Thursday, July 18, 2013

Will They Cheer, Or Will They Laugh?

Support shown for MMA bout between disabled fighters
Steven Marrocco, USA TODAY Sports - July 17, 2013

This sounds okay to me, at least based on the information given in the story. They both strike me as consenting adults who know what they're doing, and I see no evidence that the fight will be promoted as any sort of "freak show" … or no more of a freak show than any other MMA fight. Of course, a lot will depend on how it actually plays out. If the spectators cheer as they normally do, then fine. If they laugh at these two guys, that would change everything.

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P.S.: By saying, "This sounds okay to me," I didn't mean to imply that these two fighters need my approval. It's just that the article I read and linked to seemed to imply that there is a potential "issue" here, and I'm saying that for the most part, there isn't. In some fundamental ways, this is not another version of "dwarf tossing".