Human cockfighting

I'm going to Columbus, Ohio on Saturday to see UFC 82 and I'm psyched. Some friends and family might be confused that I'm driving 12-14 hours round-trip to watch a 3-4 hour fight event. Here's my point of view:

Rocky encouraged us to think of boxing as a contest of bloody-mindedness where two guys stood toe-to-toe bludgeoning each other until one fell down. Visceral, but also kind of mindless and barbaric.

That's how I thought of it until I got in the ring and started training and sparring (I've never fought a real fight thank Christ). As with many sports, and frankly other things too, you don't really appreciate what's going on until you start doing it yourself. Boxing requires strategy and brains as well as "heart" and muscles.

When you throw in grappling, kicking and trapping, well now it's calculus. The UFC is trying more and more to appeal to everyone, which I feel is a bit of a shame. The average Joe off the street who's going to watch this stuff isn't training in it. He wants to see the human cockfight, complete with stunning knockout. I'm not against knockouts, but I hate to hear boo-ing when the fighters go to the mat for grappling. Ju-jitsu is like chess more than any other part of the game, after all.

Anyway, I'm going to watch grown men beat each other up in friendly, regulated competition and it's going to be fantastic.