5 Dumb misconceptions about MMA

MMA is often misinterpreted

Mixed martial arts has now gained global attention with the exploits of Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor amongst countless others being the catalyst to bring the sport into the limelight. Despite this apparent popularity, there are still a lot of misconceptions about the sport.

There seems to be a real lack of knowledge amongst the masses as to what makes MMA so special. There are many who pass judgement without ever trying to understand what it entails, blindly comparing it to other combat sports and passing it off as either “too violent” or “fake”.

Hell, even Meryl Streep decided to take a dig at MMA saying it isn’t art. Well, it is time to educate the uninitiated and bust some of these misconceptions in order to help people like Streep understand what MMA is all about.

So, without further ado, here are five dumb misconceptions about MMA:

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#1 “Why doesn’t he just get up?”

 

“Why doesn’t he just get up, bro?”

This one really grinds my gears. It’s akin to nails on a chalk board when I hear this question during an MMA fight. People can’t seem to grasp the art of grappling and how it works in MMA, so they resort to loudly complaining about how boring the fight is and proceed to make inane remarks about how the guy on the ground should get up.

The thing people fail to understand at this juncture is that there is a whole different ground game involved in the sport, where the smallest mistake could result in a fighter leaving himself exposed to a potential loss.

No, he can’t just get up because there’s a guy who has Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu who has him on the ground. At that point, fighters need to manoeuvre for position and control. So, please my dear friends, get into the ring with Khabib Nurmagomedov before you ask this stupid question again and you will find out exactly why.