My first blog

I love MMA and I got interested due to the fact that a long time ago in a galaxy far far away I used to compete in wrestling in high school. I read books about martial arts and my friends and I would practice moves in our backyards just to mess around and have fun. I thrived on the competition and the comradery that we would share with each other. Truthfully other sports bore the hell out of me and unless it’s the superbowl or Michigan State basketball I’ve really got no interest in it. I’ve shared in posts before that what peaked my interest again was reading stories of how Royce Gracie was submitting all these big guys in the early UFC events. I could relate so much because us wrestlers didn’t get messed with much due to the fact that most people knew from experience or word of mouth that the skills we learned allowed us beat most big guy’s asses when messed with. Like I said that was a long time ago. With all the mainstream coverage out there now I have realized that the MMA community is very close knit and seemingly a really laid back fun group of people. That has attracted my interest that much more and is why I participate so much on this site. 

One thing concerns me though. With all the influx of casual fans paying more and more attention to MMA there seems to be a rift developing between the new fans and the more hardcore ones that have been here all along. I may be wrong about this but it’s the feeling I’ve been getting lately. My guess is these old school fans have been yearning for years that the sport become more mainstream and I believe that their wish is now coming true. However it seems like a double edged sword due to the fact that a lot of these fans don’t really know much about the sport other than what they might see on Spike TV. This seems to piss off a lot of the veteran fans and some seem to be very reserved in sharing their knowledge with these new fans and letting them into the club. For me personally I’m getting kind of proud of the fact that my MMA knowledge is growing and I really enjoy spreading that knowledge to the new folks. I also enjoy just as much having the more knowledgeable fans teach me as well. 

I equate it to this. Just like the Christian believes in spiritual values gifted by god so does the atheist believe in moral values gifted by man. The message is often the same however is taught in ways that are completely opposed from one another. The results wanted are in my view, often are ironically one in the same. 

My hope is that these two groups will learn to embrace each other for the good of the sport that we have grown to love. If this happens MMA will take over the world. Big sponsors like Coke and Pepsi will be crawling to get their logo on every fighters shorts and I will be able to watch some of my favorite fighters go at it every weekend in glorious HD on the big screen. Growth is painful I know but necessary in my opinion. 

This blog is not intended to be directed at anyone specifically so please don’t take it that way. I am purely motivated by my love of the sport and a yearning to see the it grow. Thanks for reading my first blog and more of them will be coming in the future. 

Remember to have fun folks and happy holidays! 

dMo