What Can MMA Learn From Maryland? A Meandering Rambling Plea For Common Sense
Joey
August 20th
Much has been said recently about the Maryland football team situation and how tragic it is. I can't express the rage or grief that Alex did when he discussed it and I'm not sure my sympathies will do much to help either. A young man lost his life and in the process, "exposed" us to what has been described as a toxic environment at a major university. Much has been said and much will be said going forward and the Maryland Terps program will hopefully be forever changed for the better. The hope is that college football will also be changed for the better.
Rather than try to give my own thoughts on the matter which would be far less eloquent or passionate than Alex's take (found here: http://thesportssoundoff.tumblr.com/post/176922352680/fire-all-these-motherfuckers), I want to use this to ask the important questions about our humble little sport of MMA.
What's preventing MMA gyms from having similar environments?
First, let's not act like it's not a possibility. We know it's a possibility because we've HEARD stories about the way MMA gyms are run. We've heard about, say for instance, TJ Dillashaw allegedly ending the career of Chris Holdsworth with a concussion from going too hard in sparring. We've heard stories about Hector Lombard hurting people in sparring by going too hard. We've got Pat Barry and UFC champ Rose Namajunas on record discussing what they perceived a toxic environment at Roufus Sport. One of Lloyd Irvin's top fighters competes this Saturday and that'll always bring a bitter taste for people. Alistair Overeem stories are all over the place. We'd like to believe that every fighter in the world is trained with the utmost care and respect, that gyms truly are brotherhoods where all are treated equal. In a perfect world, that's a tremendous thing----but what world's are perfect? If the reality is the one presented to us, what's done about problems pertaining to bad MMA gyms?
In training camps for other sports, the athletes are competing to make everyone better to play against other people. When it comes to MMA or combat sports; a fighter in a camp is training to compete solo. They're trying to sharpen themselves to make a living in a solo one on one fight. That makes everything different. We hear plenty of fighters who understand that training is training---but the end result isn't to try and perfect a route or learn how to beat an OL with a swim move, it's about probably knocking somebody out. Fists fly, sometimes things get heated and punches don't always get pulled. It has to be nearly impossible for a top level athlete training for a big level fight to remain composed every single drill and every single sparring session when get better =/= making money in a prize fight. Trying to police emotion is always difficult and trying to police alpha male/female athletes has to be an even more challenging task. I don't envy trainers, coaches, high level gyms or locker room policemen for having to keep fighters in line. It is probably an insanely thankless task when it comes to protecting people from themselves.
The problem is what happens when that fails. HOW does it fail? What do gyms do to correct that and what do we do as consumers do to voice displeasure about it? MMA, boxing and kickboxing all pride themselves on being sports with the world's toughest athletes. You can't change the DNA of MMA so to speak. You can't prevent guys and gals from wanting to prove toughness to one another. That said, there's no reason why it should happen. One of the biggest problems, one that often is said AFTER shit goes down, is "Keeping it in the gym." Nobody wants to be known as a rat (or a snake or any other animal except a Pitbull because MMA loves pitbulls) so "Dude A beats up Dude B in sparring" becomes a whispered tale among training partners or media members. I'd bet most if not all of MMA prefers it that way and to steal a phrase from a professor I had in college; bad things only become bad when A) somebody is seriously hurt by it or B) the media finds out about it. How many times is a "locker room cancer" revealed AFTER the season's over? Bernie Williams was essentially bullied for two years by Mel Hall before the Yankees got rid of him and THEN and only then did "Mel Hall is a fucking asshole" become widespread reported. Keeping things inside the gym is great and all----except for A) when someone gets hurt or B) when the public finds out about it. Exhibit A) Chris Holdsworth and Exhibit B) Hector Lombard.
MMA gyms are independently owned public entities. There's no SEC commission to track them and make sure they're doing things well (and even those fail). There's no NFLPA to make sure that the letter of the law is being followed when it comes to what guys spar at. Athletic Commissions aren't going to these gyms to ensure that rules are being enforced because what rule is there to enforce? We probably can't even get every MMA gym to agree to spar with headgear. These commissions can't even keep dudes out of gyms! How many times do you hear stories of a guy getting a 30 day concussion and then going back to the gym within that time frame? MMA basically uses the honor system which is great and all except a fighter isn't always going to tell you the truth. Forrest Griffin fought Anderson Silva QUITE possibly still concussed from a training camp flash KO. We can't see these things and gyms aren't going to jeopardize themselves to report these things so we're left hoping and relying on the honor system to carry us through. If only things were that simple when it comes to issues pertaining to cultural The general argument will always be that gyms will either kick people out who are problems (but not after milking that ride for whatever percentage they can get for big fights), the aggrieved fighters will "man up" and deal with it or lastly they'll just quit. None of those are really fair applicable answers to what could be a potential problem going forward. We can't just hope gyms police themselves (when we've seen them fail to) or that fighters just toughen up about it. If fighters are being taken advantage of, they deserve to be helped and if gyms refuse to offer that help or just turn a blind eye then WE should absolutely know about it. This can't be a situation where "it's only bad when we find out" a la weight cutting. Let's try to be a bit more proactive.
Now obviously the goal isn't to witch hunt about this. It's not to force you to assume every gym has a problem they're hiding behind closed doors. It's to ask if we can look at what happened in Maryland (or Baylor or any other place where the culture and the urge to win led to disaster) and try to figure out how to prevent something as awful like that from happening to our sport. We've already flirted with disaster in the past when it pertains to gym abuse and how the MMA community responds to or handles it. In an alpha male sport, sometimes you need rational adults who can set the ground rules and enforce them. How? Why? I don't know.
I just don't want MMA to have a Maryland. I don't want to watch a sport where I have to hope every athlete is being treated the right way BEFORE they risk their lives for my entertainment. Nobody should.
