MMA anyone?

MM what? MMA? Yes, MMA. It stands for mixed martial arts. You’ve most likely seen it on UFC, M1, K1, Pride or The Ultimate Fighter. It’s like boxing, but with a whole lot more than punches being thrown by the fighters. Yes, it’s a different ballgame, but one that has bright future ahead.

With the current local boxing scene unusually quiet, the MMA family couldn’t have picked a better time to stand up and be counted through URCC 4: Proving Grounds. This took place last weekend at the CICC. And just like UFC, the URCC featured a complete card of MMA fights that gave fight fans a different twist to their usual dose of boxing for which Cebu is known.

Let’s put the names of ALA , SGG, Braveheart, RWS (Wakee Salud) and MP Promotions aside for awhile as we present an MMA guy with a “car” as a name. Let’s all meet Renault Lao. He’s the guy behind the coming of the URCC to Cebu , and so far so good. I must admit that I was impressed with what we saw at URCC 4.

For benchmark purposes, we can’t help but compare MMA to our local boxing events. Both are similar and so different all at the same time. For starters, both MMA and boxing are primarily there as an entertainment spectacle that cater to a market that thirsts for action between two fighters. Both events also use an elevated boxing ring that serves as the stage for the crowd. But this is how far similarities will go.

The most obvious difference is the discipline or disciplines used by MMA fighters. The technical term “mixed martial arts” obviously features fighters coming from a broader base of martial arts disciplines. Fighters range from the base of boxing to jujitsu, karate, tae kwon do, judo, wushu, muay thai and wrestling. With the different forms of martial arts, more action takes place from either a standing position or with both fighters on the ground.

The crowd at MMA fights is a little different from those that you’ll see in boxing. It’s a younger crowd composed of working professionals who have been influenced by mixed martial arts on TV or by being MMA enthusiasts or athletes themselves. Unlike boxing which features a more mass-based audience, MMA attracts a crowd from the upper middle to higher class. MMA fans however, are in general boxing fans as well. They have a broader base of knowledge in MMA since boxing is just one discipline of MMA. It will thus be logical to see MMA fans in boxing events, but not necessarily the other way around.

The amount of action between two fighters is what makes MMA entertaining and exciting. Since each fighter is unpredictable in terms of style, you have to be on your toes to look out for how he intends to beat his opponent. He’ll normally start out like with a boxer’s stance but can opt to strike (punch), throw a kick, wrestle or grapple with his opponent, depending on what he feels comfortable with. While boxers go for a knock-out to shorten the fight, MMA fighters go for submission where the opponent “taps out” and gives up. This is the sweetest kind of win that thrills MMA fighters no end as it proves that the other guy “surrendered.” Tap outs occur through such moves as the rear naked choke, arm bar, kimura, triangle choke, guillotine choke, and more terms which I’m just beginning to learn. In layman’s terms, it’s the move that makes your opponent quit in those wrestling fights you had when you were a kid. The choke was the most obvious move to use when we were “play-wrestling” as kids aside from twisting one’s elbow (which I guess is called an arm bar?).

Then you have the ground and pound approach where one is literally sitting on his opponent’s chest and holding him down with his body weight. The rain of punches, elbows and forearms pour on endlessly until the referee comes in to stop the fight. Grappling and wrestling is the toughest to watch from a spectator’s perspective primarily because one can’t see what the fighter is doing to his opponent as they wrestle on the mat. While it’s obvious that he’s going for a submission, what can’t be clear until it’s already obvious is the move that leads to the eventual tap out or submission.

On a whole, MMA is indeed a whole new world for us Pinoys who are more familiar with boxing than any other from of contact sport or martial arts. But one thing going for MMA is that it also provides the same action that we look for in boxing, and maybe even more. This could be the main reason why MMA has really picked up in the U.S. with the UFC at the forefront. Could the Philippines be far behind?

This we have to see. Bakbakan na!

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Time-out: Happy birthday to my son Josemaria Navarro, a.k.a. “Popoy.” You can reach me at [email protected].