There is not, to the best of my knowledge, a single American newspaper reporter whose primary job is covering mixed martial arts. That means to the extent that newspapers (or newspaper-dependent sites like the Drudge Report) feature any MMA coverage at all, it usually comes from the Associated Press.
And that's a serious problem, because the AP apparently assigns reporters who don't understand the first thing about the sport to cover it. That's the conclusion I'd have to draw from this dispatch that moved over the AP wires Thursday morning. The piece is misinformed from the very first word:
Ultimate fighting was once the sole domain of burly men who beat each other bloody in anything-goes brawls on pay-per-view TV.There is no such thing as "ultimate fighting," any more than there is such a thing as "major league baseballing." There is a sport called mixed martial arts, and the most popular league in that sport is called UFC, an abbreviation for Ultimate Fighting Championship. When you begin a story about mixed martial arts by referring to the sport as "ultimate fighting," you are announcing to your readers that you know nothing about the sport you're covering.
But it gets worse.
The story continues:
But the sport often derided as "human cockfighting" is branching out.We've now reached the point where the only fun thing about reading newspaper stories about MMA is trying to guess when the words "human cockfighting" will appear. If you predicted the 31st and 32nd words, you win. The next sentence begins even worse
The bare-knuckle fights are now attracting competitors as young as 6 whose parents treat the sport as casually as wrestling, Little League or soccer.Emphasis mine, because I can't imagine what bare-knuckle fights the AP is talking about. All sanctioned MMA fights feature competitors wearing gloves. What's more, the photo accompanying this AP dispatch clearly shows that the competitors are wearing gloves.
As for parents who send their kids into MMA: Good for them. Have you ever seen 6-year-olds play sports? They're clumsy and weak. I would be much more worried about a kid with no coordination accidentally hitting another kid with a bat in Little League than I would be about a kid hurting another kid in MMA.The changes were evident on a recent evening in southwest Missouri, where a team of several young boys and one girl grappled on gym mats in a converted garage.I'm guessing the writer means "sucker punches" in the same way he meant "bare-knuckle," which is to he doesn't mean it at all. But it's good to hear that no one was hurt and they were wearing proper padding. And so we can conclude that these little kids, who in most cases wouldn't be strong enough to do serious damage to each other even if they tried, aren't getting hurt, and we can all have a juice box and go home happy, right?Two members of the group called the "Garage Boys Fight Crew" touched their thin martial-arts gloves in a flash of sportsmanship before beginning a relentless exchange of sucker punches, body blows and swift kicks.
No blood was shed. And both competitors wore protective gear.
The trend alarms medical experts and sports officials who worry that young bodies can't withstand the pounding.This is the part where the reader expects a quote from one of those medical experts -- or at least a name of some medical authority who is alarmed.
But no, the AP doesn't quote any of these alleged medical experts. It does quote parents who have positive things to say about their kids' participation in the sport, "which is also known as mixed martial arts or cage fighting," the AP casually mentions.
"Cage Fighting"? Again, the reader waits for the next paragraph to describe Missouri youths shoved inside a chicken-wire box and brutally pummeling each other with one bare-knuckled sucker punch after the other. Alas, the image never comes. Maybe that scene was cut by the editor.(For the record, "cage fighting" is a phrase like "arena football." It's not an activity you can enjoy unless you have a cage handy. Some mixed martial arts organizations use a ring like boxing, others use a mat like wrestling, still others use a cage. Because of the cost and availability of cages, I seriously doubt there's a single youth MMA organization that uses them.)
Now, back to the misinformation:
Now, Miller is the only person quoted in the story who says anything negative about young people participating in MMA. And, from what we can glean from the story, Miller isn't a "medical expert." He's a boxing administrator.Joe Miller, administrator of the Oklahoma Professional Boxing Commission, said youth fights are banned in his state, and he wants it to stay that way.
"There's too much potential for damage to growing joints," he said.
