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Controversial sport makes inroads on campus

This is part one of a Gazette Sports three-part series on mixed martial arts at Western. Read part two and three.

A generation of fans is hailing it as the future of sport, while purists decry it as nothing more than a flash in the pan. But while that battle rages on Pay-Per-View, over network TV and in arenas across North America and beyond, one thing is clear: the Mixed Martial Arts phenomenon has definitely arrived at Western.

Want to watch a night of fights at the Grad Club — one of the on campus bars at Western? Better call ahead, as it’s frequently packed come fight night. And if you walk around campus long enough, you might even bump into an actual MMA fighter, like Andrew Ross.

But Ross doesn’t have a mohawk, beer belly or bad facial tattoo. Neither brash nor profane, the varsity wrestler is soft-spoken, articulate and shows none of the MMA stereotypes the sport is trying hard to shrug off.

As a sport, MMA is intuitively simple, yet surprisingly complex.

MMA competitors train in multiple disciplines, from striking arts like boxing and muay thai to grappling sports like wrestling and jiu-jitsu.

Fights take place inside a traditional boxing ring or caged fighting surface, and aside from a list of banned attacks, fighters are free to use whatever method or style they choose to in the bout. A good MMA fighter might use boxing footwork to land a muay thai kick, before executing a judo throw and finishing their opponent with a jiu-jitsu arm-lock.

Like boxing, the fights can be brutal and sometimes bloody, but they are far from the unregulated “Fight Club” perception many have of the sport. Both a referee and a ringside doctor are there at all times to ensure fighter safety.

According to Ross, the barbaric perception of the sport is totally unfounded.

“As surprising as it sounds, MMA is actually easier on the body than wrestling is,” Ross said. “In MMA you have so much diversity, so many options on where the fight can go, whereas in wrestling each time it’s the same thing. I know people who have had an injury sideline them in wrestling who have gone on to compete in MMA.”

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