Language Fight

As a collective society, we like sports. We appreciate athletic achievement at the highest level. Some people are drawn to American football and some prefer table tennis. But at the very core of all athletic competition is fighting. Stripped to its most raw form, competition is a fight, and we like fights. The president of The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Dana White, once said, “I don’t care what country you come from or what language you speak, fighting is in our DNA. We get it and we like it.” Certainly, the president of the world’s premier fight promotion knows a thing or two about the draw power of combat sports.

It is difficult to argue otherwise. Across the globe, martial arts are practiced regularly by men and women of all races, ages, ethnic backgrounds,  and in different languages. Some are drawn to it for self defense, some seek an exciting way to exercise, and still others appreciate the technique involved in mastering a martial art.  Almost every country in the world has it’s own cultural appeal to fighting. Tae Kwon Do is as much part of Korean identity as kimchi, hanboks, and Hangul. Legendary boxers like Julio Cesar Chavez, Marco Antonio Barrera, and Eric Morales all attributed to the national spirit of Mexico during their time. Alexander Karelin was the pride of Russia for his twelve year reign as the baddest wrestler on the planet. Muhammad Ali was the Sports illustrated “Sportsman of the Century,” beating Wayne Gretzky, Pele, and other great athletes of the 1900’s. Bruce Lee continues to captivate film fans around the world even forty years after his death.

Today, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is regarded as the fastest growing sport on Earth. The UFC sells out stadiums and venues regularly across Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. MMA icons like Anderson Silva, Fedor Emilienanko, Georges St. Pierre, and Kazuhiro Sakuraba are revered by fans around the world, transcending national and language barriers. Across the globe, MMA continues reaching new markets and gaining support among sport fans. Yet, there are still places where the sport is far from main stream; places where most people still dismiss it as a violent sideshow.

This blog aims to document the state of MMA around the world. I also hope to document the rise of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) as a global sport, because Jiu Jitsu continues to play a critical role in the introduction of MMA around the world. As interest in BJJ grows, interest in MMA tends to follow. This was the case in the early 1990’s in the United States, and the trend continues to happen in countries like South Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines. By immersing myself into the local gyms, I want to present MMA and BJJ through the eyes of the people practicing it. It is their journeys that will determine the acceptance of MMA by their countrymen and women. Thus, I want to share their struggles and their triumphs with the rest of the world. These are the people living in the cultural frontier between ignorance and acceptance. What obstacles does a South Korean woman have to overcome when training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? What is the national thought on MMA in Vietnam, where the government only recently legalized boxing? How can MMA and Jiu Jitsu gain interest in countries with deeply embedded cultural ties to another martial art; like mauy thai in Thailand or boxing in Mexico? How are Jiu Jitsu practitioners in Cambodia similar to those in New Zealand? And finally, just how far can MMA go to unite people of different backgrounds, races, languages, and cultures under a common interest in fighting?