current low tide is gone – an image problem which has been caused by many factors, most of them which cannot be blamed on the magistrates themselves.
Especially because of my appreciation for fighting sports, I feel motivated to exteriorize some concern with the progress — or regress — of martial arts. Everything good can become bad, depending on the path it takes. Balance, in everything, is rare and precarious. In this article I´m going to talk about “ultimate fighting”, a sport which attracts more and more enthusiasts. Even women are now watching and fighting it – something which is rather contrary to the nature of women. I presume, however, that part of these ladies who attend this kind of competition are there only to keep an eye on their boyfriends or husbands, since the competition for men is always fierce, even when it is subtle. I´m only saying this because women in general are less appreciative of scenes full of blood and violence.
Why have I “evolved” to the current “ultimate fighting”, which is much more violent than boxing, judo and other eastern types of fighting? Because “ultimate fighting”, in its initial phase many years ago, was just a show, a simulated fight full of spectacular “flying kicks and scissors”, strikes and somersaults, everything artistically arranged. No punches or kicks were allowed – only soft blows with the forearm were permitted. Using the elbow? Not a chance! And there was always a hero and a villain in the ring – sometimes two of each, considering the artists, I mean fighters, sometimes fought in pairs (two against two). Sometimes there were even dwarves fighting. When it was determined that it was time for the “bad guy” to hit, the “hero” suffered motionless, almost as if he was a sleepy zombie. All of a sudden the “zombie” became a beast, beating the hell out of the “villain”, grabbing him by the beard and submitting him to a much deserved humiliating punishment.
The audience, however, got tired of the joke, which was also something that offended our intelligence. Some Brazilian fighters, the brave Gracie family, decided to roll up the sleeves of their kimonos and give an end to the jokes. One of them went on to live in the USA, opened a gym there and in that place started the real fighting. A Brazilian pioneerism, which was needed because human beings really enjoy watching a good fight. Personally, I am not a big fan of soccer, but every time there is a fight between players I am unable to change channels. The same thing happens when I see a fight among politicians in any country. I bet the ratings increase in direct proportion to the punches and kicks performed by illustrious representatives of the people. On TV news shows, scenes of fighting in congresses are always announced in the beginning of the programs, but only shown in the end – a technique used to keep the audience watching the same channel.
“Ultimate fighting” has won — perhaps it even comes to beat football (soccer) and basketball in number of athletes — because it filled a void which has existed since gladiator fighting was forbidden in ancient Rome, a time when gladiators really killed each other with metallic sharp weapons. With the advancement of Christianity, fights with gladiators were forbidden in the government of Constantino I, in the year 325, although many say that the fights did not stop completely.
More recently, in “ultimate fighting”, a new weapon started being employed, a weapon which can also cut even though it is made of bone. I am referring to the elbows. By the way, archeologists say that Neanderthals used the skeleton´s femur as a weapon in tribal fights, because it was a weapon which combined lightness and toughness. Some blows with a bone in the skull of an adversary would cause instant defeat or at least unconsciousness of the opponent.
A few days ago, going through the website Terra.com, I found an “ultimate fighting” scene where part of an athlete´s ear was actually “cut”, or better yet, maimed by the elbow of the adversary. The repeated and violent blows to the ear acted like gardener´s scissors and a piece of cartilage even flew away, as if it was trying to escape the fury of the murdering elbow. The ears were provided by Nature to help in listening. They act like acoustic shelves and must, therefore, be preserved and never cut or sliced in fights. And the fact – attested by the aforementioned scene – is that an elbow can rip off ears, at least partially. And I am not sure they can be sewed back on. Anyway, that incident must be seen as a warning that the use of the elbow should be banished from “ultimate fighting”, at least when applied against the head and neck. Most of the bleeding which is seen in fights — scenes which unconsciously stimulate barbaric feelings — happen after cuts caused by the tips of bones. And that´s without mentioning the elbow hitting the eye, something which might even cause blindness. If somebody has ever become blind because of a blow by an elbow, such news would probably never be released, since it would affect the dissemination of a sport which grows every day, generating millions of dollars.
Someone might argue that since “ultimate fighting” is a kind of martial art in which everything is allowed, it would be a contradiction to create rules which would diminish the main attraction of such a sport: to reflect real life fighting. When two men fight in real life they don´t care about rules. They simply don´t want to get to the point of killing their opponent, of course, since such occurrence would lead to complications and even prison. Therefore — would say this hypothetical arguer —, why not allow the use of the elbow, even if it causes a more frequent spill of blood?
Against such an argument we can say that “ultimate fighting” is already being partially civilized. Not everything is allowed. Kicks in the genital area; biting; eye poking; pinching; suffocation with the hand; punches in the back of the neck; knee strokes on the head when the opponent is in all fours; all of these kinds of blows have been forbidden for a while. Such restrictions have not turned “ultimate fighting” into a sport of “sissies”. Punches which break noses and high kicks which knock down the opponent are trivial. This form of fighting is much more aggressive than boxing, which has never been accused of being a “sissy” sport and has always been considered violent. The disadvantage that boxing has when compared to “ultimate fighting” lies in the excess of limitations in the former, mainly the prohibition of the use of legs as a weapon and the impossibility of fighting on the ground. Due to creativity and constant innovation, “ultimate fighting” is much less monotonous than boxing and that´s why it is easy to predict that boxing will lose audience to its new main competitor. “Ultimate fighting” is, in summation, much more dynamic and “real”.
