CAGE-FIGHTING HAS LONG existed on the fringes of sporting respectabilty, struggling to win credibility from a sporting public often unresponsive to its unique brand of organised brutality.
But today, the sport’s mainstream rehabilitition took a serious turn for the worse after video from a British cage fighting event, showing eight-year-old children participating in a multi-round bout, surfaced online.
The first fight on the card of a recent “Reps Retribution” event, the fight between Luca Deeley and Kieran Mackinson took place in front of an audience of hundreds and featured, in addition to bombastic live commentary, its very own scantily-clad ring girl.
Responding to the more grotesque aspects of its staging, including the fact that the children don’t appear to be wearing protective clothing, the British Medical Association has branded the footage “disturbing”.
In response, the event’s organiser has claimed the children were experienced fighters and that their parents were in attendance.
To start that was not the place for those kids to show off their talents. I agree that kids should do MMA and was very impressed with their technique but it should not have been in a cage with a ring girl and a crowd of adults. Hold an event for kids between MMA clubs with trainers,parents and friends present. I think that we should be teaching kids some form of martial arts in primary school for discipline and fitness purposes. It could be Judo, BJJ or wrestling, something without striking. Also I think the article is a little misleading!! The sport is called mixed martial arts not ‘cage fighting’. It involves a lot of various disciplines that the participants have to be highly trained in. When the sport first started it was full of bar room brawlers and ‘hard men’ this is no longer the issue. Look up the recent deal that Fox broadcasting and the UFC have completed and you will see that the sport is evolving with highly trained athletes.
This is not right at all. I’ve no problem with kids doing martial arts once they are protected. Leave MMA for adults who don’t mind getting a leg broken.
An event organiser said the children were ‘experienced fighters’? They’re only 8!!! How many other fights have their parents allowed them participate in?
@Liam Quinn… and I suppose not halting the fight when one of the competitors started crying was okay, then?
How many underage hurling, gaelic, soccer games have u seen when a child takes a tumble or gets a shoulder and starts crying, nearly every time I’ve seen it they finish crying and get on with the game. If the child was injured it would have been stopped. Even the medic was called in!!! It was safe as houses
Lets not be sensationalist , the video has been removed but I seeing as they were not wearing gloves i can safely assume there was no striking involved which makes the notest a grappling or ” submission wrestling” match ,not an MMA bout which fits neatly into the scaremongering column.
Submission wrestling is far less violent and destructive than for instance ; boxing (repeated blunt force trauma to the head) and we already know and respect boxing as one of the safest amateur sports in the world when compared to Soccer , Rugby , Hurling etc….
Thankfully it wasn’t vale tudo :) no striking, and they were excellent for 8 year olds, tons of submission attempts.
”Its a new low for the controversial sport”,.That quote alone from the above piece shows what an idiot the writer is.This has no link what so ever with MMA,it is underground fighting pure and simple and put under the title of MMA to write a fucking non story.Under ground fights have takin place long before MMA ever existed and the only difference here is that kids were forced to fight.Disgracefull yes,any thing what so ever to do with MMA,certainly not.What happened in that piece was orcastrated by thugs,and anyone who knows MMA knows that thugs would not last a minute in the sport.