The head of European Judo is the latest public figure to bash the sport of MMA
Sergey Soloveychick claimed that MMA is not a sport, it doesn’t promote any human values and that it sets a bad example for children.
MMA is not a sport, it is some kind of show.
Sport should have some human values and sports should help society develop human values. With MMA, it is not so.
He took particular issue with the ground-and-pound technique championed by fighters such as belt-holders Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez. This involves a fighter mounting their opponent on the canvas and landing strikes from the dominant top position.
It’s not good if your opponent is on his stomach and you sit on him and beat his head.
It’s not good for the education of the young generation, so we don’t like to promote this kind of organisation during our competition. The spirit is to destroy your opponents by different ways and this is not good.
Irish man David Allen responded to Soloveychick’s Helen Lovejoy-esque tirade on the sport. The UFC’s senior vice president and general manager of UFC Europe, Middle East and Africa, came out in defence of MMA arguing that the judo boss’ claims were unfair and incorrect.
Mixed martial arts is made up of eight different sports from the martial arts world, of which six are Olympic sports. So to say it’s not a sport is completely incorrect.
Unsurprisingly, the good people of Twitter were not too happy about the Judo head’s claim that mixed martial arts was not a sport.
@BBCSport It is a sport. One that is very poorly covered by media outlets such as yourselves.
— London Brawling (@LondonBrawling) March 6, 2015
@BBCSport Why is it not a sport? Surely if boxing, wrestling and judo are all sports, so is MMA?
— Will (@TheMarchOfTheOx) March 6, 2015
@BBCSport @GarethADaviesDT it's a decathlon of martial arts. Try doing it and then tell me it's not a sport
— DeanReillyMMA (@DeanReillyMMA) March 6, 2015
https://twitter.com/TamerShakran/status/573757087668400128
https://twitter.com/thisispreece/status/573756933682888704
https://twitter.com/FabrecIass/status/573756790783012864
@BBCSport what a stupid question. Its a combat sport that carries itself with more discipline, class & dignity than boxing ever has.
— Not THAT Mr.T (@SalfordBazza) March 6, 2015
Hat-tip to BBC
