UFC 200

[corplinx]

How would you have have liked to step in the ring against a genetic freak who makes Shaq's hands look a normal size?

Modern day Titan.

[Doctor X]

Or the guy who beat him?

--J. "Take My Sweet Axe Kick!" D.

[Anaxagoras]

Has MMA surpassed boxing in popularity these days?

How much money do the top ones make?

It's a little hard to tell with the hands whose are bigger, but Shaq's feet are clearly bigger.

[Doctor X]

Pulling numbers out of my fundament I would respond "yes." A lot of it is the fault of boxing. Too many independent organizations. To much politicking. Too many Don King types.

Then you have the problem that the primary way to win professional boxing is to cause head trauma to the opponent. Despite the viciousness that MMA appears to have, far less get injured. You can knock out an opponent, or at least when he falls to the ground you can complete the submission rather than the referee letting him get up, count to eight, then let you punch him in the head again.

The Grappling-Brazillian-Fanboys a decade ago would tout how they could beat any martial artist by taking them to the ground. Until, as one of the many "R" Gracie Scions admitted in the forward to a very entertaining and useful "How Too Book," they eventually met with people who knew how to punch! Against a Take Mae Do practitioner for whom striking is something other people do, a "kick to the head" quickly became "catch kick slam to canvass ground and pound." Coming in on another practitioner earned a knee to the face or a proper haymaker. So they adapted.

A good striker--be it with hands or shins--can stun to outright knock out/leg smash the opponent. Said opponent either drops and the fight is over, or is quickly then taken to the ground and the fight ended. There is no punching the guy, having him fall to the ground, then the referee giving a "count" until he gets up, only to be punched in the face again until he goes down.

Fans can practice all of that a lot more safely. You can work on take-downs, submissions, all of that with control. In practice you can pull punches to the head. You can add that all to your "tool kit" should Mongo-sama the Rapist decide to come after you in Ginza with a fist covered in wasabi.

Boxing?

"Um, you are going to be hit in the face. Repeatedly."

"Can I sweep the leg, Johnny?"

"No. Try not to pass out before he does from being hit in the face."

So I think a major part of the popularity is "fans" can see more of the realism as opposed to two "heavy weights" lumbering about, punching a few times, clinching, being separated, and all of that until either the Favorite Wins or finally someone finally lands a blow. Very, very few of us fans can put on 200 lbs of actual muscle and then add the stamina to go rounds and rounds in a heavy weight boxing match. Now, I do not propose that that means "we" can then "enter the Octagon"--bow to your sensei!--and compete but at least the techniques seem possible and do not depend on being 200+ lbs. You do not expect to beat the MMA professionals but you can at least think about trying the techniques on Some Scumbag attacking you so you can get away.

Trying to box for 13 rounds evading and all of that? NOT going to happen on T3h D34dly Streetz.

Blah . . . blah . . . blah . . . "Wall of Text"

--J.D.

[corplinx]

UFC appears more brutal but doesn't leave people with CTE like Boxing. (unless you believe Muhammad Ali was just "punch drunk")

The early UFCs had the ruled tuned to basically give wins to the Brazillians, which was sad since Royce was legitimately good enough to beat all those karate scrubs without a clothing choke.

On the boxing v. ufc thing, I think Joe Rogan had a good tv spot about it:
[youtube][/youtube]

Ronda Rousey is a household name, but who is the boxing women's champion right now? Exactly.

Boxing is a brutal sport that should perhaps be retired.

[Doctor X]

UFC appears more brutal but doesn't leave people with CTE like Boxing. (unless you believe Muhammad Ali was just "punch drunk")

"Punch drunk"--dementia pugilistica--IS CTE.

--J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

Does the former refer to the short-term immediate effects and the latter the long-term permanent effects?

[corplinx]

In hindsight, both.

[Doctor X]

Does the former refer to the short-term immediate effects and the latter the long-term permanent effects?

Actually, technically neither since "long-term permanent effects" would refer to the long-term sequelli of a head injury. This syndrome is a dementia that develops after the injury. To put it simply, "long-term" would refer to, say, a deficit you suffer that persists and does not fully resolve. This syndrome involves a further dementia after your situation has stabilized if not improved.

That may seem quibbling, but one of the whole problems with CTE in the NFL that douches such as Goodel exploited was the lack of a direct cause and effect between repeated injuries and the commencement of progressive decline. It also demonstrated that a different physiological explanation linked to repetitive injury is involved.

--J.D.

[corplinx]

markhuntfighter
Nothing but respect to big Brock got my ass beat couldn't get out of first gear it's a part of fighting winning and losing the old warhorse is still going

and to all the fans don't be so salty life goes on and on and then we die bahahahaha

The sportsmanship seems to be pretty good in MMA. UFC sort of pushed personal angles for a while but then they became a meta-joke. There is bad sportmanship as well, but the good seems to be what fans want.

Mark Hunt was a tough SOB in that fight.

[corplinx]

Brock Lesnar has been flagged for a potential doping violation. Much shit ensues.

a. Why was he allowed to fight if so? They cancelled another fighter for the same thing on the same card.
b. Mark Hunt wants ALL teh monay now!!! The UFC actually takes money from fighters who aren't clean and awards it to the other guy as a disincentive. But Mark Hunt is going nuts now for ALL TEH MONAY.

I'm not sure what a potential doping violation even means. But why did people really familiar with steroid physiques not call BS earlier?

This is 1970s steroid use.



Massively overdeveloped pecs. Check. Shoulders like swollen coconuts. Check.

Back then you basically had testosterone for bulking.

Arnold before massive amounts of gear.



He wasn't a genetic freak to begin with.

Brock Lesnar in high school.


That's one big ass Iowa farm boy.

This is what using modern PEDs does to a guy:


That's Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler, two Mr Olympias.

These are extreme examples of PED use though. In general, you can lump PED usage into two categories.

Bulking- things that make you larger/stronger
Cutting- things that make you burn body fat

Brock has an extremely low amount of body fat. He trains something like 32 hours a day. He's big, but not superhuge.

It will be interesting to find out what the alleged doping violation is about. Past age 35, men's testosterone production tapers off. Brock could have definitely been supplementing his 40 year old self at non-ridiculous levels.

[Abdul Alhazred]

The pre-juicing Arnold resembles Charles Atlas.

That was the standard of male beauty of the era.

[corplinx]

Arnold cites Steve Reeves as one of his early body idols:


Early body builders thought Reeves had access to steroids but of course, he didn't have Anavar+Winstrol+HGH+Insulin+Decabol.

[Doctor X]

Do you even lift, Bro?

--J.D.

[corplinx]

Lift? I even carry a pair of dumbbells from rack to rack at the gym so nobody thinks I'm just walking or doing cardio.

[Grammatron]

Gotta get them gains.