Season Ticket on BBC

Derek Coleman

There's a programme on BBC this Wednesday at 10.50 which takes a look at the growing popularity of MMA in Northern Ireland.

The ad uses footage from "Ultimate Conflict Ireland" (1) and may also have footage from "Chaos (3)" which the tv crew attended and filmed interviews and fights.

Should be worth a watch. Hopefully it's not a damning report.

Red Sleeping Beauty

I saw an ad for this too. There was a voice over from the presenter which went something like "is this brutal street fighting or a legitimate sport ?". Jesus christ, this isn't 1998! Get with the times.

Raze_them_all

street fighting.... in a padded cage, with gloves, rules, a referee, paying spectators and paid fighters.....hardly like your local fast food place on a saturday night now is it

Fozzy

Raze_them_all wrote: »

street fighting.... in a padded cage, with gloves, rules, a referee, paying spectators and paid fighters.....hardly like your local fast food place on a saturday night now is it

I believe that the correct term is "human cockfighting"

Raze_them_all

was just taking it from alan's post is all. Besides everytime i hear human cock fighting i get the disturbing image of two guys eh "sword" fighting

Killme00

Raze_them_all wrote: »

was just taking it from alan's post is all. Besides everytime i hear human cock fighting i get the disturbing image of two guys eh "sword" fighting

LOL me too, its like something out of Flesh Gordon

Jason Mc

Yeah folks don't forget this is on tonight. Hopefully paints us in a good light



22:50–23:20 Season Ticket
2008, A Right to Fight?
Austin O'Callaghan reports on the increase in popularity of Ultimate Fighting.

Red Sleeping Beauty

This is on now.
I'm watching it. The presenter/interviewer seems fairly clueless, the questions are so 1997!!


"It's like human cockfighting or back to the gladiator days"
These people need to get with the times


After seeing the Lesnar/Couture finish again , them punches/fists/elbows didn't look like they'd much power behind them. Couture had a few bruises on his face afterwards though at the press conference

mmaireland.com

In fairness, every question posed by the interviewer was impartial. He consitently gave us an opportunity to respond to the viewpoint of critics during the interviews.

That BMA doctor was indeed 10 cans short of a clue pack though. :rolleyes: Was a little incensed that he repeatedly suggested INTENT to cause serious harm on the part of competitors. Ludicrous statement.

Fighters want to fight. We want to compete and we want to win. No more. No less.

All in all, not a bad reportage though.

Killme00

I dont think it was biased but it was poorly researched. The lack of any understanding from the BMA doctor was unbelievable.

Lesnar spoke very well though as did Randy.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Killme00 wrote: »

I dont think it was biased but it was poorly researched. The lack of any understanding from the BMA doctor was unbelievable.

Lesnar spoke very well though as did Randy.

It was indeed poorly researched. The presenter/interviewer didn't seem to have the same comebacks for the negative and critical opinions from the interviewees but of course he was asking the "pro" MMA people all the elementary questions "but isn't it inhumane" et cetera

It was very short and quite the missed opurtunity. BBC would want to sort out their house, that to me looks like a waste of money in the end. How much would it cost to send a presenter and camera crew to what ? 2,3 American cities ? That must've cost a fair whack. Granted they wouldn't be getting £400 hair cuts and manicures but still....

fergal_d

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

It was indeed poorly researched. The presenter/interviewer didn't seem to have the same comebacks for the negative and critical opinions from the interviewees but of course he was asking the "pro" MMA people all the elementary questions "but isn't it inhumane" et cetera

It was very short and quite the missed opurtunity. BBC would want to sort out their house, that to me looks like a waste of money in the end. How much would it cost to send a presenter and camera crew to what ? 2,3 American cities ? That must've cost a fair whack. Granted they wouldn't be getting £400 hair cuts and manicures but still....

LOL ...

its good to see MMA getting publicity, but I'm not sure if that was the right kind of publicity coz they showed that doctor a lot and he made out to be terrible...

