Perhaps, like me, you are in the 1.7% of the population who have seen mixed martial arts fighting in the past 12 months. I’ve never watched a full bout, probably no more than a minute at any one time, and usually less. I turn away in horror and disgust.It occasionally pops up on my X feed and takes only a few seconds to show that it is presenting a loathsome spectacle of intense vulgarity. It celebrates some of the ugliest traits in human character — a preening, self-admiring strutting braggadocio, contempt for rivals, and merciless violence. That the fighters themselves are skilled, strong, quick, and athletic is of secondary importance and does not make up for the moral deficiency of the sport.It is a repudiation of civilization. Men and some women, many disfigured with unsightly tattoos as though they belonged to crime gangs, meet in a cage, appropriate for this bestial sport, and beat each other until bloody or unconscious. Before they start pounding, they face each other a few inches apart, sneering or expressing with aggressive impassivity their intention of committing violence so extreme that in other circumstances it would be an imprisonable offense.
Unlike boxing, fighting does not stop when a fighter is knocked down — his opponent jumps on him and lashes at him while he is in no position to defend himself. It used to be a maxim of civilized conduct that you did not hit a man when he was down. No longer. It is sickening.
