Why Combat Sports Are the Best
People who are from outside the USA know what is like to watch a intense football match (real football, not the american). In a close game, whether your team is winning or loosing, every second feels like it lasts two. When your national team is playing, everybody is in. For the Americans, I can recall the never forgettable instance when the Seahawks didn’t ran the ball at the 1 yard line in the SuperBowl XLIX or how the Falcons lose with a 27–3 lead in the SuperBowl LI. What I’m trying to say is that no matter the sport, it feels personal when your team plays. You are full of emotions, if your team win you cheer, if it lose you might end feeling down the rest of your day.
To be honest, I’m not a big sports fan. I like football, but it doesn’t drives me crazy. I love American football, but it doesn’t feel personal to me anymore. I like tennis, basketball, hockey, all of them; but none drive me crazy. That change the moment that I got into the world of combat sports.
Usually is easier to get into a team sport. The reason is simple, the feeling of belonging. I’m no psychologist, but we all know that feeling like being a part of something does some interesting stuff to your brain. There’s a sense of comradeship when you see people who walk by with shirts of the same team. In a stadium you probably will be hugging somebody you don’t even know when your team scores. In individuals sports, that doesn’t really happens. It’s hard to feel part of something when your are rooting for a individual and not for an emblem or a flag.
I will focus mainly in boxing, mma, kickboxing and muay thai since those are the ones that I’m most familiar with.
People who watch individual sports is because they enjoy them. If they root for an athlete is because they like his\her style or persona. Worst case scenario, you don’t like the sport but someone close to you is the athlete that you are watching. Either way, something interesting happens in combat sports, even though your not feeling as a part of a team, it seems to me that individual sports are even more personal. When you root for athletes, you do it because you personally want them to thrive. Is a bummer when your favourite athlete loses. You watch interviews, training videos, highlights of single person not a team. In a team, players come and go, but in individual sports, an athlete will always be the same person.
So what puts combat sports above other individual sports like tennis or golf? Well simple, the adrenaline, the steaks and entertainment.
First, in a single night you can watch many different fighters with different styles. If the Football World Cup, the Superbowl or the tennis US Open final is boring, well sorry for you, that’s it. On the other hand, if one fight is boring it’s alright there’s a different one coming next. Only for that reason, there’s a big advantage for being a combat sports fan.
Second, length and pauses. The longest boxing match will still be by far shorter than any other sports’ match. Also, you get about 1–2 minutes break between rounds, enough to go to the restroom, grab snack, check social media, etc. being able to disconnect briefly from a match without losing any action is great.
Now, let’s talk about the sport.
Long time ago, in the Roman empire there was this thing Called the Colosseum, you might’ve heard about it. In there gladiators fought between each other, against criminals or animals for many reasons, food and fame to name a few, and it is told that romans loved it. In other words, since the begging of modern age, combats sports already existed. Back in the day, they were let’s say… savages. Now it’s a different story.
That idea that fighters are savages, just a bunch of meet heads hitting each other as hard as they can is an idea that is still present, but it is far from the truth. Yes, some fighter might be like that, but most of them are smarter that you could imagine. I know fighter that are engineers, doctors, teachers. Professional fighters are smart and clever. Fighting is as much physical as it is emotional and physiological. You have to be smart and clear to know when to hit and when to defend, look for tells in your opponent, look for openings, evaluate risk and reward in fractions of a second before doing something. When you start to see the physical AND mental ability in fighters is when you really start to fall in love with the sport. Not everything is about athleticism, sometimes it is just fun to watch some controlled violence.
Of course, like any other sport. Your view of it changes greatly when you have practised the sport. Fighting is not stranger to that. Your point of view is completely different when you have gone trough a training camp for a fight, when you have cut weight and without a doubt when you have felt a punch straight to your face or a kick right to your ribs or legs. When you have fought, you not only understand better the sport, you also understand clearly how dedicated fighters are and the amount of hard work they put into their training to be at the top.
That’s the true love with combat sports the athlete. No matter what they put the work in like nobody else. When you see the greatest of all time GSP, Muhammad Ali, Saenchai… They are skilful for sure, but their skill doesn’t comes from nowhere, they are special and talented but they build themselves up through training day and night.
Fighting is intense and exhausting. It takes from your body more than any other sport, but it is high reward. You can see in a fighter’s face when they win they know they didn’t cheated themselves with their training, you can see on a fighter’s face when they lose how devastating is for them, all the hard work they putted in wasn’t enough.
Combat sports are not for everybody, but all of us should be able to appreciate the amazing athletes that fighters are.
Lastly, if you think +3 minutes added time feels like eternity in a soccer match, you have no idea how it feels like 30 seconds on a ring.
