{"id":4650,"date":"2012-11-07T04:42:04","date_gmt":"2012-11-07T12:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=4650"},"modified":"2013-01-24T10:57:21","modified_gmt":"2013-01-24T18:57:21","slug":"mma-fights-criticisms-continues-to-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/11\/07\/mma-fights-criticisms-continues-to-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"MMA fights criticisms, continues to grow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Keith Nadasen and Jason Heit of Island MMA and AFC. (Photo by Marielle Moodley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a combination of boxing, Muy Thai, wresting, and Brazilian Ju Jitsu with its own unique set of rules. MMA started as a competition to see which of those sports was the best, but quickly turned into its own sport entirely.<\/p>\n

But while the popularity of MMA is increasing rapidly, so are the criticisms against it. People say it\u2019s too violent and insiders are guilty of creating controversy to sell events.<\/p>\n

Jason Heit, a local MMA veteran, is a trainer and competitor; he also runs the Aggression Fighting Championships (AFC). Heit sees the positive impact that the sport has on people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that people need an outlet for aggression, whether it\u2019s painting, getting in a cage and training, or just going to the gym and hitting a heavy bag,\u201d he says. \u201cI need that outlet in my life, and find that mixed martial arts improves my quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heit notes that when people have outlets for aggression they are more calm, patient, focused, and productive. He does feel, however, that certain promotions try to exploit controversy between the competitors in order to create emotional appeal. He notes that the promoters will ask loaded questions to the competitors with intention of creating tension that doesn\u2019t even need to exist in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately the violent stigma that comes along these promotions can stick with all mixed martial arts organizations,\u201d says Heit, \u201cbut I personally think that the drama that fighters and spectators can encourage cheapens the sport and can give us all a bad reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Heit was on the Canadian National Boxing Team, he felt the glory and was in an honourable position representing his country. He says that being an MMA athlete is not the same, because of the stigma surrounding MMA.<\/p>\n

Aggression Fighting Championship commentator and Island MMA manager Keith Nadasen doesn\u2019t understand why this stigma sticks, considering the statistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn boxing, there is a standing eight count when someone is down and injured, whereas in MMA when the fighters get injured badly, the fight is stopped. There is way less of a chance of a head injury in MMA than in boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadasen supports the zero tolerance against violence rules that many MMA clubs enforce in Victoria. He explains that when fighters use their skills out of the ring not for competition but to create problems they can be suspended or even kicked out of their club, depending on the severity of the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AFC doesn\u2019t tolerate petty behaviour from its contestants,\u201d says Nadasen. \u201cWe\u2019ve suspended a fighter for throwing his opponent out of the ring, and on another occasion took a fighter off of the roster for mouthing off his opponent at the weigh-ins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tristen Connelly and Dillon Brown of Island MMA in action. (Photo by Marielle Moodley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dillon Brown, an Aggression Fighting Championship competitor in the upcoming fights on November 3, says his life is moving forward in a positive direction, and MMA training is giving him the discipline to achieve his goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I\u2019ve been a MMA competitor I\u2019ve become much more humble,\u201d he says. \u201cThe toughest and best fighters are usually the most humble, and discipline themselves to fight for competition. This is a sport that we\u2019re all trying to improve in, so I really don\u2019t condone getting into people\u2019s faces and creating problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

AFC 13: Natural Selection<\/strong>
\nNovember 3, 7 pm<\/strong>
\nBear Mountain Arena, $43.25-$123.25<\/strong>
\naggressionfc.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a combination of boxing, Muy Thai, wresting, and Brazilian Ju Jitsu with its own unique set of rules. MMA started as a competition to see which of those sports was the best, but quickly turned into its own sport entirely. But while the popularity of MMA is increasing rapidly, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-issue","category-october-31-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4650"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4654,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions\/4654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}