Monday, September 17, 2007

UFC

UFC Blows Up

It seems like every couple of years a new televised form of fighting comes along and captures the youth’s attention. While The Rock hasn’t smelled anything in years, kids have found a new outlet for their fighting interests in Ultimate Fighting Championship.

UFC is a form of mixed martial arts and prides itself on the "no holds barred" aspect of their competition, where almost every sort of fighting is permissible. The UFC has been gaining attention in the last couple of years following the debut of the reality TV show, The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV in 2005. Spike TV has since expanded their coverage to include a weekly hour recap on the show UFC Unleashed.

UFC fans say that the new trend is much like the wrestling fad of the ‘90s, except it's not scripted. “I feel the UFC provides the same storylines that the WWF (now WWE) did, but it’s not fake. There’s guys yelling at each other, talking smack, just like the WWF used to be. They’re not exactly the same, but they have the same basis of story,” said Ryan Frasier, 19, of Troy. “I’ve been watching with my cousin pretty intently the last couple years. He buys all the pay per views and the videos. I love the real pain the two guys show, they go until they either get knocked out or can't go anymore.”

Luke Burns, 20, a student at U of M, has been watching UFC for about a year now. He says that the different styles of fighting that are unique to the fighters is one of the big reasons he became interested. “Each fighter is an individual, whether they wrestled in high school or have more of a martial arts background, it makes it more interesting,” Burns said. “Boxing sucks now and wrestling isn’t real, so UFC is what all the bloodthirsty guys are watching now.”

Burns feels like the UFC is here to stay because of the real competition and that there are so many more aspects to the fight, where other sports like boxing and wrestling have failed in the past.

David Kinzer, 18, summed up the appeal of UFC: “Boxing isn’t violent enough and wrestling isn’t stupid enough.”

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