Dana White Supports Underage MMA
CBS’s Early Show recently aired a segment that uncovered the sad truth about children as young as six not only training, but competing in full on mixed martial arts bouts. Interestingly enough, UFC President Dana White appeared on the segment and defended the practice, rather than reprimanding it. Instead of taking the high road and agreeing with the notion that children in single digits should not be competing in MMA, Dana defends the idea and comes off as a bit of a monster.
Though White actually maintains his calm and refrains from swearing during the segment, he still attempts to defend an idea which, in the eyes of most people, just cannot be defended. I understand Dana represents the sport and would likely defend it in all avenues until the day he dies, but I think a PR person should have given him a nudge in the other direction on this one. Dana’s arguments, broadcast on network television, probably caused more trouble than if he were to have not commented at all.
Continue reading to check out a video of the segment…
(via Five Ounces of Pain)
Dana’s a knuckle head…In my view he’s making all the wrong decisions and it’s affecting the long term growth of the UFC. No doubt their losing ground that this point.
I don’t see a problem with it. As long as they are wearing the proper gear. Kids have been boxing since the begining of the sport.
Dana wasn’t convincing at all, I agree that he shouldn’t have defended this practice. His comparisons didn’t do much to disarm any arguments brought forth. Everything he said just sounded too euphemistic, while the viewer is confronted with the footage of kids rolling around in the cage hurting each other.
The majority of the average viewers who compare the statements of an educated physician with those of a shady PR guy are going to agree with the physician, especially when they have children of their own. Even Dana said that he doesn’t want his kids to be fighters.
it’s ok for kids to go out and race gocarts at 60 and 70 mph it’s ok to box it’s ok to play football. but not mma. Give me a break has this reporter ever played football, he said hit once not in a cage with someone trying to hurt him, I played football from a child up, i have a little boy who plays know, both when i played and now that he plays we hit with the intent to destroy. you have to have that instinct to play or at least be good. Eric Shapiro i usually like your post but i really am disappointed right know in your stance on this. I don’t like dana white but for once he is right, and when he began to talk about kids being fat, lazy just sitting on the couch playing video games the reporter said gotta cut you off gotta go. eric don’t turn into a politician were you take what ever road gets the least opposition. the dr. said something about cart. in kids bodies, my first cousins has a little boy thats 13 he can throw a 70 to 80 mph fast ball accurate, can throw a football 40 to 50 yrds accurate, but they already have to take steps to keep his arm safe. he could blow his shoulder up in a flash were is that any different.
Ok, “boss”, first off, you are the exact kind of parent that feeds their kid steroids because they want that same kid to be accepted in a way that they never were as a kid. I’m sorry that you’re parents didn’t love you, but come on, there is no comparision between baseball/football and MMA. You’re just an overgrown, disgruntled man who didn’t get educated because he believed his uncle when he said that you would be a pro football player. Sorry that didn’t work out for you bud. Oh and tell your uncle at the factory tonight that I said hey.
I tend to agree with the Doctor. A kid’s body is still maturing. It isn’t fully developed. There are just too many weak points on the body of kid for them to do MMA. It won’t take much for a kid to break an arm or a leg. JMO.
the boss, you have a point. I would definitely prefer my child to train MMA than sit at home and do nothing. But all out competition? At age six? I just don’t think its a good idea physically, as well as professionally. Remember MMA is extremely new compared to other professional sports. If we want MMA to get where those sports are in terms of respect and legitimacy, then the last thing we need is the president of the UFC promoting pee-wee MMA competition on national television. Personally, I’m all for kids training MMA at a young age just as they would any other martial art. But throwing two six year olds into a cage to battle it out just seems like a poor ethical decision all around.
The Boss your right (i can’t beleave i just said that). I was in judo, boxing, karate and wrestling as a 10 year old. If they had mma classed back in the day i would have just save my dad some money. It seems like CBS already made up there mind on how they wanted to spin this story. They just wanted to crap on dana because he didn’t want to put fight nights on there network. Why to stay your ground dana.
