Some of you know that I'm a fan of mixed martial arts (aka ultimate fighting). Originally formulated as a way to test the capabilities of the various martial arts (and martial artists) against each other in a neutral forum with unbiased rules, it got a bad rap from the media and others in its early days when it was unwisely promoted as more of a "blood sport." But today it has moved beyond that image and is actually a very exciting & legitimate sport with highly conditioned & well-trained athletes who are amazingly skilled martial artists. What's more, defying stereotypes and despite their sometimes outrageous tatoo-covered bodies or bizarre hairdos, the fighters are often smart, articulate, and friendly. The current UFC light heavyweight champion, Randy Couture, an amazingly fit 41 year old former Greco Roman wrestler and family man from Gresham, Oregon, is also nicknamed "Captain America" because he's such a friendly, humble, respectful, stand-up guy who's an ambassador for the sport.

The concept of mixed martial arts actually dates to the ancient Greek Olympics of 648 B.C. when it was called Pankration ("all powers") and it is like a combination of the four modern Olympic sports of wrestling, judo, boxing, and taekwando. (Many Olympic medalists in wrestling and judo have also successfully competed in MMA, including U.S. Olympic wrestling gold medalist Rulon Gardner.) It is currently very popular in Japan and Brazil, as well as the U.S, Holland, and Russia, though there have recently been MMA events in dozens of countries including Canada, Mexico, the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Israel, Kuwait, Australia, China, South Korea, and Thailand. MMA competitors come from all these countries and many more.

In the U.S., it's fully sanctioned by the Nevada & New Jersey State Athletic Commissions (it's sanctioned in other states too, but UFC events are usually in Las Vegas or Atlantic City) and there are actually quite a few rules to protect the safety of the fighters and prohibit potentially dangerous strikes such as headbutts, groin strikes and kicks to the head of a downed opponent. Competitors weigh in before the events and must compete in their own weight class. They usually compete in fight shorts or grappling shorts, but they may also wear a judo/karate gi or other traditional attire of their martial art. They also wear protective equipment such as mouthpieces, cups, and lightweight grappling gloves to protect their hands from injury when striking (boxing gloves & hand wraps are actually much more dangerous because they are much heavier, creating a higher likelihood of serious injury due to repeated blows to the head) while still enabling them to grab onto their opponent for grappling techniques. The reason many MMA fights are held in a chain-link-fence type cage (the fence is rubberized to prevent scratching or cuts) is because grappling in a ring can be dangerous - the fighters can easily slip through the ropes and fall onto the hard surface below. Because of these safety precautions and because the close quarters grappling aspect of the sport reduces the frequency of high impact collisions, there are many fewer serious injuries in MMA than in other contact sports such as boxing, football, rugby, and hockey.

MMA is exciting in part because there are so many ways to win - takedowns, throws, punching, kicking, knees, elbow strikes, submission holds (arm locks, leg locks, chokes) - which makes the fights as much of a mental chess match as a physical contest. Fighters may honorably end a fight at any time by "tapping out" to signal their surrender, while the ref may also stop a fight for a cut or if he feels a fighter is too injured to continue. Fights that go the full 3 rounds of 5 minutes each are scored by a panel of judges on a "10-point must" system, just like in pro boxing.

Anyhow, I'm hoping I've piqued your interest and you'll give the UFC a chance while it's available on free TV instead of pay-per-view. There is a free UFC on Spike TV tonight at 9pm Eastern (6pm Pacific) - it's the live finale of the Ultimate Fighter reality show. They will air 3 fights for sure - a superfight between UFC legend Ken Shamrock and rising UFC star Rich Franklin, the middleweight finals: Diego Sanchez v. Kenny Florian, and the light heavyweight finals: Forrest Griffin v. Stephan Bonnar. The finalists are basically "minor league" MMA stars who are getting a chance to win a UFC contract and fight in the "big leagues."

All of the other participants in the show are fighting on the undercard, but they'll prob only show them if the fights on the main card end quickly, though we may get to see some highlights. If you missed the Ultimate Fighter show, they're having a marathon all day today on Spike, beginning at 9am Eastern. I think there's a fight at the end of every episode except for the first 2 episodes and episode 4.

If you tune in an hour early, at 8pm, you'll see the most recent episode, which features 2 fights - the light heavyweight semi-finals - neither of which go to judges decision (meaning they end by KO, TKO or submission). The Swick-Bonnar fight is particularly good.

For more info on the show, go to: http://www.theultimatefighter.tv/

For more an introduction to MMA in general, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_martial_arts
http://www.ringside.com/articles/ufc_article.htm

As for how this is related to the Federalist Society, you'd be surprised to learn of the legal & regulatory battles regarding keeping MMA legal (Sen. John McCain was an early opponent of MMA), allowing it to be shown on cable TV, and eventually securing sanctioning by the country's most prominent athletic commissions (California recently agreed to sanction the sport beginning this summer.) The fact that it's being shown for free on cable TV is not only a huge victory for the sport, but an example of liberty triumphing over the forces of statism & regulation.

Update:

Good show on the whole - good fights (and one GREAT fight!), but a little too much filler material and it was disappointing that they didn't show anything from the undercard. The second fight, Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar was an absolutely great fight, one of the best in UFC history. The first round was just incredible! Well worth watching if you get the chance. The other fights were good too, except for the first minute or so of the Sanchez-Florian fight when they dance around the ring sizing each other up. Spike is having an encore airing of the show tomorrow (Sunday) night at 10pm if you missed it tonight.

A Washington Post article, TSA Slated for Dismantling, suggests that the incompetent, mismanagaged, wasteful & inefficient, cost doubling, undertrained & corner-cutting, repeatedly failure-prone, safety illusion creating, rights violating, privacy violating (& cover up promoting), thievery enabling, sexual harassment promoting, hypocritical security side-stepping, long line creating, nail clipper, scissor, pocket knife/tool, tiny toy gun and cigarette lighter-confiscating, peanut butter sandwich thieving, elderly & disabled harassing, on the job sleeping, air marshal hemorrhaging, employee health hazard creating, and just generally awful Transportation Security Administration may soon be a thing of the past, or will at least have a much reduced role. The TSA director is also stepping down. One only wonders why this hasn't happened sooner...

But whatever will we do without federal airport security screeners to stage a little security theater for us to make everybody feel safe? Well, a return to private screeners is pretty easy to imagine - just another form of deregulation. But I tend to favor the radical suggestion of magician/comic Penn Jillette, who suggests that we Make The Terrorists Do the Profiling.