The appeal? That's easy...human beings are animals at the end of the day...after sex, violence is our most primal instict. Sure it's barbaric, but so is shopping on black Friday. I guess some of us just have a less creative interpretation of "competition."

MMA is no different than what you can see in the streets on any drunken Saturday night - MMA et.al. just allows the fight to continue instead of hauling people off to central booking.

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I've been training in the martial arts since I was 12 (1984) and I have been an avid follower of MMA since 1994 long before Dana White brought it mainstream. Those of us who understand the technical complexity of MMA fighting truly see it as a sport. To others it's primal as ycktr mentioned. Whether it's outside of a bar or on the playground in middle school. When a fistfight breaks out everyone runs towards the fight not away from it.

Oh yeah - and of course this conversation would be incomplete without throwing the obvious homoeroticism present in any male-oriented contact sport. Try to deny it...I dare you.

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Don't worry, I'm not calling you gay. Not that's there's anything wrong with that. I'm just pointing out that there's some higher-level of male bonding that takes place when two men are engaging in physical contact of this nature. I'm of course referencing the Spartan army - who not only acknowledged this bond, but celebrated it as well.

It's sort of akin to women hanging out painting each other's toenails and trading facials. As males we are programmed to avoid emotional attachment with one another; instead we are encouraged to compete. Physical contact allows us to compete while enagaging in socially approved (and somewhat covert) emotional level bonding. Social roles, in this case male behavior, are of course dictated and limited by society. But there are times when the emotionally bonding is just too overwelming. Why do you think Rocky cried whiled hugging Apollo Creed in the movie after their fight? This also why you observe so much emotion from male sports participants post-game/interaction.

Just sayin...

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This is certainly the most intellectual conversation about MMA that I've ever encountered.

ycktr I'm confused as to whether you've actually watched a fight. You wouldn't deign to spend your time watching it, ok....so have you seen the grace, the training, the pure athleticism that goes into a fight? The majority of these men are not punky little street fighters (although Nate Diaz comes to mind there lol), but seasoned athletes, most of whom have seperate, often difficult "real" jobs. Rich Franklin was a math teacher, and several fighters have Masters degrees and beyond. Watch before judgement, please.