What Dana didn’t mention (which he should have) are the internal, or intangible benefits of training in MMA. Sure, training in MMA is better than sitting on the couch watching TV, by why is it better for kids than, say, soccer or baseball? Proper MMA training develops not just physical fitness but also mental toughness, sportsmanship, tenacity, concentration, integrity, honor, and self-confidence; in general, qualities that are sure to help a kid throughout his entire life. Thats why so many suburban parents put their kids in karate and tae kwon do schools. MMA is new and misunderstood by the general public; over time, they will grow to accept it, as long as kids train and compete in a safe environment and as many dangers as possible are mitigated.
Dana didn’t believe the **** that was coming out of Dana’s mouth. He looked like he had been on an all night bender and somebody ambushed him with an early wake-up opportunity promote MMA and before he realized it his foot was in his mouth. The rest of the interview he scrambled harder than Roger Huerta against Clay Guida to get his foot back out. Unfortunately for Dana the morning show sucker punched him and gave him only one round to defend himself.
Just another thing for people to hate Dana about. I was a fan before Dana….a lot of people were not. Dana is the man…thats all there is to it. This sport is so much more exciting because of him.
#5 First lets be clear on one thing my kids take nothing more than vitamins, they also have a choice to play sports they are not forced. The comment you made done nothing for the debate, probably because your a special ed student, and have trouble understanding what it means to contribute with facts. fact more people are injured with a life changing injury in football than any other sport children included. I know men who are disabled from taking hits they were not prepared for, or hitting improperly. The only comparison I made between baseball and mma was the doctor brought up cart. fact a child that catches is at a high risk of needing knee surgery before he even graduates a child that pitches may very well have to have surgery on an elbow or shoulder. Fact a child that races a gocart at 60 or 70 mph is at a high risk of wrecking and dying. That being said figure up how many kids play football every year in the us or baseball or race. Kids break legs, collar bones, arms, and most importantly necks causing some to be forever paralyzed there mr. educated. You probably said there was no comparison because they were “fighting” not understanding that the comparison that I was making was about one being safer than the other. By the way just so you know, before you insult someones intelligence maybe you should write something smart. I mean you spent more time insulting me than writing anything tangible. I didn’t realize someone being athletic offended you so much, but you were probably the fat lazy kid who now has fat lazy kids so your easily offended if we have active kids. I mean that must be since the only thing I said about my kid was he played football, but really had you got off the couch and not worn dresses. You might not have been so fat, ugly, lazy, and unskilled. But hey don’t take it personal I’m just stating who you are since I know right.
This is a lot safer then football and we let our kids play football at a young age. So mma at age 6 with headgear and everything else is safer than football.
Doesn’t seem like anyone has really examined the safety components necessary to protect children competing in MMA. Maybe the protective gear is adequate but it looks a lot like the stuff used in every martial arts school that’s designed to protect against incdental contact to the head. A four oz. glove is suitable to protect the hand of an adult competing in MMA but what are the requirements for children to ensure their safety? It doesn’t look safe to me but mine is just another unfounded opinion. If it’s going to work the priority has to be on the safety of the kids not on the calibre of the fighting and that will require further study.
WM, I really like to see a person with the important things on their minds. My point has been trying to say that people aren’t looking at the safety factor, but rather at the fact that their competing in hand to hand combat. There may very well need to be more safety gear added, but because someone who knows nothing about mma says it’s bad, or the general public who is misinformed says it’s bad. Should we just say yea it is. I wasn’t aware that’s how a sport gained legitimacy. I thought it was by standing up for what you believe in and proving it right, if we automatically say it’s wrong even if we find out it’s safe we would never convince the public.
The way the guy explains mma the sport in general makes it sound like they two opponents are trying to kill or injure the other guy, which is not what it is about at all. He doesn’t mention that they are training which keeps them in shape. He also makes it sound like the kids are forced into doing this, which I’m sure is not the case. The best defense for the argument is that what’s the difference if the kid is doing just karate, just boxing, just wrestling, or just JJ, rather than just have them all combined.
I rain Muay Thai kickboxing andat my gym kids are able to compete against other kids from the age of 10. You can also put your child into boxing and wrestling at a very young age. Dana is an ass. and politically he should have just said no to kid MMA. But he’s write about people’s acceptance. If someone told you their kid took regionals in wrestling you wouldn’t be so inclined to think it wrong for the child, and only slightly less appealing is boxing. But MMA is off limits.
Some kids begin boxing as early as elementry school, so looking at it that way, it doesn’t seem as bad.