Sir, – Terms like “brutal”, “boorish”, “repulsive”, and so on, have been levelled against the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) since its early days, usually by people who have never watched a fight and who know nothing about it.
These athletes are not people who were fighting bare-knuckle fights in a field and were then suddenly whisked away against their will to fight in front of Caesar. They have usually been training in martial arts and combat sports like boxing, tae kwon do, karate, jiu jitsu, wrestling and kickboxing throughout their lives, and have competed at different levels within these disciplines before taking the step up to MMA. The level of technical ability, athleticism, discipline, and fitness required to compete at the level of Conor McGregor is astonishing.
Blood is an unavoidable aspect of many combat sports, but the wounds that MMA fighters pick up are usually superficial, and the sport is well regulated and supervised by medical professionals. – Yours, etc,
DAVID McGINN,
Dublin 4.