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I train brazillian juijitsu at Straight Blast Gym in Portland. It makes up most of the grappling/ground work that you see in MMA. Several members of our school compete regular in ameture and professional mixed martial arts events.

To people that thing the sport is brutal, i think that is mostly a matter of perception. MMA bouts look bloody because even superficial head wounds bleed alot and the fighters are wearing small gloves. But when you compare it to boxing where a fighter often goes through 12 rounds of constant blows to the head the damage in MMA is much less. Fighters just can't pound on each other constantly because they have kicks, takedowns, and the grappling element to deal with. They can choose to submit their opponent in other ways with a choke or an armlock.

To the people that say MMA not a sport does that mean that Olympic events like Greco Roman or freestyle wrestling, boxing, and Tae Kwon Do are not sports either and should be banned? All MMA does is take techniques from all those above and combines them into an effective package. I will agree that some of its image and marketing is directed towards a certain demographic and sometimes that annoys me, but then you have people like Randy Couture who are humble athletes and gracious, polite people.

posted 4 years, 12 months ago
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