Is "Fighting" a "Sport"?

Absolutely they're sports. Im only an amateur but I've never gone in the cage with the intention of doing serious harm to the other guy. I'm trying to conquer my fear and test my physical limitations, understand the weaknesses in my own game and assert my will. It's hard to explain how much fear you actually feel when the door closes and how free and alive you feel when you've come out of it unscathed. If I lose the other guy has helped me to become a better person. It's got nothing to do with mindless savagery. It's a chess game where the person able to outthink the opponent wins.

You'll find most mma gyms are very tight knit places where egos get weeded out quickly and the guys training tend to be laid back and peaceful in their day to day lives.

This is one of the quotes on the wall in my gym as you go in, not sure exactly where it comes from but it exemplifies what we're trying to achieve.

"You are my adversary, but you are not my enemy. For your resistance gives me strength. Your will gives me courage. Your spirit ennobles me. And though I aim to defeat you, should I succeed, I will not humiliate you.
Instead, I will honor you. For without you, I am a lesser man."

originally posted by: Revolution9
a reply to: Akragon

I guess it is. Cage Fighting seems a bit suspect though.

Personally I don't watch fighting sports. They make me feel sick. I had all the violence I would ever want to experience as a child growing up on a horrible and violent council estate (project in U.S).

My favourite sport is cycling.

When I was younger I watched boxing, but I watched a fight where one of the boxers just would not give in and he got a brain injury from which he never recovered. I have never seen a guy stand up to the punishment he took that night. It made me cry and since that time I have not been able to watch a boxing match.

I would rather bathe in rose petals and kiss the purple sky than watch men or women bashing each other in a contest.

But each to their own Mr Akragon.

Good day.

You must not have seen Lawler vs. McDonald this past July.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
Yes, fighting is a sport.
They have rules of competition.
NASCAR on the other hand is not a sport. Or is it?
Turning left is a sport?

Although I know what's going on in NASCAR for the most part,
and I will not claim to be a fan.....

There IS a lot more going on,
Than just turning left.

Come on....use the 'sense'.....
the common kind.

originally posted by: MagnaCarta2015
Absolutely they're sports. Im only an amateur but I've never gone in the cage with the intention of doing serious harm to the other guy. I'm trying to conquer my fear and test my physical limitations, understand the weaknesses in my own game and assert my will. It's hard to explain how much fear you actually feel when the door closes and how free and alive you feel when you've come out of it unscathed. If I lose the other guy has helped me to become a better person. It's got nothing to do with mindless savagery. It's a chess game where the person able to outthink the opponent wins.

You'll find most mma gyms are very tight knit places where egos get weeded out quickly and the guys training tend to be laid back and peaceful in their day to day lives.

This is one of the quotes on the wall in my gym as you go in, not sure exactly where it comes from but it exemplifies what we're trying to achieve.

"You are my adversary, but you are not my enemy. For your resistance gives me strength. Your will gives me courage. Your spirit ennobles me. And though I aim to defeat you, should I succeed, I will not humiliate you.
Instead, I will honor you. For without you, I am a lesser man."

I don't believe you.


On topic:

It's a sport.

a reply to: Akragon

Anyone who thinks that MMA is "an all-out street fight" is about as ignorant as it comes concerning that sport.

I don't need to go into any further detail, because if someone doesn't understand why I'm saying that, they (or you, I guess, as this case may be) need to do your due diligence in researching what MMA and "cage fighting" (a boxing ring is no less a cage than an octagon, just with different material keeping the fighter in the specified area) actually entails,: The techniques, the rules, the sportsmanship, the skills, and everything else that goes with it.

MMA is not street fighting, although it can work okay in a street fight (but so can boxing, sometimes).

I train in Krav Maga--that is straight-up street fighting. All of the different martial arts that combine to make an MMA fighter are not street-fighting techniques, but tournament sports.

There is a difference.

originally posted by: Revolution9
I have "left the cave" like Elvis left the building, lol.

Wearing a cape?

(That's how Batman left the cave, too)

a reply to: Akragon

I would say yes and I like mixed martial arts.