The “thirst for blood” or for “hyper-realism” in fights — a presumed justification for the elbow blows on the face and skull — might lead some crazy person to suggest, in the future, that fighters who are really in need of money use knuckedusters or switch-blades – in clandestine spaces – because in “real life” these weapons are actually used. I´m saying this because violence can become an addiction, requiring regular and growing doses of adrenalin.
The daily (or so) vision of blood on television, from fighting, stimulates the use of violence when, for example, there´s an altercation during traffic – or anywhere else. Media often reveals aggressions which happen in nightclubs where a customer is beat up almost to death after arguing about the price of drinks or because he looked in a certain way to an accompanied lady.
I know that in good martial arts gyms the teachers constantly warn the students that they should not fight in the streets. They insist that they are not fighting but in fact playing, and obeying the rules of the sport. The danger of the bloody violence is not, however, in the behavior of students, but in the fact that such fights are seen on television without any supervision from the teachers. Rebellious youngsters — unemployed or who earn an indecent salary —, after watching fighters covered in blood being applauded and admired by their talent may feel stimulated to use violence as a means to be admired and valued – a fair and humane wish, but accomplished in the wrong way.
From 1934 to 1967 cinematic production in the USA was guided by something called the “Hays Code” — the name derived from its creator, William H. Hays, one of the then leaders of the Republican Party. This “code” was conceived by initiative of the association of movie producers because they were worried about the negative influence of movies in the moral formation of the country. Since the “Code” ended up exaggerating in its prohibitions — a natural tendency when it comes to censorship — it started being gradually disobeyed until it was finally replaced by the current “rating by age”, which started in 1967.
Not considering its exaggerations, the “Hays Code” had its good side, so much so that it lasted more than thirty years. Among its prohibitions were the following: it would not be authorized the exhibition of any movie which degraded the morality of the audience, inducing them to be in favor of a crime, evil or “sin” (?!); a murdering technique should be presented in a way which would not allow its replication in real life; no details of brutal murders should be shown; the techniques of thefts, breaking into safes and banks, blowing up of trains, mines and buildings, or some such, should not be detailed; wounds should show just a minimum amount of blood, even in war movies. The list went on and on, extensively and exaggeratedly for modern parameters, but had its positive side: the attempt to rid the audience from the influence of evil, whose existence nobody can deny. The Code, in summation, had the concern – even if admittedly exaggerated – of getting the audience away from vulgarity, the disrespect for the law, religion and family values (it was also advised for the movies not to show adultery under an attractive angle). Even scenes of hanging and electrocution had to be softened, with no attention to detail. Prolonged scenes with blood were generally not well seen by the aforementioned Code – the same thing happened to movies in which criminals got away with crime.
I´m not talking here about reinstating censorship, but instead trying to demonstrate that movies and television can influence a lot, for the good and for the bad, to elevate and to downgrade the tastes and attitudes of the public. And fighters with broken noses and bleeding eyes, mouths and foreheads do not stimulate delicate or civilized feelings. Especially considering that these are the places in which blood is the most abundant and where an opponent will probably focus his blows. The only thing lacking is for the referee to ask the audience whether the defeated fighter should be killed or not by turning their thumbs up or down.
I believe the prestige of every sport, when put on a graph, has a sinuous curve. When it reaches a maximum peak — in a scale of bloody violence — the excess may generate a progressive feeling of repulsiveness (something which already existed even before the use of elbows), leading a more reasonable audience to look for distraction in sports which have a more humane value. Not to mention the physical integrity of the athletes.
Before finishing this article, here´s another suggestion which I´m sure will not be followed: when the athletes are exchanging punches while standing up and one of them is knocked out, it would be fairer — as well as more coherent to the purpose of getting to know who the better fighter is — if the referee stopped the fight and counted up to ten in order to find out if the “knocked-out” fighter is really out of combat. If the athlete was able to get up in reasonable conditions before the end of the countdown, the fight would then continue – such as it is done in boxing fights. This would be good because it is not uncommon for a less strong or less talented fighter to end up hitting the chin of the other fighter when attempting an awkward and reckless series of punches. With such improvement, the “luck factor” would no longer be so important, and the audience would not be so disappointed. After all, the purpose of the fights is to determine the strength and ability of the fighters, and not their luck – good or bad – when exchanging punches and kicks. This suggestion, however, will never be accepted because it would make “ultimate fighting” look like an imitation of boxing, which is an unnamed crime in the sports war.
For now, I´m going to keep on watching my fights. However, I have to say that when the red liquid starts covering an exhausted and almost blind athlete´s face, stimulating the executioner to keep on and on with the punishing, I feel like changing channels.
Everything in excess becomes boring. That´s what happened with the “Hays Code” and might as well happen with this modern version of the gladiators fight.
(March 5th, 2012)