I found this picture of the presenter online

Derek Coleman

The whole UFC part was a waste of time. I wanted to see more research done in Northern Ireland. Ask people relevent to Irish community whether its a good thing. If I wanted to hear Dana White, Randy Couture talk about the criticism of the sport then I'd search Youtube!

It was great to see The Dog Pound get some air time and getting to see the kids train and have fun. That's what they should of focused on.

The part when they freezed the end of the Lesnar fight was ludicrous. They made out like we were about to see the end of Apollo Creed v Ivan Drago. Instead we see Lesnar give Couture love taps to the head. Thank God they didn't attend the Evans v Liddell fight. phew!

All in all it was worth the watch. Especially cause I got some air time doing Corner duties at Chaos!! :):o:)

Fozzy

I didn't see it, but it might be worth keeping in mind that the BMA's official stance is that boxing should be illegal. So that doctor was hardly going to give a thumbs up to MMA

FunkZ

Only got to watch it for a few minutes, was so feckin' surprised to see ShaneT on it!

ROC1977

I thought it was interesting. Started off talking positive about MMA, then by the end made it look like the devils work. It was edited in such a way to make the UFC look bad. I mean one minute, "no one gets injuried in MMA" then the next clip is a fella from the north screaming in the ring with a dislocated elbow! lol

Jason Mc

like everything that gets reported on you only ever get half the story.

He had to play the devils advocate. Thats his job.


I cringed when the guy from the BMA mentioned the "cawk fighting" phrase

HOBO 83

Lucky Shane T's arm didnt fall of and have to be stitched back on in the ring, or we would all be f#!ked.

Jason Mc

could u imagine if they had been at the sakuraba vs silva 1 fight

David Jones

I thought the doctor was a disgrace actually. He implied that MMA was unique in that the goal is to injure the other fighter. I have coached rugby for 15 years. When the opposition have the ball, you actively encourage players to hit the guy with the ball as hard as possible, if you put the guy off the pitch well and good, at the ruck and breakdown there is ample opportunity to hit guys as hard as you can without the ball. Thats just one example.

He also implied mma training was harmful to child growth and development. Has he ever seen what high level gymnastics does to kids? Dont see him calling for that to be banned though.

People might think programmes like this benefit the sport as its all publicity but that programme wont have done us any favours. Why did they pick on the guy in this case Shane T who dislocated his arm, they could have interviewed any number of guys who were fine after their fights, I have reffed close to 200 fights at this stage and never had a dislocated arm. But you know what, the safety aspects of the sport dont sell newspapers or tv programmes. Basically people dont want to be told its safe, they want to hear its dangerous and should be banned.

In that case ban cars,motorbikes, skydiving, rugby, american football, gymnastics, horse riding, skiing etc etc etc.

rovert

Fozzy wrote: »

I didn't see it, but it might be worth keeping in mind that the BMA's official stance is that boxing should be illegal. So that doctor was hardly going to give a thumbs up to MMA

Very good point actually.

The media will always look for the most simplistic angle they can find
to present to viewers over presenting a balanced piece. I genuinely think Northern Ireland excels at this type of media coverage of new sports/past times with people like Stephen Nolan etc.

dave80

David Jones wrote: »

Why did they pick on the guy in this case Shane T who dislocated his arm, they could have interviewed any number of guys who were fine after their fights

they prob did interview a few fighters but just put Shane T on the show for sensationalism

rovert

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/northern_ireland/season_ticket/7761264.stm

A right to fight?

Is Mixed Martial Arts taking over from boxing as one of the main ingredients in Northern Ireland sport?

Season Ticket (BBC1 NI, 10 December, 2250 GMT) has a close look at the sport and asks the question: Is MMA sport or street brawling? :rolleyes:

Critics call it cage fighting and the British Medical Association has called for the sport to be banned. However, it is proving to be a big hit with a new generation of fight fans.

