MMA: Michael Kirkham’s death causes a riot
Another player in MMA to die since 2007 is causing a dispute between the critics and the fans once again.
Michael Kirkham an MMA fighter died this Monday after getting knocked out on his first ever professional fight. The fighter went into a coma after the brawl on Saturday and died after two days. The Aiken County coroner said that Kirkham died due to a brain injury after he took several brutal strikes on his head during the match.
Mixed Martial Arts popularity seems to be growing ever year; it consists of several different fighting styles including kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, boxing and many others. It has remained to be quite a controversial sport since it was legalized. Some even find it derogatory calling it a “Sport” due to their belief it being brutal and inhumane. The fighters are allowed to strike the opponent using bare hands, elbows, knees even if he or she is on the ground.
Many states in the past 10 years have legalized MMA despite the controversy going on. South Carolina recently legalized MMA being one of the 40 states to do so.
Although critics say, due to the extreme nature of the sport it should be banned. They say it’s simply barbaric to beat your opponent down and keep hitting him until his failure. The game is considered to be bloody and atrocious, leaving impressions on the teens who are most likely to mimic the moves, reinforcing aggression which is definitely not on. There might not have been many deaths in the sport but there are many records of players having to suffer life threatening injuries.
On the other hand the crowd for MMA says that the sport is no less barbaric than any other. They say that the sport is a cash cow and will help with the economy as it raises around 8 million dollars per game. Also the fact, that according promotion of violence acts the sport is not breaking any law. Moreover it is included in the Olympics and is becoming a widely recognized sport. The miss conceptions of it being “oh so brutal” is wrong, critics saying that the whole “ground and pound” is not acceptable, MMA fans say they do not seem to realize that the referee would stop the fight immediately if he sees the player is unable to defend himself or is knocked out. Contrary to boxing where if a player falls down the referee counts till ten, and the player can continue to get up as many times as he wants.
However before Kirkham’s death the sport was to legalize in New York, as its budget and regulations were being discussed but the decision was revoked after his death. Lawmakers marked the sport out to be violent, a memo was published by Bob Reilly last year saying two men fighting in a cage is to barbaric for the state to support.
The British Medical association (BMA) also wishes to ban the sport after analyzing it carefully. Dr. Vivenne Nathanson who is the head of science and ethics for the BMA stated “This kind of competition hardly constitutes a sport - the days of gladiator fights are over and we should not be looking to resurrect them,”
In response to the statement made by BMA, the promoter of Cage Rage, Dave O’Donnell said “This reminds me of 25 years ago when they tried to ban kickboxing,” said O’Donnell. “
Some may consider it to be just like every sport but I believe it is no different than c**k fighting or dog fighting, because of its cruelty to animals, I say it is cruelty to humanity and it should be barred.
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