New Sport Idea: MMA with street clothes and no warmup.

[Bonk]

Do keep in mind that this is a morbid curiosity/fantasy rather than a serious proposal.

MMA fights seem to be the most reliable way to gauge if someone can fight or not. But here is the problem: a real fight will most likely occur while the fighter is wearing everyday clothes on a hard surface, without any chance to warm up or stretch and without any gloves or shinguards. Most importantly though, a real fight is unexpected and could be against anyone, and will most likely occur while someone isn't in the "fighting" mood, giving them the disadvantage. It is for this reason I propose a new sport: Casual MMA.

The premise is quite simple: a group of about 20 or so fighters (who have all signed a contract, of course) are taken to the ring which is non-padded. The audience sits around the ring like they normally would, there's are screens for people in the back of the auditorium, yadda yadda etc etc.

There are no weight classes or gender divisions. The fighters are all wearing normal street clothes without any protection. They are prohibited from doing any warming up or stretching, and are encouraged to socialize with each other so as to diffuse any tension and make them comfortable. There is absolutely no preparation besides any training they may have done in anticipation for the competition. Two fighters are called out at random to immediately enter the ring and fight each other, without any countdown or bell. Obvious rules - such as no groin shots or eye gouges - are observed. There is a referee to keep things nice and clean. When the fight is finished, another few minutes elapse, giving the other fighters time to relax again after witnessing the fight. Another two fighters are called out, and the process repeats.

I think this sport would be the best form of fighting competition for a few reasons:
-It would be the most realistic simulation of a real-world fight, while also keeping it consensual and sportsmanlike.
-It would be the most accurate benchmark of someone's ability to truly fight "on command."
-Competitors will learn to be actively prepared for any real-life altercation that might unexpectedly come to them during their everyday lives, without becoming totally paranoid.
-The emphasis would be on survival instinct, a very important factor in such confrontations.
-Arts that have little representation in the world of MMA but might have some merit in real-world self defense - such as ITF Taekwondo and Tang Soo Do - would have a chance to prove themselves in this regard.
-It would potentially develop a mutual respect between those lesser-represented arts and the more popular ones such as Muay Thai, BJJ, etc.

Do keep in mind that this is not meant to disrespect MMA at all; it is a conceptual idea for an entirely new form of fighting competition, and I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on it.

 

[J. Pickard]

This sounds stupidly unsafe. The idea of wearing regular "street clothes" could mean something different for each person and adds to the unsafe factor. For example, my everyday shoes are steel toed athletic style shoes made by reebok. I have a student who is a biker and wears leather and chains all the time that could protect him from injury while simultaneously causing severe injury. The lack of some type of padding on the ring also runs the risk of death from falling and hitting your head which just happens to be the most common cause of death and severe injury in street fights. I can't see any countries sporting commission allowing this to be legal.

 

[Dirty Dog]

My normal street clothes include a Benchmade Infidel and a Glock 19...

 

[Bonk]

This sounds stupidly unsafe. The idea of wearing regular "street clothes" could mean something different for each person and adds to the unsafe factor. For example, my everyday shoes are steel toed athletic style shoes made by reebok. I have a student who is a biker and wears leather and chains all the time that could protect him from injury while simultaneously causing severe injury. The lack of some type of padding on the ring also runs the risk of death from falling and hitting your head which just happens to be the most common cause of death and severe injury in street fights. I can't see any countries sporting commission allowing this to be legal.

That last part makes sense...I was actually about to delete the "non-padded ring" part before I posted this.

As for the clothes, I'm guessing standardized jeans and sneakers with a T-shirt could be a requirement?

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Do keep in mind that this is not meant to disrespect MMA at all; it is a conceptual idea for an entirely new form of fighting competition, and I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on it.

I think the closest to something like this I've seen is this:

But even this uses some rules and some protective equipment.

I suspect that as others have said, no rule and no equipment would be very dangerous. Remembering the earliest days of UFC and the insane groin punching that took place, if they had not been wearing protection, it might have ended in very serious injury.

 

[drop bear]

The better fighter will still win. The rules wouldn't change that outcome.

 

[JowGaWolf]

The better fighter will still win. The rules wouldn't change that outcome.

lol sometimes I don't know what to about your wisdom. lol We can close this tread now. Or derail it like normal

 

[Oily Dragon]

The better fighter will still win. The rules wouldn't change that outcome.

Somebody would come along and say "but but what about chaos/chance??".

There's a great scene in "The Dark Knight" when Harvey Dent is about to shoot Gordon's son, claiming it's based on "chance", and Batman just tackles the snot out him right as he flips the coin.

I always think about this when watching "No Country For Old Men". Sometimes the joker flipping his coin and ruining people's lives based on the outcome, really just needs a solid tackle.

 

[Oily Dragon]

I think this sport would be the best form of fighting competition for a few reasons:
-It would be the most realistic simulation of a real-world fight, while also keeping it consensual and sportsmanlike.
-It would be the most accurate benchmark of someone's ability to truly fight "on command."
-Competitors will learn to be actively prepared for any real-life altercation that might unexpectedly come to them during their everyday lives, without becoming totally paranoid.
-The emphasis would be on survival instinct, a very important factor in such confrontations.
-Arts that have little representation in the world of MMA but might have some merit in real-world self defense - such as ITF Taekwondo and Tang Soo Do - would have a chance to prove themselves in this regard.
-It would potentially develop a mutual respect between those lesser-represented arts and the more popular ones such as Muay Thai, BJJ, etc.

Do keep in mind that this is not meant to disrespect MMA at all; it is a conceptual idea for an entirely new form of fighting competition, and I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on it.

MMA already provides almost all of these things though.

The only real thing different in your set is the warmup, which would mean anyone taking part, especially via contract, is dumb.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I think the closest to something like this I've seen is this:

But even this uses some rules and some protective equipment.

I suspect that as others have said, no rule and no equipment would be very dangerous. Remembering the earliest days of UFC and the insane groin punching that took place, if they had not been wearing protection, it might have ended in very serious injury.

Groin punches are operated. If you want to do damage simply grab a handful squeeze really hard then twist and pull...lol

There's a video of two soldiers fighting. The screams of pain then the begging to let go gives me the assumption that it's really painful.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

It'd be boring. People would be spending the first bit of the match warming up, unless they want to have incredibly short careers. And wouldn't give us any extra info about their ability to fight that mma doesn't already.

 

[Cynik75]

Can't we just watch some random streetfights on YouTube?

 

[skribs]

Even things like having pockets creates all sorts of additional dangers for grappling.

People would simply min-max for this type of event. They wouldn't wear their normal street clothes. They would wear whatever their coaches and sponsors thought would make them most likely to win.