Austin O'Callaghan travelled to the spiritual home of the Ultimate Fighting game in Las Vegas so ascertain the origins of the sport.

The programme features a fight night in Northern Ireland and hears fighters and supporters argue the case for UFC.

There will also be an interview with Belfast boxer Wayne McCullough who has been recruited to promote the sport in the United States.

Can anyone find a link to footage of this show?

Roper

Is the BMA doctor a northern fella, the same one who was on The Last Word a couple of years ago talking rubbish about MMA as well?

He is a prize tool if it's the same guy. I'll paraphrase some choice stuff from that debate.
"It's terrible, there's a risk of brain injury, knee ligament injuries and bone breaks"
"What about rugby?"
"I've been at lots of rugby matches and they're different"
"Have you ever been to an ultimate fighting event?"
"No"
"Then how can you know they're different?"

He was the worst kind of fool, an ignorant one.

mmaireland.com

Roper wrote: »

He was the worst kind of fool, an ignorant one.

QFT

unknown13

Roper wrote: »

Is the BMA doctor a northern fella, the same one who was on The Last Word a couple of years ago talking rubbish about MMA as well?

He is a prize tool if it's the same guy. I'll paraphrase some choice stuff from that debate.
"It's terrible, there's a risk of brain injury, knee ligament injuries and bone breaks"
"What about rugby?"
"I've been at lots of rugby matches and they're different"
"Have you ever been to an ultimate fighting event?"
"No"
"Then how can you know they're different?"

He was the worst kind of fool, an ignorant one.

There the same people that allow boxing to take place

Raze_them_all

I thought the show started off well but quickly went downhill when they let the doctor on, at one point he mentioned about the physical sports and training kids to go hurt guys, Speaking from personal experience from soccer, gaelic football, rubgy and hurling I can tell you that your encouraged alot more to hurt your opponent. I've been told to take out both of a players knees, to break a hurl off a guys legs, to tackle a guy so hard he'd have to be carried off the pitch and so on, I'm sure loads of others have aswell.

I've never once heard anyone's coach in the dressing room say go out and break his arm,ankle or leg.

Also when they went to shane after his dislocation it was obvious that he didn't seem to have suffered from a "cawk fight" he just got caught in a move something went wrong and it was an unfortunate accident.

AQs for the part where the doctor said aboput we intend to go out and cause long term injuries, if that was true would heel hooks be illegal? or neck cranks?
I've never heard of someone being paralysed from our sport, you hear about it in the "safer" sport of rugby though.
In my opinion they tried to give an unbiased report but the way it was edited and put together it didn't end up like that

Roper

unknown13 wrote: »

There the same people that allow boxing to take place

Actually they're the same guys who want boxing, including amateur boxing, banned!

Red Sleeping Beauty

Jason Mc wrote: »

could u imagine if they had been at the sakuraba vs silva 1 fight

I've not seen that fight, or much Pride at all. What happened ? How'd it finish ?

rovert wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/northern_ireland/season_ticket/7761264.stm




Can anyone find a link to footage of this show?

BBC have an online player where you can usually watch a fair amount of shows that have been broadcast online. Problem is though BBC splits it's programming througout the UK into different regions and Northern Ireland is it's own region and it's their programming that we get. Unfortunately it's only UK ip addresses that are able to access the online player. BBC iPlayer I think it's called.

Pride Fighter

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

I've not seen that fight, or much Pride at all. What happened ? How'd it finish ?

Sakuraba punched Silva and rocked him a bit. Instead of taking him down to the ground were he could win the fight he remained standing. Silva punished him for his error, badly. It was the first Pride with stomps and soccer kicks. Sakuraba looked as if was swimming in tomato ketchup.

Derek Coleman

Has anyone ever seen a Cock Fight? Are there many knock-outs or is it more submission based? :rolleyes:

I think Doctor Peter Maguire would want to worry less about Brain Bleeds and worry more about Heart Disease in our day and age!!