Torch Flashbacks
MITCHELL: Ultimate Fighting's very existence threatened by outside forces; should it exist? (Flashback to 1995)
Jul 13, 2009 - 1:37:07 AM MITCHELL: Ultimate Fighting's very existence threatened by outside forces; should it exist? (Flashback to 1995)

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Original Headline: "Ultimate crisis"
By Bruce Mitchell, Torch columnist
Originally published December 9, 1995

The double edged razor of the Ultimate Fighting Championships concept, the pure violence of two men fighting with virtually no rules, has put this sport in dire political jeopardy in the United States.

That pure violence, that double-edged razor, is both at the heart of the sport's appeal to its fans and the emotional boiling point for its growing mountain of powerful, connected opponents.

At stake is the very existence of events like UFC, the Extreme Fighting Championship, and the World Combat Championship - events that have shown a growing popularity with an international audience hungry for the action this nascent sport provides.

The past two weeks the Ultimate Fight has faced a firestorm of publicity and political pressure. Media heavyweights have weighed in negatively on this type of "brutal spectacle."

But Colorado governor Roy Romer, Denver Mayor Wellington Web, the Denver City Counsel, U.S. Rep. Nolbert Chavez, and U.S. senators Ben Campbell and John McCain have all done the pundits one better.

Although the event will probably take place at the National Western Forum after all, they made an effort to break the lease UFC signed with the venue late last week and are still searching for a way to stop it. The show Semiphore Entertainment Group has been building toward for two years.

The politicos used a never–enforced provision the Forum had with the city (requiring consultation with the council with sub–leases) to cancel the contract, forcing the UFC to scramble to find another venue.

Never mind that the city has never consulted with the Forum about any events before this one, never mind that we live in a country where everybody from Louis Farrakan to White Zombie goes on tour without being kicked out of a signed lease.

At least it was within the letter of the law, if not the spirit. The Brooklyn Armory couldn't find any loopholes to break their lease with the promoters of the EFC last month.

So the New York district attorney promised to have their fighters arrested for assault and battery just for participating in the event.

Obviously the D.A. was following neither the spirit nor the letter of the law. Assault? Is it assault when a boxer hits his opponent with a jab? When a hockey player checks another into the boards?

Or more to the point: Was it legally assault when George Atkinson broke Darryl Stingley's neck with a cheapshot in an NFL game? When Kermit Washington shattered Rudy Tomjonavich's face with one punch in an NBA fight?

Obviously not, since no one was ever charged in these incidents or other similar incidents somewhat less damaging throughout the fabric of American sports.

The only time a participant in a sporting event has ever been charged with assault in recent times was when an NHL player deliberately cracked an opponent's skull with a hockey stick. Even when there is obvious malice on someone's part, it is understood that the American playing field follows different rules, something acknowledged in Denver's own assault and battery law which specifically excludes incidents during sporting contests. And if there were never charges in virtually all of these incidents, how can a contest between martial arts enthusiasts with rules, referees, and doctors that only really requires the loser to tap out before any damage occurs at all be assault, by definition?

Luckily for the New York D.A., that was a moot point. His bluff worked. The EFC promoters saw no choice but to put everyone through a 14 hour bus ride to a new venue in Wilmington, N.C.

Ironically, the politicians and promoters actually helped each other in the short run. The D.A. won a clear political victory in the newspapers, while the promoters turned all the publicity into a strong pay–per–view buyrate in the New York area, which made the difference between a money–losing and a money–making show. The only losers were the tired fighters who, of course, were thus more at risk for injury.

The EFC, a low–budget, low–thought knock–off of the UFC may have been the incendiary point this crisis. EFC promoters got the attention of the New York media by running their show there, promoting it with a logo of one fighter sitting on another's chest preparing to punch his face through a canvas, and with a subtle motto - "Whatever it takes to win."

By foolishly promoting the brutality rather than the science of the sport and appealing to the fears of the pundits as a well as the perceived blood–thirstyness of the audience, EFC promoters confirmed that ultimate fight style events are the perfect political football, something that Sen. John McCain, R–Ariz., has already learned.

