Mike Russell - I believe he is a staff writer for the Niagara Falls review. The intelligencer is in the same publishing family and chose to pick up the crappy editorial. I'd love to have a debate with this so-called journalist. He seems like a tool who goes by hearsay and conjecture rather than facts and safety studies.
JiujitsuForeva - Although he uses misinformation and exaggerration, I agree with the reporter. I have always though MMA should be banned.
You know, after 17 years of televised UFC fights, the "potential damage" caused by MMA fighting would no longer be a potential. You should be able to point it out.
I didn't get published, but one of my students did
-----------------------------------------------------
Letters to the editor
Posted By
Posted 7 hours ago
UFC fights regulated, nothing like 'prison yard' brawls
Re.: "UFC has no place in sophisticated society like Ontario" (Feb. 22)
Famously, Bob Dylan once sang "Don't criticize what you can't understand." Apparently, these words are lost on Corey Larocque, whose ignorance-laced misinformation piece shows an almost complete lack of understanding about the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA).
The article refers to MMA as "only a step away from a prison yard brawl" -- involving "grown men kicking, scratching, and biting each other in a no-holds-barred fight."
If this were true, perhaps we should be outraged. I've never heard of prison yard brawls that stop when someone 'taps out' signalling defeat, or are ended by the intervention of a trained referee.
I acknowledge the presence of kicking in the sport, but biting and gouging aren't legal, and never have been. As far back as the first Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993, competitors have been prohibited from employing such tactics (not to mention in Brazil, where MMA events have been held for nearly a century.)
Once the sport matured beyond its early days in North America when it was mistakenly marketed as just the sort of spectacle that Mr. Larocque condemns, complete with such blatantly false advertising as "There are no rules!" on UFC videotape cases (three minutes after pressing play, we find out differently) MMA promoters have worked with athletic commissions to bring the sport in line with regulators.
In the process they've added many more restrictions on what's permitted inside the cage for the safety of the participants.
Now that some of his objections about the rules have been shown to be false, perhaps Larocque just doesn't like all of those kicks. He might be shocked to learn that the Ontario government sponsors taekwondo, an Olympic sport based on kicking the person in front of you. Or maybe it's the throws, joint locks, and choke holds that offend him so greatly? Sorry, they're allowed in judo competition, another Olympic discipline that receives funding from our province. Punches? The domain of our boxers, of course. Takedowns? Pins? All part of Greco-Roman and Freestyle wrestling, two more Olympic events.
In a culture that has historically given far more attention to mindless hockey brawls than it has to understanding the nuances of refined, technical combat disciplines, it's easy to see how our author might mistake them for something "barbaric" and "degrading."
Thankfully, the explosion of MMA has been steadily changing our perception of fighting, not only educating the general public, but even the community of martial arts practitioners.
Advertisement
There's still a lot of ignorance out there, but a woman attending a self-defence class today has a far better chance of learning realistic techniques to protect herself from attack than she did a few years ago -- all because MMA has shown what works and what doesn't in a real confrontation.
Knowledge makes our communities safer -- ignorance and prejudice are what make them more dangerous.
As a martial artist, I find it insulting that Mr. Larocque would portray MMA and its practitioners as "grown men who try to kill each other for sport." Nothing could be further from the truth -- it's a sort of chess game, with the KO or tapout being 'checkmate.' There might be a few more black eyes involved, but the spirit is the same.
If we're truly serious about wanting to reduce the level of sports-related violence in our communities, we need look no further than Vancouver, where forced relocations of the homeless, the siphoning of wealth from the public treasury to huge corporations (while the population is made to pay with massive cuts to public services) and a police state mentality have all accompanied the Winter Olympics.
MMA is welcome in my province. The Olympics in their current form, however, have no place in a sophisticated society like Ontario.
Jay GannonBelleville
Nice and well thought out rebuttal.
ddinks - Dont these reporters even do any research? They dont seem to think there is any sort of skill set in mma. Do they even look at the resume and athletic history of the fighters? Wrestling, bjj and boxing/kickboxing are legit sports endeavors that you dont master in a week.
Update before I hit the hay:
My letter and 7 others made the print version of the intelligencer
They also printed a retraction and an apology. Good job folks!
http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2458370
Here's the original article that The Intelligencer picked up from the Niagara Falls Review.
Writing to Mr. Larocque's eitor might be a good next step. I wonder if the Belleville paper even let them know there were concerns about the piece.
Tuesday at 8 pm ET, this hack will be hosting a "debate" on the Niagara Falls review website to argue his points.
Hack reporter responds to criticism of his work...
Wow, this just keeps getting better and better.
What is this guy's area of "expertise" because it certainly isn't sports.
hmeboy - Wow, this just keeps getting better and better.
What is this guy's area of "expertise" because it certainly isn't sports.
I would sooner write, and have printed, another letter. I don't think this dude likes being shown to be an idiot in public; that's why he wants a "debate" online
He can ignore or refute a letter, especially when given enough time to formulate a straw man argument using Google like he did with the Mir quote. It's pretty tough to ignore an intelligent argument in a debate.
May I recommend that someone suggest to him to spent a "day in the life" with someone in our community.
Preferably someone who has to work a day job along with his training.
We all know guys who get up at 5am go for a run, got to work all day and then train in the evening. Maybe seeing someone who lives a life of dicipline self respect and sacrifice for the sake of a sport might help his disposition.
All for the sake of "walk a mile in someones shoes". Then see how well he can debate.
And if thats too hard he can always train with our girls team. At least he won't get hurt...much.
I can't make the online debate :-(
I will write another letter shortly though.
Do us proud, guys!
If MMA was like prostitution, I would have attended a hell of a lot more live shows.
IMHO, clowns like this are not worth argueing with.
The guy is a hack reporter for a small town paper in bumfuck Ontario...today he is waxing poetic about MMA, tomorrow he will be covering a quilting bee in Burlington.
Ignore him.
jkennedy - He emailed me asking if I'd join his online debate. I politely declined and stated that his need to use only the most inflammatory quotes from the letters he received demonstrated to me that his bias was far to developed to be challenged. I then suggested he talk to someone locally who's involved in the sport for some first hand perspective.How much do you want to bet that he brings up Harold Howard's name in the debate? He's the highest profile former UFC fighter from Niagara Falls and his recent criminal issues have nothing to do with the sport, but I can see this clown spinning it somehow to blame MMA.
Ironically, his FB status yesterday was:
Corey Larocque No Shortcut to Good Journalism
by Abby Goodrum
"In the rush to break the story first, we must not abandon the
responsibility to get it right. We need to get over both our
techno-lust and our Luddite fears long enough to see Twitter, Facebook,
Web 3.0 and mobile journalism applications, Second Life, and all the
rest for what ...