What You Need To Know About The UFC And MMA
Unfortunately, the COVID – 19 virus has brought just about everything to a grinding halt. At the very least, it has put a major damper on things. Sports have been canceled, movies are now being streamed instead of shown at the big cinemas, schools are canceled, and in some states, people can’t even go outside past a certain time. There is no denying that this has put a major damper on things, especially for sports fans. Luckily, there are some sports that are starting to come back into the fray.
The UFC would be one of these sports. And, whether you are just trying to get your feel for action or you are growing an affinity for the sport, there are some things that you need to know about it. Understanding these things will not only give you a better overall understanding of the sport and MMA in general, but it’ll help you understand more of what you are watching because there is no denying that the sport can be somewhat confusing for first-timers.
UFC Isn’t A Sport
The first thing that you need to know is that UFC isn’t a sport. You’ll likely hear a lot of people say that they are training for UFC or they’ll associate UFC with MMA. UFC stands for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and it is just currently the biggest promotion in MMA. MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts. It is the actual league. For instance, there are other organizations like Bellator and Invicta in MMA. It is just UFC that is the biggest and has made the biggest push for the league. UFC is to the MMA what the NFL is to American Football.
MMA’s Been Around For A Long Time
MMA has actually been around for a long time. It just didn’t get any major recognition until lately. People didn’t recognize the sport as a legitimate sport. And, this is because it was banned in some states. It was banned in some states because it wasn’t properly commissioned. This is no longer the case at all. There is now a whole ruleset and commission in place for the league. If you go back and watch previous MMA fights, you’ll see that competitors of all sizes battled each other. This is no longer the case either. There are now specific weight classes that classify fighter and where they can compete. It would be safe to say that the old MMA was somewhat similar to that of tough man competitions.
Top-Notch Athletes
Because of the past association with MMA, most people just view MMA fighters are nothing more than glorified tough men. Well, this is not the case at all. Anyone that bets online or plays baccarat online will tell you that today’s MMA athletes are elite-level combat sportsmen, with international-class abilities. They are usually disciplined in more than one combat discipline and many come from college backgrounds. Some of today’s athletes are even former Olympians or professional athletes who have simply transitioned into MMA from another sport.
The Octagon
Fights take place in what is referred to as the Octagon. The Octagon is an eight-sided cage with a sprung canvas floor similar to that of a boxing ring. The cage is often mistaken as a thuggish motif, but in fact, the fencing is a safety feature, ensuring fighters don’t fall out of the ring and injure themselves during a fight. In fact, most people are surprised to learn that the cage was designed like this for a specific reason. It was designed like this to cut off the ring and eliminate the unfair advantage that boxers would have over the other combat sport experts. Back in the day, most athletes or fighters were only trained in one or two disciplines. This is not really the case today. In order to be top-level today, you need to be able to do a little bit of everything.
Fights Don’t Drag On Anymore
If you go back and watch the old MMA fights, you’ll see that they lasted until someone literally quite. While this was an exciting premise, it did cause some of the fights to drag out and last way longer than they should have. This is no longer the case today. Fight either last 3 or 5 rounds with each round being 5 minutes apiece.