Think about it. By opposing the human cockfight, writers and politicians, always hungry for exposure, could stand four–square against an "increasingly jaded, coarsened, and desensitized society" - in George Will's pithy phrase - leaving no one but sleazy fight promoters and anonymous pay–per–view customers to oppose them.

Ultimate fighting has become the Issue de Jour the past two weeks, particularly in Denver where the fight to break the lease led local TV news and radio talk shows.

Most of the writers and all of the elected officials weighing in never bothered to watch an Ultimate Fight, preferring instead to rely on a collection of out of context clips and quotes, all carefully selected to make these events seem as barbaric as possible.

The most frightening part of this whole controversy may well be that governors and senators, national columnists, and radio talk show hosts were willing to deprive people of their right to make money in a free marketplace by making devastating conclusions and twisting the law without learning their subject or even viewing one of these events from beginning to end. Who else are the captains of our society willing to deprive of their economic rights?

And there is more.

The politicians in Colorado have put enough pressure on John Malone of TCI. cable, the country's largest cable system, that he has agreed to remove all of these events from his company's pay–per-view schedule as of January. If that agreement holds, the other cable companies will likely fall in line. Then UFC, for all intents and purposes, will be dead.

Now at this point some fans of the Excellence of Execution, or Where The Big Boys Play, or of Double–Tables might be asking themselves… so what? Maybe with less competition in the pay–per–view universe traditional pro wrestling will have an easier time breaking out of its economic slump. With fewer events it might even be easier for Extreme Championship Wrestling to get on pay–per–view.

Maybe. But consider this. The officials of the pay–per–view company Request TV were at the WWF Survivor Series. They were furious when Bret Hart picked up a chair and hit Diesel. The atmosphere in the pay–per–view universe is such that ECW's Paul Heyman would have to emasculate Extreme Championship Wrestling to even get a chance to present a show.

Pay–per–view officials are insisting on less violence exactly at the point when wrestling fans are totally rejecting gimmicks and appeals to children. Ratings and revenue streams are at dangerously low levels and bookers like WWF's Bruce Prichard are seeking to make their product more violent. Prichard was at the Dec. 1 ECW show in Reding, Pa. at least in part to learn more ways to make the WWF product more "extreme," a process that started with Diesel's new badass persona.

Traditional wrestling has a serious problem in this new, restrictive atmosphere. The wrestling business is pay–per–view business, period. Jim Cornette, the one man who knows the most about running a wrestling territory, now knows for sure that the territorial approach is dead. Paul Heyman is desperately trying to juggle "money–men marks" long enough to make it to pay–per-view. Vince McMahon has to find a way to improve revenue streams or his company's national status at the least is in jeopardy.

WCW? They can survive as long as Eric Bischoff and Terry Bollea can con upper management at Turner Broadcasting into still believing that Hulk Hogan is a multi–media star and not a erratic has–been. WCW will lose millions of dollars in the mean time. No other company will have that luxury for long.

UFC has proven there is a market for serious wrestling. To survive and prosper, U.S. wrestling needs to follow the lead of international companies like New Japan and adopt a more realistic, violent approach.

But now, if they do, they may well find themselves kicked off of pay–per–view entirely.

These companies literally can't afford to live in the past and they may not be allowed to embrace their future. It's a dangerous situation for the entire U.S. industry. So when Bret Hart starts babbling about the little Hitmen, he may have no other options. And these companies may continue to shrink.

The ripple effect that stopping the Ultimate Fight may have hardly concerns the guardians of our society. They haven't even learned what it is they are trying to ban. If the media or these elected officials had examined the UFC in any serious way, they would have discovered that the Ultimate Fight has steadily developed into a sport with a clearly required set of skills and that the best fighters are submission mat wrestlers. These fighters use submissions and chokes, except not the kind of chokes serial killers use - which must be what these critics imagine. These submission chokes have proven themselves to be safe in these contests. They use the same choke that judo fighters use in Olympic competition - hardly cause for scandal.

