This seems to be the latest spectator sport craze: placing eight-year-olds in a cage and encouraging them to punch and kick the crap out of each other.

Read article and watch video here.



I just don't get this. We make dog-fighting illegal, but it's okay to encourage children to fight as a spectator sport?

-- Nephele

Call it de ja vu, but didn't they make a Law and Order episode about this type of shit? This is fucked up...

I agree with Capri- that's fucked up. And disgusting. And Vulgar. I'd never put my kids or allow my kids to be put through that. I adhere violence and to force children to be violence fills me with horror. If they get these kids to fight and such as they are doing here, what type of person is that teaching them to be as they grow into adults?

Years ago I taught the UK under 8 kick boxing champion. He was a well-adjusted kid, quite quiet, quite intelligent. It did'nt seem that it had had any negative influence on him, in fact it was a source of self-worth for him. Also, he never ever fought in school- he was well disciplined.

This is my only experience with this kind of thing- and it wasn't a negative experience per se.

I think there's a vast difference between children's kickboxing (which uses safety padding and has rules of engagement) and children's cage fighting -- which, as depicted in the linked video, is composed of so-called "mixed martial arts" and the children are not protected by headgear or padding of any kind as they roll around on the floor punching, kicking, and elbowing each other, with the very real danger of doing damage to young, developing bone joints.

If you read the article, you will see that Paul Jackson, manager of a kickboxing, self-defense and fitness gym, questioned the lack of protective gear. Calling this cage fighting "a circus performance," Mr. Jackson also stated: “The main question I would ask is why were the parents allowing them to do that? I wouldn’t really agree with anything like it. "

-- Nephele

I had to find the video on youtube to watch it. Most of it didn't look that bad. In high school gym class was required and split into "sections" some of which were co-ed, some of which were not. Each "section" was a different sport and they had wrestling for the guys which was a lot like what I saw in the video; also without any safety equipment other than a mat on the floor. The school also had a wrestling team, and they actually wore helmets at meets. Why the discrepancy I have no idea [a similar discrepancy in safety equipment use also extended to gym class soccer and football but not softball]. My only complaint with what I saw on the video was that the kids did not appear to be well taught or disciplined, and at one point needed a referee to step in sooner.

The cage was just theatrics, the lack of safety equipment isn't that unusual, and you could find a big crowd of spectators in this age group's martial arts competitions. I don't know why a bunch of people would want to come in off the street to watch untrained children wrestle with each other in a cage that's only there for sensationalist purposes; but I would be just as pressed to come up with an explanation for why college sports draw such huge crowds or why we need six+ espn channels on tv for the masses.

Which is the problem. When somebody's kid gets badly hurt, then the stupid parents who encouraged this will scream and sue somebody.



I don't care what consenting adults do to each other for fun. But putting your kid in a cage to beat the shit out of another kid with hardly any rules or safety precautions is fucked up.

I think it's as fucked up as dressing up your very young daughter as a sexy adult, with cosmetics and waxing and everything, and putting her on stage in a "beauty pageant." It's parents who either want to be beauty queens or gladiators themselves, but they can't, so they live their dreams through their kids this way and share in their kids' "glory."

What's really fucked up about this, is that the spectators of these children's cage fight events are ADULTS. It's ADULTS getting their kicks from watching this stuff. Children's "cage fighting" is kind of like kiddie porn, in that respect.



I do. See my previous paragraph regarding kiddie porn.

But that's just my opinion. As I wouldn't put any child of my own in a cage to fight like an animal with another child, as some sort of pretense of a physical fitness activity or healthy and age-appropriate competitive sport for children.

-- Nephele

No offense, but I don't see how letting your kid do this is any worse than letting them compete in any other form of martial arts. Kids even younger than that have been competing in Tai Kwan Do and Karate tournaments without any protective gear for years and no one has ever said boo about it. It's just as easy to take a kick to the head there as it is in MMA. And let's not forget that simply playing Baseball at that young an age can cause irreparable damage to developing bones and joints.

The one thing I do take issue with is making this a ticketed public event. It's one thing if it's a well supervised tournament with stringent rules and only the family and coaches are there to root them on, it's another when they try to turn it into a kid's UFC fight.

~spidey

I thought that nowadays protective gear is a requirement for young children participating in martial arts classes and baseball? I know my neighbors' kids were required to wear padded headgear in their martial arts classes when they were little. Maybe it's just a requirement where I live, I don't know.



Ditto that. The fact that adult strangers to these kids come and watch these children participate in something that just doesn't seem age-appropriate to me (cages), just creeps me out.

-- Nephele

Lachrymose would have a better idea than me as to what goes these days, but when my brother was in that age group he did martial arts and protective gear was only used for certain classes & certain tournaments. IIRC how much people had to wear under those circumstances depended on their level of experience, not their age. I can remember watching some tournaments where the more experienced fighters wore no gear but the less experienced wore the helmets, chest pads, and mouth pieces. Anyone could come in off the street to watch, and the tournaments were almost always a full house with standing room only but it wasn't sensationalized with cage gimmicks and wasn't being promoted as an event to pay to come watch. Crowds were never rowdy.

Softball and baseball of the same age group OTOH were extremely rowdy. I can remember parents & referees having shouting matches interrupting games.

My biggest problem with it is that the kids in the video didn't seem to be well trained or disciplined [and that will increase the odds of injury]. It might not be PC to say, but I think kids in that age group should be taught how to fight so that they can better protect themselves instead of relying on adults to do it for them [which isn't always an option]. Giving adults a monopoly on violence just makes kids better victims imo.

I agree that kids should be taught how to defend themselves, absolutely. But cage fighting? That's beyond the pale. The kids are being encouraged to do this to entertain adults more than anything. And that's pretty unsavory, IMO.

-- Nephele

I think learning to fight or defend oneself is always a good thing. Disciplined arts in the way of fighting can be very life changing in a positive way.

But to put young kids into a cage fight, telling them to kick the other person's ass is wrong. I don't see the honor or discipline in that. I just see something that is very wrong and needs to end.

If they want the kids to fight- put them into a sport that does it in a mature way for the correct reasons way. This is obviously not a mature way, nor is it for the correct reasons if they are making people pay to see kids hurt each other.

The adults are only doing this for money, I'm sure. Which is selfish and stupid. >:(

Does anyone know how much "25 quid" is in USD?

I was curious to find out how much the organizers of this event charged for tickets, so I found the answer after a bit of online searching. They sold 250 tickets (all adult) at "25 quid" per ticket. They also advertised "cheap beer" for sale at the event.

But I suppose, to be fair, the 8-year-old vs 9-year-old cage fight wasn't the only item on the program. Which is good, because that probably means that there are only two sets of stupid parents involved.

-- Nephele

I believe £25 is roughly $38.50.
I have mixed feelings about putting kids in competitive sports, I have no problem with them playing sports, but I don't see the point in making them compete against each other physically, especially if it's primarily for the entertainment of adults.
I competed in a very rough Irish sport when I was young, all I ever gained from it was a few broken noses, and i became a bit scared of adults after seeing them practically foaming at the mouth at matches.