I won’t be watching UFC again

LAST week my kids wanted to tune in to highlights of Conor McGregor’s UFC fight in Vegas, which has propelled the Dubliner to new heights of superstardom.

Truth be told, I’d never previously watched mixed martial arts (MMA), although it was impossible to avoid coverage of the event in the mainstream media and across social networks.

In admitting that I know nothing about UFC, I am making my observations from a starting point of absolute ignorance.

I switched over to the fight, half expecting a cartoonish hybrid of wrestling and boxing, with a few Bruce Lee moves thrown in for effect.

We had missed McGregor’s bout but my sons (both aged under 11) asked if they could watch the other fight. As the competitors prowled menacingly around the ring, they looked like a couple of lads squaring up to each other outside the chipper after the pubs had closed.

But then the brutality began, as they unleashed a torrent of vicious blows and kicks on each other, culminating in one of the fighters getting a full force knee to the chin (a scene replayed in slow motion again and again).

The crowd couldn’t get enough of it, baying for blood like they were extras in

‘Gladiator’. After one fight ended, the floor of the ring resembled that of a hospital operating theatre.

Sports journalist Paul Kimmage has described MMA as

“barbaric

? and it’s hard to disagree with his assessment. But for a sport that, on the face of it, looks like a free-for-all scrap, I was surprised to discover a long list of rules governing fights when I searched online.

Prohibited moves include butting with the head, eye gouging, biting, hair pulling, fish hooking, groin attacks, small joint manipulation, striking to the spine or back of the head, kicking the head of a grounded opponent, kneeing the head of a grounded opponent, kicking to the kidney with the heel

?¦ the list goes on.

Personally, I don’t like the graphically violent nature of the sport or its underlying message, particularly if impressionable youngsters are watching as they could possibly seek to copy what they see in the schoolyard.

Conor McGregor is a hero to many and has no doubt trained incredibly hard to get to where he is. Few would begrudge him his success.

In my house, however, I’m placing a TV ban on all future UFC events – at least until my children are old enough to decide for themselves if this violent entertainment should fall into the category of sport.

I may well hold a minority view and I don’t wish to detract from other people’s genuine enjoyment of McGregor’s most recent victory.

But quite simply, this sort of thing is just not for me.