A few last thoughts on the subject of mixed martial arts^{*Before I get back to my true passion: Bennett Buggy repair.} in the wake of UFC 83, which went off last Saturday in Montreal, and of an interview Robin Brown conducted with me for The Inside Track, which will air on CBC Radio One at 1:30 on Sunday, May 3, in most parts of the country (4:30 Pacific and 2 in Newfoundland, also on Sirius channel 137 at 6:30 Eastern).

Prior to the interview, Robin did a blog post where she came at MMA from an outside observer’s perspective, saying she saw little grace or athleticism in it. Predictably, commenters jumped all over her, saying she didn’t have a clue what she was talking about.

As I’ve discussed in a few previous posts, the view Robin offered is shared by most people — and it’s a totally valid view. The ground and pound, in particular, looks to all the world like adrenalin-fuelled bludgeoning because that’s exactly what it is.

That said, there’s clearly an aspiration among purists to have outsiders see that that’s not all it is—that there is nuance there, that a ground and pound can be the result of an artfully executed strategy, that there are moments in a fight where grace and athleticism do reign. These moments are brief, but they do happen. Georges St.-Pierre’s title fight at UFC 83 in Montreal offered a few good examples.

Take the first exchange of the first round. Matt Serra, St.-Pierre’s opponent, won their first match largely thanks to the stand-up phase, outboxing him. This was surprising, because Serra is known primarily as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter. St.-Pierre would have been expected to lose if he took the rematch to the ground. But that’s exactly what he did.

[Unfortunately, at this point my post loses something, because UFC got the fight clips I had linked to removed from YouTube. You’ll just have to rely on your imagination.] ^{*In case you were wondering whether it’s possible to ground and pound yourself, the answer is yes.}

The strategy, St.-Pierre said after the fight, was to mix it up. To go down when Serra wanted to be up, to stand when he wanted to go down.^{*Also to order pizza when Serra really wanted sushi. That hurt more than anything.} He executed this strategy perfectly, pulling off some of the best takedowns I’ve seen from my casual fan’s armchair.

Now, immediately after getting Serra down, St.-Pierre looked to initiate a ground and pound. Contrary to Frank Deford’s claim on Sports Illustrated’s website that MMA is more brutal than boxing because it doesn’t feature any defence, Serra immediately put up what’s known as a half guard and started looking for a way out. St.-Pierre risked landing blows, but every time he did, it opened him up to a counter or an escape.

None of this was especially graceful looking. It appeared not much different than two dudes on a street corner fumbling to land a harmful shot. But if you understood the gamesmanship, it was at least interesting, and not just random whaling.^{*If it were just random whaling, a Greenpeace ship would surely show up and place itself between whaler and whalee, no?}

At around 3:40 of the first round,^{*Timings off slightly because clip not available. Seriously, I have a good mind to stick those UFC guys in some sort of eight-sided cage and try to figure out a way to harm them.} St.-Pierre succeeded in “passing” Serra’s guard. The ground and pound began, to no great effect, and Serra eventually got his feet. Then, just after the 4:45 mark came a sequence that showed why St.-Pierre is in the discussion about the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world. He led with a left jab, then came over the top for a flying “Superman” punch, and as he landed, shot out a kick to Serra’s shin with his right foot. Timing, co-ordination, and strategy were all on display.

Only the Superman punch landed—and not very hard—but it put Serra off balance. St.-Pierre followed the sequence by ducking a jab, leading with one of his own, and then taking Serra down again. All of this took place in the space of seconds.

Now, in the second round, things became a little more uncomfortable for those who wish to highlight the athleticism and grace of MMA. Typically, genuine dominance in a bout occurs because one fighter is facing a significant fatigue deficit. St.-Pierre’s early control of Serra, and his generally superior conditioning, created this gap, so toward the end of the second round, he started landing shots—mostly knees to the ribs—more or less at will. Eventually, Serra was reduced to turtling, prompting the referee to step in and end the fight.

As Jan and I discuss in our article, the official in MMA has to be very, very good. Chester Post, one of the main figures in our story, told us he once earned a draw in a fight he should have won because at one point in the fight, he had his opponent helpless beneath a ground and pound, but the referee was letting the fight go on. Chester let up, and the bout ended in a split decision.^{*Chester is a particularly classy and gentlemanly fighter, but this level of respect seems to me to be the rule in the sport. That’s why UFC has placed a pre-emptive lifetime ban on Sean Avery.}

Both sides in the MMA debate make good points. It is, at moments, a brutal combat sport, but it’s also, paradoxically, a highly evolved one. It’s as close as you’ll get in a rule-based sport to a real street fight, and that’s both a weakness, in that its brutality is that much more evocative, and a strength, in that it simulates something that might otherwise lure people to the street but does so in a sanctioned and (relatively) secure environment.

Whether it’s something that society as a whole ought to sanction is, at this advanced stage in MMA’s march, becoming somewhat moot. But it would be nice if, when the debate takes place, each side had a better sense of where the other is coming from.

Next, on the Bironist: Someone doses me with LSD, and I cry when I realize how wrong it is for human beings to hurt each other in any way. Then I come down and feel strangely hungry for pablum.

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Posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 10:49 am. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comment or trackback.