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![]() Editorial by 
- Bloodsport or profound competition?
Being a fan of mixed martial arts for quite some time now, I have often asked myself the same question over and over again? What is it that draws the masses towards this sports?
Back in the 90´s when the first MMA organisations started, the term "MMA" hasn´t even come to existance, it was referred to as "Extreme Fighting" or "Cage Fighting". And over here in Germany(where I was born and raised) it did not have a good reputation at all- it was considered brutal, primitive and potentially lethal to the competitors( and in some ways this perception has not changed very much over the years since MMA is still banned on german TV) . Comparisons to the Gladiator fights in ancient rome were all over the place- men fighting for their lives just to please the audience. In return, the audience would have no regard for the wellbeing of the competitors whatsoever.
As the years passed, MMA left it´s infancy behind and evolved into a legitimate sport with fans all over the world, right now it is globally the fastest growing sport. But still the question remains- what is it that´s so compelling about the wohle MMA universe?
Personally , it was the temptation of the forbidden. VHS-Tapes of UFC events were almost impossible to get back then here in Germany. You had to search sites like ebay for hours and had to pay an obscene amount of money just to get a few tapes of the very early events.Surely I was into it because it was legally not allowed to own those tapes back then, and I can still feel the rush of adrenaline when another new tape arrived at my home.
But as the sport evolved my perception changed also. It wasn´t just adrenaline anymore, it was about competition, seeing individual fighters progress, evolve and getting better and better, just a little bit like watching your kids grow.
Nowadays MMA is on a roll and can barely be stopped. Why is that? In my humble opinion it´s like this: times are getting more complicated every single day. A fight is a very profund and simple thing.A fight is either "black or white", nothing inbetween.You win or you lose, there is a beauty and purity in it that don´t occur very often in modern times.The urge to fight and survive, to compete lies within our DNA since the earliest days of humanity, and it will remain there despite of us being so "civilized".
And to finish this off : it´s better to let it all out in the cage, where two individuals agree to fight and compete against each other, rather than take your aggressions out to your familiy or the people around you, am I wrong?
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