Asking a boxing administrator to evaluate the merits of MMA is like asking the CEO of Pepsi to judge the merits of Coke, or a Democratic politician to evaluate the work of a Republican president. Miller might be an exceptionally forthright and unbiased voice, but it's not in his interests to be one.Everyone who follows either boxing or MMA knows that many supporters of the former worry it will be eclipsed by the latter, and that the relationship between the both sports has been contentious. As such, Miller's opinion is a shoddy basis for judging whether MMA is healthy for kids.
The story ends with a very nice, very positive picture of how parents feel about their children's participation in MMA. So why did the story get off to such a harsh start, with the "bare knuckles" and the "human cockfighting"? I see a few obvious reasons.
Because that's the way newspaper articles about MMA are always framed. This AP writer played it safe by regurgitating the scenes he saw in other stories, and simply added the youth angle.
Because fear sells. I'm no media basher, and I have no problem with a report leading with the most engaging or salacious facts when those facts actually exist. I know "MMA Enriches the Lives of American Youths," is something of a dog-bites-man story. Which is fine. If there's no story here, just don't write the story.
But now it's out there. As shoddy as this story is, now that it's appeared on Drudge, there's a very good chance it may jump all the way to one of the national morning talk shows or evening cable shouting matches.
There's no competition to call the AP out: The culture of newspaper reporting has long revolved around the urge to not get "beat" by competitors at other papers or news services. With few papers covering MMA, the AP doesn't have to worry much about being shown up by anyone other than bloggers like me.There are some exceptions. The Orange County Register provides excellent MMA coverage. So does the Dayton Daily News. The Baltimore Sun has had a good MMA blog for the last 16 months, and even though blogger Pramit Mohapatra recently left to start his own blog, the Sun says it's still committed to covering the sport.
But even in those cases, the papers don't have full-time beat reporters assigned to the sport, and considering the way newspapers across the country are cutting staff, it's unlikely that any paper will hire a full-time beat reporter to cover MMA.
Which means it's basically up to the AP to provide almost all the coverage of MMA that American newspaper readers consume, and up to blogs and other new media sources to call them out when they don't.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 2)
1. The only thing worse than fans of MMA are parents who push children into the sport. Kids are too young to decide for themselves if it's something they want to do.
You say that children are too weak to do each other any damage. Even if that were true at age six, which I doubt, it's not true at ten, twelve, or fourteen. These kids should not be allowed to fight - MMA or boxing.
Posted at 4:40PM on Mar 28th 2008 by nganassim
2. MDS,
Just wanted to say thanks for posting about this. I was reading the Arizona Republic and was disappointed to see a tease for this story on the front page. It was buried on A14, but I found it just as infuriating as you did.
I left for work wondering which of the mma blogs I frequent would tackle it, and I'm glad to see someone did.
Although most of the time I disagree with you and your take on mma, I think everyone who has bothered to give the sport a fair chance will agree that this kind of coverage is unacceptable.
As a journalist myself, this offends me twice over.
First, as a fan of the sport, it upsets me to think that there are quite a few people out there who read stuff like this and will use that to justify their ignorance.
Second, as a journalist who takes pride in his work, this kind of thing gets under my skin because there is no excuse for what Marcus Kabel did. Either he didn't do his research, which makes him lazy and a disgrace to journalism, or he deliberately took the sensationalist route to ensure that this would get picked up nationwide and get his byline read by as many people as possible, in which case he is a disgrace to true journalism.
Thanks again for staying on top of this stuff, MDS.
Posted at 4:51PM on Mar 28th 2008 by cripplr233
3. nganassim - Great comment! Are you the AP writer in question?
Good post MDS.
Posted at 4:56PM on Mar 28th 2008 by Cousins of Ron Meixco
4. Personally, I don't understand what makes teaching kids MMA any different than teaching them any other form of martial arts. Basically, as long as it is taught to children in a responsible manner, it shouldn't be any big deal.
When I read the AP article, I have to say I was looking forward to reading what you had to say about it because it looked like garbage.
Posted at 5:10PM on Mar 28th 2008 by Stephanie Stradley
5. Cousins of Ron Mexico - no, I'm not the writer, and I think that he should be criticized for getting his facts wrong, whether by mistake or deliberately.