Ironically, the best fighters are the safest fighters, since punches and kicks are easier to defend against if a fighter has mat wrestling skills. And as the Ultimate Fight has grown, the calibre of fighter has also grown. UFC is drawing highly skilled athletes from the top of the martial arts world - from Russian sambo artists to Brazilian jiu jitsu experts to the best Greco-Roman wrestlers, hardly "palookas" as USA Today described them.

The requirements for entering the Ultimate Fights are certainly higher than those for the sport that the term "palooka" originated from, Sen. John McCain's favorite - boxing.

In fact, the so–called "sweet science" is an unregulated cesspool. It's a sport whose leading promoter, Don King, is alleged to be a two-time murderer and swindler who has a decades-long association with organized crime.

And, of course, its most popular athlete is a convicted rapist who only faces hand–picked tomato cans in what amounts to squash matches. It is a sport with a century long tradition of fixes, and a history of permanent damage and death to its participants. Boxing is the sporting world at its worst.

If the best argument that UFC promoters can muster is that their sport is no worse than boxing, then UFC should be shut down.

UFC is a growing sport, but hardly part of the fabric of our culture like boxing or football or stock car racing where serious injury and death also occur. It will not survive its first tragic incident.

If the UFC has any hope of survival, they will have to find some way to educate and demonstrate to its critics that promoters have built a legitimate sport. The UFC has to:

-Differentiate itself from any other knockoff promoters who market brutality or let unqualified fighters go at it. Right now none of the critics see any difference between UFC, EFC, or WCC. This crisis was started by EFC, but the Ultimate Fighting Championship is now bearing the brunt of the criticism. They cannot afford to pay for the sins of other promoters.

-Find a credible way to verify fighters' records so that only the highest-skilled athletes compete. EFC records (like the guy with the 270–1 mark) were embarrassingly phony, but UFC also has had its share of "bar fight champions" and suspiciously obscure fighting styles. UFC has to convince the public that these fighters are athletes, not borderline criminals.

-Forget about co–promoting with Pancrase, at least in the way it is currently structured. Any competition that is even partly fake will just bring more heat on a sport that many have been suspicious of from the beginning.

-Forget about any sort of rule changes that add gloves to the mix. Gloves are decidedly more dangerous in this setting because they allow strikers to punch without worrying about breaking their hands.

-Acknowledge in a serious and responsible manner the inevitable times when someone is hurt by explaining the medical precautions at each event, just as other sports such as pro football do. When Tank Abbott knocked out John Matua at UFC6, the commentators started babbling about everything under the son and tried to hide that Matua may have been seriously hurt. If UFC promoters act ashamed of what can happen, they make a better case for banning the sport than its critics have so far.

-Start and vigorously enforce a drug testing policy that bans the use of drugs like steroids, human growth hormone, amphetamines, cocaine, or anything that can either increase rage or desensitize pain. It is bad enough that illegal drug use has already given at least one UFC star a major competitive advantage. Royce Gracie has rightfully pointed out that a situation now exists where a fighter who is out of control of drugs puts others, not mention himself, in serious danger. This must be stopped.

-Let athletes with backgrounds that critics understand, like Bruce Bumgardner or Dan Severn, NCAA wrestling champions, make the public case for the sport. No one believes promoters, even when their arguments are valid.

Of course, even if these suggestions are smoothly implemented, the public's emotions and the political rewards may both have already been flamed too high. Calm, cool recitations of the facts may now be too late to stop the banning of the sport.

And, as someone who has seen more of UFC than some carefully selected collection of clips and quotes designed to incite critics, and as someone who believes the case should be completely and fairly prosecuted before anyone's economic rights are taken away, I have to admit I am haunted by one incident that was so close to the heart of what UFC is about that no rule change or precaution could ever truly exclude the possibility of it ever happening again.

I remember standing outside the Octagon when Dan Severn dropped the whole weight of his body through his knees over and over again onto the prone skull of Oleg Taktarov and wondering if the fight would be stopped before Taktarov's skull was crushed.

Luckily, the fight was stopped in time.

This time.

Bruce Mitchell of Greensboro, N.C., a columnist for Pro Wrestling Torch since September 1990, has attended two Ultimate Fight style events in person, and has watched every event on pay–per–view. Those who know his work regard his columns at the level of the best sports writers in the country.