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Ultimate Fighting: Not Gay, Per Se
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Why does mixed-martial arts have such a following in the gay community? Fight writer Sam Sheridan on the homoerotic realities of battling on the ground.
Thad Russell recently wrote a short piece on this site asking, “Is the UFC gay?” He was referring to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, commonly known as cage-fighting. He wondered if this “manly sport” would soon be the “gayest,” referencing a rumored phenomenon, the growing popularity of the UFC in the gay community.
First of all, let me make an important distinction—the UFC is a promotion, and MMA (Mixed-Martial Arts) is the name of the sport…think of it like HBO and cable TV.
When someone is on top of you, punching you in the face, you try everything.
So, is MMA gay? What separates MMA from other ring sports (like boxing or kick-boxing) is that the fights continue if the combatants fall to the ground. MMA incorporates wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu and other forms of prone combat. Are two men fighting on the ground gay? That’s sort of in the eye of the beholder, although I understand where the confusion comes in.
The homoeroticism that purportedly draws the gay audience is a byproduct of the realities of fighting on the ground. Ground-fighting is a very technical game, with ex-Olympic wrestlers spending years studying various forms of “submission” wrestling. When two men fall to the ground, trying to kill each other with their bare hands, the man on the bottom is best served by getting his legs around his opponent’s hips, to control him, to limit the damage done by the top man. It looks like the missionary position. Believe me, if something else worked better, they would be doing it—MMA is based on trial-and-error; what works best in a real fight with as few rules as possible. When someone is on top of you, punching you in the face, you try everything.
If the bottom man has missionary position, called “the guard” and pioneered by the Brazilians, he can keep himself safe, and mount his own attacks. It looks like men humping at first, but you get used to it.
At its core, ground fighting is about applying leverage; creating mismatches, through superior position. I find a way to isolate my opponent’s arm, and then attack his elbow with the strength of my whole body (usually manifested in my hips); maneuvers range from wrenching arms out of sockets to cutting off blood flow to the brain. The experienced ground fighter has thousands of ways to wrestle his way around an opponent (or cause his opponent to fall into these positional “mismatches”).
A submission wrestler tries to choke or threaten such grievous injury that his opponent is forced to “tap” and concede victory, or accept the injury. This is the submission; and the beauty of it is, no permanent damage is done, as long as you tap. It’s by far the most benign way to win an MMA fight.
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call me a rocket scientist. but im gonna guess it has to do with a bunch of musclar dudes in boxer shorts rolling around
If that were true, logic would dictate that the UFC would also have some female fans!
...oh wait, it does?
So that makes MMA gay and effeminate right?
...basketball is dominated by black athletes, and some white people watch it... does that make basketball white?
/I'm confused
Only people can be gay (or not gay). Sports have no sexuality whatsoever -- regardless of whether they have a large gay fanbase or not.
Me thinks the writer doth protest too much...
Nonsense. I think jdimaggio has never played any contact sport like football or hockey or trained any martial art like karate or kendo. I am straight and I have been punched and thrown to the ground by men and women and never found it at all sexy. If someone does not believe in nonsexual physical contact, then that person has not experienced it.
That being said, I like to watch women's beach volley ball because I like seeing almost naked women doing athletic things. If I were gay, I would like MMA for similar reasons.
i don't think you read the article correctly. He said it can be perceived as being gay - not that he thought it was gay. And if it was, no one cares anyway because everyone is there for a good fight.
Great article (never mind the homophobic trolls posting comments), and btw Sheridan's book "A Fighter's Heart" is fantastic.
It is disturbing that boxing promoters have resorted to bashing MMA as gay, and not getting any backlash for it. Let's face it though, boxing is a dying sport because of those greedy dinosaurs, and with that limited mindset rightfully so.
Dana White is actually out-networking boxing.
Take a look at last saturday's boxing match. Big time match-up like that doesn't come around all that often for boxing. Dana White knows this, and puts on an excellent fight card at last minute and makes it free on Spike. I can say everyone who I was with Saturday Night would rather watch the great UFC fights for free than pay to watch the great Boxing Match.
Dana White is the best in the business.
You are correct Monk....boxing is boring now when it used to be fun to watch.