The problem with MMA is not the people fighting - I think it's fine for two adults to consent to fight each other. But it's sick that people get enjoyment from watching others beat the hell out of each other. And it's worse that there are parents trying to live vicariously through their children in such a brutal way.
Posted at 5:20PM on Mar 28th 2008 by nganassim
6. As a parent of an almost 7 year old boy, I find that MMA is a good compliment to sports. It teaches discipline and coordination. Also, I do not know of any school around my area that lets young children compete in a so-called "bare nuckles" match. They are all closely watched and all of the kids where protective gear when engaging in sparring. There are still rules in MMA just like any other martial art. All I ask is that you do your research before you start bashing the sport.
Posted at 5:22PM on Mar 28th 2008 by Brian
7. Thanks for writing this, MDS. I was blind with rage when I read this hatchet job.
Posted at 5:56PM on Mar 28th 2008 by Matt Ufford
8. There seems to be little difference between teaching MMA to our children, than teaching them some other form of Martial Art.
While I wouldn't condone children risking life and limb in a brutal cage fight, I would condone the teaching of a healthy sport and practical self-defense.
From what I've read, most of the negative responses to this have been made with the assumption that A) the Child doesn't want to do this. And B) That the parent would be living vicariously through the child.
I'm sure that if people stopped casting such a dark light on this and started looking at it for what it really is, we would see that it is no different having your kid learn MMA than it is to have him learn Tae-Kown-Do.
Posted at 10:37PM on Mar 28th 2008 by Adam S.
9. Does the average kid know that it is not appropriate to use some of these techniques against someone on the playground ? Doubtful...in fact they may seek out/start fights with others to bolster their egos further. Over the line...yes..it's bad enough some adults love this brutality..parents don't need to be living through their kids this way...dah.
Posted at 10:49PM on Mar 28th 2008 by Frank
10. UFC will take over the boxing world for the sports entertainment dollars because the fights are legit compared to the Golden Boys, Pretty Boys, The Greatest In His Own World etc. pay per view fights that are box office knockouts for the promoters but the fans feels cheated.
Posted at 12:05AM on Mar 29th 2008 by George B Vieto
11. Six year old kids playing sports is just fine. Mixed Martial Arts is just that- a sport. If a parent feels that a particular sport has more to offer than another sport, that seems like a fair and viable decision to make. I teach kids 7 and up BJJ right now and they get injured "grappling" with about the same frequency as playing baseball-which isn't very often. Don't confuse overcompetitive parents who live their lives through their children with active parents that are aware of the risks AND benifits of putting their children into sports at an early age.
Has anybody looked at the injury numbers for football at any age? If you think MMA is dangerous, you better not ever play football.
Posted at 12:33AM on Mar 29th 2008 by chris d
12. have you actually SEEN two six-year-olds hitting each other? Its not exactly like watching Rocky IV. Go to any karate school and you'll see two six year olds punching each other in the face. Its not that big of a deal. If you have not actually for yourself witnessed or been apart of children being injured via MMA, than all you have is an uninformed opinion. An uninformed opinion may be good enough to elect the next president, but its not much good on this forum.
Posted at 12:37AM on Mar 29th 2008 by chris d
13. You either like MMA or you don't. As long as everyone gets to choose for themselves whether or not they want to participate, or to watch, then no harm done.
Posted at 10:48AM on Mar 29th 2008 by ventures360
14. I couldn't believe this crap when I first read it on the wire and I'm not even an MMA fan. As long as high contact sports like boxing, wrestling, and the various martial arts are well regulated they are excellent outlets for youths, especially when you consider the alternative. You know, blogging from their mother's basement.
Posted at 11:32AM on Mar 30th 2008 by Unsilent Majority
15. I have to disagree with Mr. Vieto. The coverage on MMA has been anything but unfair and its popularity has been grossly overstated. It reminds me of the 1996 coverage of the WNBA and how popularity that sport was going to become.
Ratings consistenly show that MMA only does well with thhe white male 18-34 demographic, which is a declining in overall share when compared with the faster growing Hispanic segment, which will always prefer boxing.So the demographic makeup of the US in ten to 15 years favors boxing. Boxing was more popular than the UFC with much more negative coverage and mainstream bias.
