Skip navigation
Site powered by
Latest news:
msnbc.com: Top msnbc.com headlines: More heroics from Hamilton as Rangers win 13

There is no art in the barbaric world of MMA

With Kimbo-mania, CBS has jumped into the abyss of human cockfighting

Penn Sherk Ultimate FightingAP
A mixed martial arts fight, like this one between Sean Sherk, right, and BJ Penn on May 24, is distasteful, barbaric brawling, not art, says columnist Bryan Burwell.

But sadly, instead of halting the slide, CBS is driving the bus directly into the cultural abyss by putting this bastardized form of mixed martial arts on national television for the first time, instead of allowing it to wallow in a corner on cable TV with all the other cartoonish “reality” fare.

Mixed martial arts and all the other ultimate fighting leagues want the world to embrace their bloody human cockfighting as a replacement for boxing as a real combat sport, and now they have CBS as a co-conspirator in this fraud. The only thing missing from this TV farce was Caesar raising a thumbs up to Kimbo Slice, or Aunty Entity shouting “Two men enter, one man leaves.”

Yet the defenders of EliteXC reason that the world has proclaimed them as legitimate simply because their barbarism is now on network television. But television doesn’t automatically legitimize you.

It’s just the electronic version of the ladder. The higher you climb, the more of your rear end we can see.

© 2012 NBC Sports.com  Reprints


< Prev | 1 | 2

advertisement
Video: MMA from NBC Sports
One-on-one with St. Pierre
Harry Cicma talks with MMA welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre about the success of the sport and his training regiment.

Click here to email MMA Fight Weekly

  UPCOMING MMA EVENTS  
  
UFC 95: Sanchez vs. Stevenson
February 21 - London
WEC 39: Brown vs. Garcia
March 1 - Corpus Christi, Texas
UFC 96: Jackson vs. Jardine
March 7 - Columbus, Ohio
Slideshow
Image:
  The Week in Sports Pictures
A kayaker flips out, a racehorse eyes the Triple Crown and more.

more photos