Whatever you say, Sam. I watched "Wrestler" (Mickey Rourke) last night. What a great American story; Rourke, the wrestler and Marissa Tomei, the love interest who played a pole/lap dancer. Both of them aging pieces of meat staring into the abyss. Despite the brutality in the ring, the "off-stage" scenes were caring, tender and affectionate.
It was like a seedy version of imperial Rome, the coliseum and the gladiators. We like our men strong and our women beautiful. Some people will do anything to attain the image.
They need the envy or adulation or "love" that goes along with it.
What I wanted from 'Wrestler' was more about the mind-set of prowrestler's....what, exactly, do they THINK they're doing? How do they see themselves, especially at that level?
aahhhhh...so sweeeeeeeee.....
"Byproduct," hell... Because hetero male behavior is compromised by what women will tolerate, straight guys typically haven't a clue what gay men are like in the clinches. Double the testosterone and you get pretty much the same result, regardless of venue or orientation.
I'm straight to a fault: I'm starting to wish I didn't have such a thing for women. But I also wish that my hetero sex could be a lot more like a wrestling match. I always feel like women are going to break in half if I get too rambunctious.
Perhaps you just haven't found the right woman...
Jessica: I am channeling Plantagenet. He wants your phone number.
Latent, eh?
The guard position is not a Brazilian invention, though the Gracies and Brazilian jujutsu popularized it in the UFC era. The Gracie patriarch learned his groundfighting from a travelling Japanese judoka (judo player) named Maeda. Judo itself is an amalgamation of old jujutsu schools located around Japan. The throwing is largely from Kito-ryu Jujutsu. The groundfighting is from Fusen-ryu Jujutsu. Fusen-ryu is still practiced today.
The whole thesis that MMA looks "gay" is adolescent as it gets. The less and tighter the clothing, the less to trap and choke you with. Whether it's popular among gays really has nothing to do with it. I'd prefer to see MMA fights de-sexualized further by getting rid of ring girls. The techniques used to be taught only in secret. A lot of struggle and suffering in a violent period helped to produce those. That they are peddled on TV now is a tremendous opportunity for the audience and a tragedy in the way they're being made banal.
As a(straight, if that matters) BJJ practitioner, I have no problem admitting the homoerotic tone of the grappling aspect of MMA. But just to emphasize Sam's paragraph on fight-or-flight instinct, I highly doubt if a gay fighter would have any time to think about sex when grappling. I regularly grapple with girls, and while I like to joke about it being (sexually) pleasant for me, the reality is I'm too busy trying to not have my arm ripped out of my shoulder socket.
The point of view for most you talk to is that straigh boxing fell some years ago with too many "fixes" by promoters. Television wrestling has always been "phoney" I had a friend in Oklahoma that took a thirty day leave from the military every year and wrestled in Oklahoma City..He was the "bad" guy but the association paid him enough every year to buy a new automobile. In UFC these guys aren't faking bleeding all over the ring. They actually beat the hell outa each other, gay or not.
Which is "gay" in my book.
"Billy, do you like gladiator movies?"
Good fucking grief. If you have a nasty mind, so many things can be perceived as sexual or gay, or whatever. I dare you to ask a MMA fighter if he's gay to his face!
Denial wears many faces; some of them fierce-some.
Wet Pixels? Why?
This is a well written piece by someone who really understands the sport.However there was a gay component since its inception.
There is nothing "gay" about two dudes beating the living hell out of each other!
It's not sexuality at work here (homo or otherwise) it's pure human brutality.
Which is why MMA is so damned entertaining!
Pure competition - two athletes in peak condition struggle until the strongest one wins - a latter day version of ancient gladiatorial battles!
That's why MMA is crushing the staid, lame and has been sport of boxing in the ratings/pay per view buys wars!
Huge gay audience.
Great article--thanks.
Of COURSE it's gay. It's sooooooo gay. On a scale of one to gay, it's GAAAAAAY !
But so what if it's gay?
Sweaty mens rollin' atop of one another? Bare feet flyin' in the air? Bare legs hooked around bare backs 'n muscular round manbooties? Noses in armpits? Nipples and pecs glistening? Oh, and those shoulders and biceps straining, man to man?
The only thing gayer is watching.
Yep. Gay all around. Good post, sweetie.
As a gay man I cannot say if MMA is gay or not.
I only know it is HOT!
Love the short shorts!
Got to sign off. This was a squeaking fun post. More like a roast than a conversation, but hey; it's the community.
Thank you.
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