BLOOD DIFFUSION

HOW MIXED MARTIAL ARTS SPREADS CULTURES

By Michael Messina

It seems as though the American mainstream struggles to represent minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ of the world. However, one audience of roughly 2 million fans has no choice but to cheer on a character belonging to all three categories, and the answer isn’t what you’d expect…

Can you picture it? A group of trashy biker-dudes pounding beer cans and watching near-naked bodies beat each other into unconsciousness: the stereotypical mixed martial arts (MMA) fan. But let me tell you, there’s more to it than that. It’s a complex mix of history, tradition and culture. This game of “extreme problem solving with dire, physical consequences” forces athletes to search for effective techniques regardless of where they are found: culture diffused by way of bloodsport. But before we get into that, here’s a little backstory to orient any unfamiliar with MMA.

A Brief History of BJJ and the UFC

Japan has been synonymous with martial arts since the existence of, well, martial arts. Karate? Japanese. Aikido? Japanese. Judo? Japanese. Jiu Jitsu? You guessed it: Japanese. However, Jiu Jitsu wasn’t for everyone, especially Helio Gracie, a feeble Brazilian man of modest strength and stature. Ever-crafty, Gracie was able to modify the fighting-system with such ingenuity as to warrant a new name: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ).

Gracie and the rest of his family had continued to train and refine their style before partnering with American entrepreneur Art Davie, director Campbell McLaren, and TV host Bob Meyrowitz to promote their martial art, and what better way to promote than a no-holds-barred fighting tournament? Enter: the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

What started as a mix of competing martial arts (with the Gracie name dominating challengers) eventually evolved into mixed martial arts. Competitors from around the world were no longer learning one style, but travelling the world to gain experience with a variety of combat strategies and methods.

The Modern MMA Landscape

Today, the UFC has amassed an extremely large fan base as well as propel several media darlings into the spotlight, most notably Rhonda Rousey, an American champion of Japanese Judo, and Conor McGregor, an Irish fighter with a knack for western boxing and eastern kicks. The UFC, whose history traces back to Japan, has influence radiating back eastward with the rise of Singapore’s ONE Fighting Championship recently gaining major popularity. From east to west and back again.

Looking around at the some of the biggest names in the UFC reveals an incredibly diverse cast of characters. Michelle Waterson: a bubbly, proud Thai-American with a Japanese Karate style looking to become the first mother to don a championship belt in UFC history. George St.-Pierre: the heavy-hitting French-Canadian legend who can be seen sporting traditional eastern garb as he walks out to compete before revealing his prominent Kana chest tattoo. And finally, Francis Ngannou: the African-native who worked his way up from the impoverished sand quarries of Cameroon to the boxing rings of Paris to the MMA community of Las Vegas to the world stage of the UFC.

A few seconds into the first round and Conor McGregor, an Irishman, launches a powerful round kick straight from Thailand against his opponent, Dagestan's Khabib Nurmagomedov. The Russian responds with a Grecco-Roman wrestling takedown before utilizing his Russian-Japanese Sambo style to control Conor in the UFC octagon, a stage set forth by a notorious Brazilian family and American entrepreneurs and media experts. 80 days? We just went around the world in a 5-second exchange!

Let us conclude with the fighter who made me realize just how accepting of a place the MMA community can be: Amanda Nunes. As of this writing, Amanda is the reigning, undisputed UFC bantamweight champion. She is dating fellow fighter Nina Ansaroff. She proudly addresses crowds in a thick Brazilian accent... and her fans love her. She exemplifies the progressive, accepting and pure nature of this sport which brings us to an inevitable conclusion: this sport taps into something deep, something primal. After all, every one of us is connected to a warrior-ancestor. We all have had a history of persevering. Perhaps fighter Cat Zingano puts it best: “I need to know… That be in nature, I need to know what would happen… who gets the bone?” That grit, that perseverance, that is pure. That transcends cultures. That is woven in human DNA. MMA allows us to realize that, although saturated with beautiful diversity, no two human lives are that different.