As far as being a lame sport, MMA is proving to have a much broader appeal than bodybuilding will ever have. Though many can relate and admire the brutal training, discipline and the all consuming life style a professional, and even an amatuer, bodybuilder leads few will ever become fans of huge muscle bound men all oiled up in thongs flexing their muscles while they elbow each other vying for attention. The pose down has become almost an embarassment. This is not even to mention the individual routines which have become part rap dance part gay stripper. Think Will Harris and Dareem.
Combat sports have always held a fascination with the general public. It's primal nature and the fact that the world is still ruled by force whether by bombs, guns or fist the ability to fight, and to have a fighting spirit, will always be admired if not strive for. If your complaint is that you don't like the way or the style of combat then perhaps you can suggest a better and more effective style that can withstand a real world test in the ring or cage. Remember when the UFC first started it pitted experts from various disciplines (Karate, boxing, Muy Thai, Wrestling). At that time it was Jiu-Jitsu that dominated because no could defend the take down except wrestlers who were lost when it came to defending the submissions. What we see now is a Darwinian amalgam of various styles. One must be proficient on the ground and standing up.
I don't think anybody claimed it was a new way of fighting. It was/is a new sport which most resembles actual hand to hand combat. When I first saw a tape of a Jiu-Jitsu fighter making short work on the ground against a Golden Gloves boxer it just looked to me like wrestling. Nothing special. It's only when I started training and became more educated that I began to appreciate the intricacies and even the beauty of a skilled fighter. I look at that same tape now and see so much more than when I first saw it. Similar to when I first saw Pumping Iron. They all looked pretty much the same to me. Just huge muscle bound guys. I didn't know how one could tell the difference between them. It's only after time and experience, e.g., working at an old school gym with competitive BBs, reading magazines and such that it was clear to me after subsequent viewing of Pumping Iron that Arnold was just in a different league than anybody else.
Perhaps, my friend, it is lack of education and experience that is causing you to miss the complexities of MMA causing you to view these great athletes as mere brawlers. MMA is the sport of the future. If boxing and professional wrestling can be big business than it's only a matter of time before MMA will be just, if not more, popular. Bodybuilding will never ever be a popular and mainstream sport. Many people like to train like bodybuilders but few have any ambitions to be on stage oiled up in a thong flexing their muscles as if to say "Hey, everybody! Look at me!" Even massive bodybuilders strolling along in public is more likely to be scorn and ridiculed than admired.
Think about it years before MMA you had to actually know a fighting style, it took years to develop your technique, today it's called MMA and all you need to know is bits and pieces.
It's fucking pathetic.
And don't get me wrong here, some of these guys who I have seen fight would most possible kick my motherloving ass, but I hate it when they make it sound like it's a new way of fighting...it's not new it's called brawling.
