Media Gets It All Wrong Covering Kids’ Grappling Match

Now, if you write a story about Mixed Martial Arts but you only call it “cage fighting” and/or “ultimate fighting,” you are showing yourself to be uninformed. If you show a video of kids that are clearly just grappling at a MMA event, somehow assume that they are in a full on MMA fight with no gloves (whereas all the professionals use gloves, etc.), mistake an arm bar for being “repeatedly kicked in the head while [one's] arm is twisted,” and write about how “disturbing” it is, well, you are an idiot.

Yesterday, Josie Ensor of The Telegraph wrote this article about “child cage fighting.” However, other sites like the Daily Mail and the news media in general have exploded with stories touting what they thought was a MMA fight between 8 and 9 year-olds.

Inquiries were also made by the police and child protective services regarding the children, and it was announced today that the police would not be pursuing any action against the event’s organizers. Of course, the author learned nothing over the past day, still referring to the event as “‘barbaric’ cage fighting involving children as young as eight.”

Really, the only thing disturbing about this whole thing is the crappy journalism, which went on to attack my favorite sport. Normally, I wouldn’t care, but this junk has to stop.