As much as I want to keep on the side of defending fighters in mma, this story cannot be seen from any other angle except the one portrayed. Heavyweight fighter Brett Rogers was arrested under a warrant for “third degree felony assault in a domestic violence incident against his wife” (Al-Shatti). No matter what background a person comes from, this is unacceptable.
Dana White, UFC owner and Zuffa official, “immediately terminated the 30-year-old from the Strikeforce heavyweight roster” (Al-Shatti). This was a good move because it shows that the president the UFC believes in justice, and that leagues will not tolerate uncontrolled violence outside of the sport.
In a way this is sort of a rhetorical appeal to the audience of the sport. It lets them know that things will not get out of hand under their control, and if something bad happens, they will take care of it. This reminds me of Andrew’s blog on “Violence Developed within sports” when he talks about the fight between two football teams. In the same way the NCAA will be praised for suspending 10 players, Dana White will be praised for terminating Roger’s contract.
The last thing to look at is whether or not the sport is what led to this violent act. It is safe to say that the sport gave him the tools to carry it out, but it would be controversial to say that the sport made him a violent person. If a baseball player were to hurt someone with a bat one would say the sport gave him the tools: his bat, strength, and swinging technique, but no one would say the sport made him violent. Similarly, mma gave Rogers the tools to hurt someone, but it is his actions that led him to prison, not his tools.
http://mma.sbnation.com/2011/10/25/2513387/brett-rogers-arrest-warrant-strikeforce-mma-news
http://mma.sbnation.com/2011/10/25/2513387/brett-rogers-arrest-warrant-strikeforce-mma-news
Hey Daniel. I thought this was interesting because I am talking about gender violence, and although most of your commentary is about violence in general, I think it is interesting how he beat up his wife. Do you think that those who are active in violent sports, such as boxing or football are proned to inducing violence in general on others? It could be family members, friends or others. This type of violence could be verbal or a threat of any type? Violence seems to be acceptable in sports on teams, so one might ask why should it not be acceptable off the field? It is clearly a possible impact of violent contact in training that can lead athletes to act based on instigation in sports
ReplyDeleteI haven't ever followed MMA fighting, but I do know that sports are associated with the participant's having a violent nature because of the sport. I totally disagree, and it seems like an excuse to me, honestly. I don't know the details of the case you were referring to, but I couldn't help but wonder if maybe drugs were involved? Or the fighter was under some sort of extreme stress and just didn't have the coping skills to handle it?
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of MMA and have trained in brazilian jiu-jitsu for a little bit, and have met many people who train in MMA. For the most part, most of these athletes use there fighting skills for good and save it for the "octagon" or sparring and not endanger an innocent person in the community. There is no room for unnecessary violent actions by trained fighter such as Rogers and can cause great harm to people. I'm glad Dana White kicked him out!
ReplyDeleteIf your looking for another story to help shed some favorable light on the sport after the Rogers post, I would look up the story about Jon Jones stopping a robber before a fight. I've been a fan of the sport for awhile and have seen more genuinely good people that are MMA fighters than in players in the NFL.
ReplyDelete