MMA only achieved its current status because there hasn't been a dominant and charismatic american boxing heavyweight champion since the pre-1990 Mike Tyson and heavyweights have always carried boxing, their has not been a decline in the number boxing organizations and they still rely too heavily on pay per view and HBO and forgot about the TV networks, which could build their name recognition amongst younger fighters and expose them to a bigger audience. The major networks don't have the same power as they once did in the 80s when stars like Sugar Ray Leonard, Robert Duran and many others benefitted, prior to cable TV and the Internet reducing their viewing audience, but there is still some benefit to having fights on CBS and NBC versus HBO.
I will agree that MMA has avoided some of the mistakes that lead to matchups based only on money, but it already shares the same inherent problem that boxing has in that the number of MMA organizations is increasing -- its not the UFC (there are alot of leagues), each with its own champion that will eventually lead to its downfall.
The major sports like NFL, NBA and MLB all have standard commission and if MMA, Boxing or any other sport wants to reach that status; they will have unify the commisions and develop a national league to develop kids for either sport. Until then, the NFL and NBA will remain a far bigger threat to boxing or MMA by getting the best athletes that might otherwise be heavyweights.
Posted at 12:14PM on Mar 30th 2008 by Anthony White
16. Ok...comment #1...you obviously never got in a fight in school when you were a kid. But anyway, yeah, lets burn those MMA fans..cause they..like,..are...making people brutal killers! ARG!!! ...god bless America.
Posted at 12:50AM on Mar 31st 2008 by Snall
17. Oh but that's not the end of it. ABC News put out its own video piece on youth "ultimate fighting", to which my new site composed a letter in response.
http://fightticker.com/story_033108_letter_to_abc_news_re_youth_ultimate_fighting
If anyone can help get this to the good people at ABC News, please contact me at pramit.mohapatra@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Pramit
Posted at 9:26AM on Mar 31st 2008 by Pramit Mohapatra
18. 18. MDS,
I had to comment on your article. I was furious when I read the AP's article. I am a white 27 year old female fan of MMA. My husband is also an amateur MMA fighter. I have been hooked on the sport for years now and from everything I have seen this is the safest sport out there. of course people are going to get hurt sometimes. Injuries are possible in any sport whether its children playing the sport or adults. There are very strict rules in MMA though. Thats why people tap out or have a referee stoppage. I see no difference in letting my child be an mma fighter than letting them play soccer or football or gymnastics. A long as they are happy and being taught by people with enough experience in the sport to know what they are doing then I don't care what sport they choose. I hate all the negative information that is out there regarding MMA. If people would actually sit and watch a few fights they might be amazed at how little of the trash talking or over exposed females they see as compared to "wrestling entertainment" that young kids are so fond of. Instead fighters are oftentimes friends who can engage in a fight and win or lose can go hang out together when it is all over. I hope that journalists can start to do their research instead of just going by the old assumptions that MMA is a bunch of burly men beating each other to death with no regard for life or limb. I know my husband and I plan to enroll our son in judo around the age of 4 and move from there to BJJ and MMA. AT least I know he will be able to defend himself and he will learn good self discipline and confidence along with being physically fit. I'd rather have him doing that than say spending hours in front of the tv or sneaking off to spend hours on the computer,or hours on a cell phone/texting like most kids seem wont to do these days. Thanks for your positive spin on the sport. Keep it up! MMA needs educated advocates!
Posted at 3:15PM on Mar 31st 2008 by mmmagurl
19. "But now it's out there. As shoddy as this story is, now that it's appeared on Drudge, there's a very good chance it may jump all the way to one of the national morning talk shows "
Sir, you are a prophet. Just saw that the story popped up on CNN's morning show.
Posted at 6:53AM on Apr 1st 2008 by Boog
20. The AP is Pretty Stupid in my opinion. I've seen Kids as young as 5 years old train in this sport and these children are well diciplined they enjoy the sport and have self control. People will not truly understand the sport until they have A try for themselves.
Posted at 3:24PM on Apr 1st 2008 by Rhyno