CURRENT AGE: 21
CURRENT AGE: 18
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS LURES YOUTH
Chris Lytle, 34, is an Indianapolis firefighter and father of four. Aerial Womock , 7, is a second grader at Hattie B. Stokes Elementary in Lebanon who is interested in art. Both participate in mixed martial a rts, a sport that is growing in popularity among professionals and youth alike.
Mixed martial arts, or Ultimate Fighting when referring to the professional competition hosted by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, is a full-contact sport that has gained much success as well as notoriety since it started in the United States in the early 1990s. Mixed martial arts is based on sports such as boxing, judo, jujitsu, tae kwon do, wrestling and kickboxing. However, early competition started as “no holds barred,” which led to charges by U.S. Sen. John McCain and others that it was no better than “human cockfighting.”
Today, UFC fighters must abide by a list of rules, some of which forbid acts such as biting, spitting and head-butting, as well as gouging eyes, pulling hair, attacking the groin, or striking the spine, back of head or throat. States choose whether they want to recognize or regulate the sport (Indiana does not). Competitors wear only shorts and lightweight gloves and are divided into weight classes.
UFC events draw increasingly larger audiences in the U.S. More than 1 million consumers bought the pay-per-view events in 2008, doubling the number for the top UFC bout in 2006. UFC programming also is available on cable’s Spike TV, where the reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” is in its sixth season and “UFC Unleashed” offers replays of past fights and fighter profiles.
Although professionals and youth participate in MMA, they train and participate in the sport in different ways. Lytle is a professional mixed marcial arts fighter and has appeared on “The Ultimate Fighter.” “Lights Out” Lytle has had many good fights. His record is 26 wins – including four knockouts and 18 submissions -- 17 losses and five draws.
Lytle wrestled at Southport High School, and that background led him to MMA in 1998. “Immediately, I was good and I was having success at it. I really enjoyed it. I just kept training and I didn’t really think about where it was taking me,” Lytle said.
Another fighter encouraged him to enter some local bouts. “I went and I just kept fighting, kept winning and then it kind of just kept growing and growing,” he said.
Now Lytle gets money as well as enjoyment out of MMA and trains whenever he can. “I’m at the gym every d ay that I’m no t at work, spend several hours there, you know, running, lifting weights and lots of different things,” he said. “In this sport, you have to do a lot of wrestling to be good at it. However, you have to be a good boxer also.”
Aerial and her brother, Jaylan, 10, train most weekends at Integrated Fighting Academy on Indiana polis’ Northeastside -- the same gym where Lytle trains. They’ve been going for about four months and have learned many of the moves used in MMA competition, including jujitsu, wrestling and boxing. “[Adults] do harder stuff; we do a little easier,” Jaylan said.
He explained how MMA compares to sports like karate and wrestling: “Karate … is just kicking and hand moves. In MMA, you can punch and (win) submissions and kick.”
Submission is a wrestling term for yielding to an opponent, which results in an automatic defeat. Because much of a MMA bout is done on the floor, wrestling is a big part of the sport. A submission can be signaled by a fighter tapping a hand or foot on the mat, giving it the alternative name of a “tap-out.”
Jaylan and Aerial got involved because they watch UFC competitions and it looked like fun. “It’s also about learning to defend ourselves,” Aerial said.
While they don’t do actual UFC-style fights, they do spar with other kids in the program. Although no striking is allowed, each has received some minor injuries (Jaylan had an elbow pop and Aerial got a bloody nose).
Lytle supports kids who want to train in the components of MMA but is opposed to them engaging in fights, many of which occur in cages. “I just think that would hurt them mentally more than physically,” he said.
He explained that in MMA, a fighter spend so much time training in so many styles of combat that losing a fight can be very difficult to handle.
Still, physical injuries are a continuous threat, and Lytle has sustained a few. “I separated my shoulder in a fight,” he said, “and I still have the bones sticking out about an inch on my shoulder.”
In that fight, his opponent had picked Lytle up 30 seconds into the fight and slammed him onto his shoulder. Lytle knew he was hurt but was not sure to what extent, so he kept fighting for 11 minutes. “My right hand was separated, but I could still move it. I just knew I couldn’t hit as hard as normal. I knew that something was wrong,” he said.
Although he won that match, the fight hurt Lytle in the long run. “That kept me out for a while. I had my arm in a sling and I couldn’t lift anything. It took me a long time to rehabilitate that,” he said.
Injuries can be gruesome. Lytle witnessed a fighter who had his tibia and fibula broken in half by a kick in the shin. He tried to stand and his bone just kind of breaks and goes at like a 90-degree angle, and it just looked so painful and disgusting. He immediately dropped to the ground,” he said.
Injuries can take a fighter out of the sport. And at least three fighters (one in Houston in 2007 and two others in unsanctioned fights in Ukraine and South Korea) have died from injuries sustained in MMA bouts.
Despite all the violence of the sport, Jay
Even though money is now a significant motivator for Lytle (for example, besides his competition fee, he received a $40,000 bonus for winning “Fight of the Night” accolades in his UFC win against Paul Taylor in October), he tries to give back to his community by helping with fundraisers and donating gym shorts and pictures.
Ian an Aerial can’t wait until they can compete seriously. “I really want to fight. That’s the first thing that I want to do when I grow up,” Aerial said.
Both students emphasized that the sport requires fast thinking and intellect above physical strength. Lytle also stressed that MMA fighters are athletes, not brutes.
They’re not a bunch of idiots, not a bunch of street thugs. We have people who show respect towards each other, not a bunch of gladiators out there just trying to kill each other,” he said.
ASSISTANT EDITORS: Peter Akinola, 15; Becky Buchanan-Schwanke, 17; David Glass, 18; Michelle Hu, 17; Beverly Jenkins, 17; Joe Murphy, 15; Reginetta White, 15.
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Youths interested in learning more about MMA can contact Pat McPherson at Integrated Fighting Academy, (317) 529-4620.
Copyright 2009 Y-Press