Friday Free For All: MMA - An Action Sport?
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- March 27 2009
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- 16 comments
As the world of Mixed Martial Arts continues to expand and gain an even larger audience, the crossover between MMA and Action Sports has been a frequent topic of debate. Several brands in the action sports industry have already made the leap by sponsoring MMA athletes (RVCA and BJ Penn) or expanding their brand to include MMA-inspired products (Osiris and the Quinton “Rampage” Jackson shoe). Some retailers have also started to incorporate Mixed Martial Arts products on their sales floors, and it’s no secret that many trade shows have MMA brands as exhibitors.
It’s hard to say where the future of MMA is headed, and whether or not the sport will eventually be accepted under the Action Sports umbrella. Where do you stand on this topic?
We’d like to hear from you. Friday Free For All is set up to generate productive discussion on the site’s message boards, entice readers to register and create user profiles, and provide a free forum for the action sports industry to hash out important issues. Please let us know what’s on your mind by weighing in below.
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March 26th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
how does this resonate with our crew? are these board “sports”? are these motor “sports’? or are they just a prominent manifestation of some serious desire of aggro dudes wanting to kick ass? it’s pretty obvious. it’s just knuckled, tats swining cause they’ve got a: too little to shut it down with their surf skills or b: just dont’ care cause beating ass is the ultimate goal. i might be confused, but doesn’t that type of ego make for the worst possible day skating, surfing or shredding you can possibly imagine? MMA - great in it’s own realm, a realm that needs to live far, far awy. Given the choice to order, you’re not the cool .just say no;.
March 26th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
i have trouble imagining it as an action sport. it’s a martial art, done and done. i’d prefer to see MMA stay in it’s corner, no pun intended. i have no market data to back me up but i know a lot of dudes not excited about MMA having anything to do with action-, and particularly board-sports, myself included (i just might not say it to bj’s face). my guess is for every person who might like the idea you have several who want them to stay unrelated. i still don’t like that people equate moto and bmx with boardsports, but i get it, it’s what we humans do, we categorize.
March 27th, 2009 at 9:00 am
Good God.
The spirit of MMA is the antithesis of the spirit of boardsports.
Man versus wave/mountain/handrail, or fisticuffs? I won?t pretend to be a peace-loving flower child, but here?s my argument: In boardsports, you?re working with your environment too create something. In MMA, you?re fighting a dude in a ring. It?s a competition to be better at something than the other guy. I know boardsports have contests, but they?re a by-product. Everybody knows they don?t mean a thing.
I can appreciate martial art demonstrations like I can appreciate breakdancing, but put it in a ring and you?re Mike Tyson. You?re Hulk Hogan. And I want none of that.
So is it action? Of course.
Extreme? You bet.
A sport? Much moreso than surfing.
So let MMA have ?Action Sports? and ?Extreme Sports,? and we?ll be something else. I never liked that label, anyway.
March 27th, 2009 at 10:17 am
We should send the MMA fighters to Guantanamo Bay…I bet we would get some real answers to questions with one of those dudes in the room. SORRY TWB..That’s really not an action sports answer. Can I still be a member to your site?
March 27th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I’ve surfed for a long time, plus trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, skated and rode BMX.
All those sports/activities have a steep and humbling learning curve, a high element of risk and a lot of satisfaction about increasing your skill.
It’s too bad that nearly every clothing company (Tapout, Affliction, etc.) currently associated it provides extremely douchey clothing, but whatever.
I can tell you from training for over 4 years in Jiu-Jitsu that the number of douchebags gets cut down just like kooks in the water quit surfing, because people can’t hack getting their ass kicked by skinny dwarves.
MMA will be huge.
March 27th, 2009 at 10:43 am
MMA should not be considered an “action sport.” I can’t start sparing testosterone filled, Affliction wearing, 909ers in the the street. And when the cops come, the “we were just practicing MMA moves” line in court won’t get you out of jail time. BTW, the first rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club.
I don’t a caged octagon to go skate, surf, or snowboard but a chair lift is pretty nice though. I believe that the true essence of action sports is that you don’t need to part of a team, you don’t need someone to play against or with, there are no leagues, no rules, no cheerleaders (wait, that’s a bad thing), no world series, and you go out and do your thing.
March 27th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
The definition of Extreme/Action Sports is as follows:
Extreme sports (also called action sport and adventure sport) is a media term for certain activities perceived as having a high level of inherent danger.[1][2][3] These activities often involve speed, height, high level of physical exertion, highly specialized gear or spectacular stunts.[1]
How the heck does MMA fit into this? The only part of this definition that works for MMA athletes is that the sport requires a high level of physical exertion that is of course if one guy doesn?t get knocked out three seconds in by a blow to the head which happens occasionally. I will agree that it is dangerous, you are in serious danger of brain injury, maybe that explains why so many MMA athletes and fans are such douchebags??..The many blows they have taken to their head have killed the majority of their brain cells there in ruining their ability to determine what good behavior is. I am sorry but I see a lot of guys walking around with Tap Out shirts on and numerous other clothing items advertising MMA and I have yet to meet a single one who does not seem like a giant egotistical meat head with a testosterone overload. I will admit maybe I am stereotyping a tad, and I like watching MMA every once and a while. I definitely think it is a legitimate sport but to draw some correlation between what they do and what extreme sport athletes do is ludicrous. I think brands in our industry that sponsor MMA athletes and expand their brand to include MMA inspired products don?t actually think it is an action sport they are just trying to capitalize on how popular MMA is at this moment. Which who can really blame them it is an industry that certainly has a lot of money making potential but I sort of feel like mixing MMA fans and that industry with Surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding fans etc, is like mixing oil and water. It just doesn?t work.
March 27th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Here is the deal… I have gained key insight working with MMA apparel based on a brand that used to employ me and was in the process of being purchased by The Affiction group (see if you can guess)…
MMA is growing rapidly. For that, you can thank Charles “Mask” Lewis (R.I.P) and a very few visionaries of the sport. It was very easy for TapOut to hitch their ride to ASR a few years back and their product was completely piss-poor. But they rubbed shoulders with the right folks in action and the rest is history. I mean, Nielsen DID add an MMA trade show to the events of ASR a year back.Unfortunately, MMA apparel is like a redheaded step child with action sports (Who are much like a tight knit clique). MMA has now grown wildly popular and there are quite a few brands jumping on the train (Affliction, Metal Mulisha, Famous, Skin,RVCA). However, it is a fad (the apparel and not the sport) that many in the “desert-rat” segment have bought into and those select few are pretty loyal with their purchases (for a short while)until Riverside/Tempe cash has almost completely dried up, so the brands will fade fast. Their market is just not savvy enough to push ahead. Most of the hitchers on are just in it for the mad cash, then they pull out and move into the next hot thing (which will be kite surfing, segway-ing or SUP-ping).
MMA apparel is defined by all-over Jumbo prints (Which are very expensive to manufacture) with foil (even MORE expensive) and embelishments that represent a certain fighter. The fashion sense is not in touch with forward thinking, rather rehashing what has already been out of style for 2 seasons. (think Ed Hardy, tattoo inspired, neon jiberish)…
Their are a few business minded folks in MMA, but the brain bashing athletes have a shelf life that may end at the next round “DING”!
MMA will continue, but it will be a short lived, flash in the pan as far as our “Industry” goes… Remeber how big Heely’s were for a second?
One tip though… If you want real world advice from a MMA champion and World Surfing champion, ask Joel Tudor, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black belt…
March 28th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Is MMA a Sport - I guess so - as much as boxing is a sport.
The intent of MMA is to hurt your opponent until they submit / or are knocked out.
How is this in any way shape or form even remotely the same as any of the board sports?
So, should MMA be linked with what the media has deemed us as “action sports” - - hell no!
March 30th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Doesn’t the MMA belong in the Ed hardy Trade show and not associated with Action Sports? What’s next…a kid cuts you off in a bowl session and you round house the kid to the head? Stupid! MMA, please stay away from skateboarding!
March 30th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
MMA is not an action sport. It is however an emerging sport and an evolving culture. That being said emerging cultures look to existing cultures as to how to best shape themselves. Action sports have long been influencers, so it is natural that MMA would seek to align itself with “Cool” and “Successful” cultures. MMA has a long ways to go, but I think you are missing the whole point. MMA began as a way for this little scrawny guy (Royce Gracie) to prove to the world that no matter how big and strong his opponent is he could use technique to win. How is this different from the mindset of big wave surfing, vert skateboarding, FMX, etc? It’s facing fear and death and overcoming it with your mind. Any questions come on down to SDBJJ.com, the fist lesson is free, and yes I have 12 year old girls that can tap out grown men!
March 31st, 2009 at 5:45 am
Are you serious? As if one nice day a group of people sat down at a table and made a list of which sports qualify for the AS-elite; who might you suggest this would be? Who was it in the first place? Is there something like an official Action Sports panel? Have we turned into one giant corporation? Does Bernie Madoff own us, too? Maybe I missed something here but to me this is as far besides what this industry is about as it gets. Geez… you know, I’m all for the corporate for all the positive it’s brought into our coveted spare time activities turned industry, but this just reminds one why the negatives always remain present simultaneously. So, who ever thought this was a great idea should maybe stop with the ideas and, I don’t know.. sign a contract or something. Because even only the premise of this suggestion shows that Action Sports are not perceived as an organically grown aspect of modern culture that has built certain ties between sports by means of lifestyle/mindset/athletic elements, whatever you want to call it, but primarily as a laid out concept of doing business that you can contract members to, and deem exempt from. I realize that to argue otherwise than the latter might not even be appropriate anymore in some respects of today’s Action Sports Evil Empire. But while the money crazies are flying through the Action Sports Industry stratosphere, I still do believe that there is a genuine core at the center, or, in some companies, more on the outskirts, that understands the meaning and content of credibility and authenticity and knows why that matters - at the end of the day for selling stuff to the right people most of all. I don’t know… I mean no offense. It’s just this kind of stuff that bums me out while sitting at my desk trying hard to hold on to that belief even at an advanced age. I really didn’t want to find this on Transworld Business, I have to say.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:44 am
I feel action sports is a pretty genericized term that basically takes anything right now with a strong youth-skew, so that could include moto-x, wakeboarding, BMX, etc., regardless of what sort of retailer carries the products needed for participation. While activities such as BMX are considered by the masses as an action sport, we all know that they typically showcase their wares outside of ASR.
Would I consider MMA an action sport? No. I’d liken it more to boxing, traditional martial arts, etc. I’m neither against MMA nor super passionate about it. I have tons of friends who are into watching MMA events, follow the athletes, etc. I also know lots of people who surf, skate, etc., and also “train” in disciplines similar to MMA.
If the people running RVCA or Osiris feel strongly about MMA, either personally or professionally, and want to enter that realm, good for them. It could help with sales or alienate some consumers, but ultimately it’s those brands that have to live with the decision.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:55 am
MMA IS TRULY AN ACTION SPORT! THE ULTIMATE ACTION SPORT! IT ATTRACTS THE SAME MARKET AS ANY OTHER ACTION SPORT.