5 Reasons why UFC is better for kids to watch than WWE

Ever since mixed martial arts got legitimized with rules and weight classes were introduced back in 1997, it has steadily gained popularity and became a global sport, alongside boxing and football. It is now the fastest growing sport in the world. The UFC is the premier organization in MMA and enforces the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts without exception. With more than 40 fights every year, the UFC hosts most of the top-ranked fighters in the world.

Despite being two very different entities, pro wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts are usually mentioned in the same breath. Yes, one can say at their core, they’re the same as two fighters, with no equipment or pads, fight it out for supremacy but many elements separates the two products as well, like showmanship, production, attitudes, styles, legitimacy, skills, technique to the point that it’s almost unfair to compare one to the other.

Both have existence in their own universe with little crossover from time to time. Here are few reasons I have listed on why one should get behind the sport of MMA and UFC rather than WWE especially the younger audience:-

1) MMA a real sport

The action is real

People have a tendency to compare MMA and pro wrestling and often consider them in the same realm. The real difference between MMA and Pro wrestling is that one is a real sport & the other is scripted entertainment. Mixed martial arts is legitimate fighting, with real winners and real losers. There’s no script, and championships are won and lost based on pure merit. Unlike WWE, which is a staged sport where winning or losing is almost inconsequential.

UFC’s product, at its core, is two guys competing in a physical contest to see who the better fighter is. They kick, punch and wrestle in accordance with an established set of rules to find out who the winner is just like any other sport. UFC produces more than 40 live events annually and is the largest Pay-Per-View event provider in the world, broadcast in over 129 countries and territories, to nearly 800 million TV households worldwide, in 28 different languages. And if kids should get behind any athletic activity, it should be a sport rather than theatrics on television.

2) Showmanship vs reality

The emotions are real

Unlike WWE in UFC you won’t see fake rivalries or fighters cutting long promos before the fight You won’t see fake weddings, people jumping from the crowd and entering the ring. You won’t see owners dropping his or her coat and start fighting with their own employees, you won’t see fake blasts or accidents killing people who will somehow rise from the dead after a while. You won’t see chairs, ladders and tables. You won’t see props and weapons used during the fight. You won’t see fighters cheat by distracting and hitting a referee to win the match.

UFC has no outlandish gimmicks, and nobody wears a cartoonish Halloween costume to combat. There are no crazy, nonsensical storylines beyond two guys fighting and wanting to win. The emotions, frustrations, tears, grudges, likes and dislikes shown inside or outside the octagon are often as real as it can get. The injuries are real, the pain is real and blood is real as well. On top of that, guys often have personal issues or their egos clash, which create emotional conflicts between the two leading to more compelling grudge match type fights, which are hyped up with interview and promos to draw big money. Thus, UFC don’t confuse its audience with what’s real and what’s not, like the WWE, where kids sometimes do take a negative storyline or gimmick of the WWE to heart.

3. More exciting

Nothing is more exciting than a big ‘fight’

Yes WWE is surely more entertaining with all the gimmicks, story lines, characters, flashy moves but when you talk about real excitement of a sport, UFC is unmatched. MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world and UFC is global leader in MMA. As UFC has the world’s best fighters,it is the excitement of the unknown in who is better than whom, what will happen when a boxer faces a karate guy, which fighting discipline will prove better against the other fighting disciplines. Mixed martial arts do a great job at promoting and building up their matches. They try to make cards as much special as possible with legitimate feuds to excite fans. Each fight is treated as special. Even undercard bouts have weight to them, as they all go toward determining future championship contenders.

The main business of promotion is to produce contenders, while WWE is in the business of making stars. The same fighters rarely share the octagon unlike WWE where the same matchups happen over and over again. The fights are mostly fresh as the same fighter don’t keep fighting the same opponent all the time like WWE and rematches and trilogies are hard to come by and are only made when the feud is unsettled or we don’t clearly know who the better fighter really is. Whether the fight last few seconds or entire 15 or 25 minutes, the momentum of the fight can shift anytime or any moment which keep fans glued. This keeps the matchups fresh and intriguing and fans captivated all the time.

4) Hard to imitate.

A Flying Knee

You often see warning during WWE programming asking kids not to do this at home, as many kids get attracted to these crazy flashy moves which in reality are not legitimate fighting techniques at all. UFC features high-level martial art techniques that needs years of dedication and skill set to pull off perfectly. Most of these guys have years of combat experience and training in their disciple. UFC features many Olympians, world champion athletes who are best in the business and have perfected the art to use effectively inside the cage. These are not very flashy moves like in WWE but are very effective and are not as easy to imitate.

A MMA fight can end with one punch knockout or with a submission making kids realize the devastating effects of these moves unlike in WWE where even after ten punches in the corner the guy looks pretty and stands still or counter attacks. The motto in UFC fight is to hit and not get hit in return and protect yourself at all times unlike in WWE where the actors let their opponents hit them with all sorts of crazy moves. This might encourage kids to learn these Martial art styles the right way for self-defense rather than just reenacting crazy moves of WWE with friends and get hurt in the process.

?5) Martial arts ethics & warriors code.

What remains is Respect

MMA is about discipline, honor, respect, loyalty. As it takes a lot to get into the cage, physically and mentally, despite all the feuds, grudges and trash talk, there is a mutual respect between competitors as the hard work, grind, sweat, and tears to reach inside the octagon to achieve their dream is the same.

Once it’s all said and done, fighters often show respect to their opponent for stepping into the octagon with them. All the trash talk, grudges and feuds are left behind in the octagon. Many great rivalries sometimes end up in friendship after sharing the octagon. It’s these martial arts ethics that can ingrain values, respect, discipline, sportsmanship spirit in kids.

The warrior code these fighters show inside and outside the cage of never giving up when the going gets tough and bounce back from adversity can also teach kids a lifelong lesson and make them more resilient for future hardship in life as well.

It’s a wonderful sport that I love so much! When we have great battles against great athletes, what remains is RESPECT.

– former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos