Gay MMA

[GeneChing]

This is an excerpt from an NYT article. It's quite long, so follow the link (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/magazine/23martial-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=shad%20smith&st=nyt&scp=1) for the whole story. It's an interesting read.

I asked Smith why he spent so much of his youth looking for trouble. I expected some sort of clichéd, though possibly true, explanation — a difficult childhood or a Napoleon complex. What I didn’t expect him to say was, “You know, bro, the sexual-preference thing.”

Smith is gay, and I know of no other professional fighter who is openly so. “I was always scared that my mom and dad would find out and wouldn’t like me, and my brothers wouldn’t like me,” he said. “I was petrified, because I didn’t want anyone to find out. And I would try to be the toughest person around. That way, no one would suspect, no one would ever say it, no one would think it.”

The gay issue is distilled on this gay site:

Shad Smith Becomes First Openly Gay Mixed Martial Arts Fighter (http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=66&id=18575)
Article Date: 03/26/2008
By Dylan Vox

Mixed martial arts has become a national phenomenon, and with the creation of the Ultimate Fighting Championships, only continues to grow in popularity. This week, competitor Shad Smith became the first openly gay fighter in the sport when he revealed his sexuality in a New York Times interview.

According to the article, Smith entered his first fight in 2000 shortly after his release from prison where he was serving time for carjacking, one of his many stints.

He joined a more underground organization called Felony Fights, which has similar rules to the way UFC began in 1993.

Smith explained that he started fighting at an early age because of he was concerned about someone discovering his sexual orientation. "I was always scared that my mom and dad would find out and wouldn't like me, and my brothers wouldn't like me," he explained to the New York Times.

"I was petrified, because I didn't want anyone to find out. And I would try to be the toughest person around. That way, no one would suspect, no one would ever say it, no one would think it."

Now at 35, Smith has had several run-ins with the law, but is learning to settle down with his boyfriend Jesse.

Of his 20 fights, Smith has won 10 with 8 losses and 2 draws. Although he most likely will never make it to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, he explained to Nation writer Paul Wachter that he has learned a lot about himself from the sport.

[MasterKiller]

CLick here for full story (http://www.mattbattle.com)

[sanjuro_ronin]

He may be gay, but is he flaming ?
That is the question.
:D

[cjurakpt]

it was actually a very well written and nuanced article; the gay angle was actually not mentioned for a while, and only came up in context of what his motivation was to go start with people on the street for no reason; overall, it was well-balanced and gave a pretty accurate snapshot into the whole MMA phenomenon...

[GeneChing]

... but the gay angle makes a better thread headline...:rolleyes:

[jackmcmanus21]

I saw one of his fights at Felony Fights...seems like a decent guy. I heard he had some run ins with the law and he was found innocent on a pretty serious charge.

[GeneChing]

Not nearly as funny as Blue Collar Brawlin with BORAT!! (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51438) (I can't wait to see footage of that!) but funny none the less. The whole gay MMA issue is funny to me.


Mixed Martial Arts Is Gay (http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2008-07-10/news/mixed-martial-arts-is-gay/)
At a Kendall bar, repressed ****sexuality can bloody your nose.
By Elyse Wanshel
Published on July 10, 2008

A trio of women in their midtwenties is huddled in a dark booth in a corner of Gatsby's (8575 SW 124th Ave., Miami, 305-412-2220). Most of the bar is amped, but these women sit far from all the beer and chest pounding. Staring quietly at a cartoonish Britto-inspired mural, they curl their stiff fingers around the stems of sweating martini glasses.

"Our husbands forced us to come," says a mousy blonde with the stylized Hispanic accent you find only in Miami's suburbs.

On a gargantuan screen, two fighters roll around on the floor, twisting each another into a knot of slippery, glistening flesh. One wraps his muscular legs around his opponent's rippled waist. It's the Ultimate Fighting Championship — "human ****fighting" to John McCain, and one of the most popular things on cable.

"It's gay," all three women say as they roll their eyes in unison.

Ricky, a 26-year-old jujitsu fighter and husband of one of the catatonic triplets, approaches. "We hear that all the time," he says, "but we don't pay attention."

"If any of those people who call it gay want to grapple with us," says another hubby, Carlos, who has a broad, athletic frame and slicked-back black hair, "no problem, we'll throw down."

"If you could watch two girls grapple, who would you choose?" I ask.

"Jessica Alba and Jessica Biel," says Ricky, widening his hazel eyes under the brim of a khaki baseball cap. "Naked!"

"Because that'd be some hot lesbian action, right?"

"Hell yeah!" says Carlos, air-punching Ricky.

"Well, aren't lesbians gay?" I ask.

"Okay ... if you're looking at it in that sense, mixed martial arts might seem a little gay."

Is it a little gay? Or is it butt-plug, porno bargain-bin gay? That — aside from how in hell did Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida smoke "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" Tito Ortiz? — is the question of the night.

"If two guys were ****ing right in front of me, that would be slightly more gay," says Chris, a 25-year-old private investigator with a quick smile. "I mean, in a sport where it looks like one of the moves is to teabag your opponent until he chokes on your balls, it's hard to ignore the ****eroticism. You know, all sports seem slightly ****sexual. But, hey, most sports came from the Greeks, and they used to wrestle with little boys."

"Baseball is ****erotic?" I ask.

"Sure, think about it," Chris says.

I think of a phallic bat hitting, well, balls.

"In baseball, guys wear tight pants and slap one another on the ass. In football, 300-pound dudes tackle one another and toss animal flesh around.

"Just look at these guys," he says, gesturing to light heavyweight Thiago Silva as he defeats Antonio Mendes by submission. "They're wearing next to nothing."

Then a buxom ****tail waitress in a red corset jiggles by with a loaded tray. "Chicks should be wearing next to nothing — not dudes," he adds.

Sitting on the other side of a jam-packed mammoth black bar is a guy who calls himself Pac Machino and looks like a Hispanic Ray Romano. "When someone's **** is sitting on your balls and there's all this sweat and saliva, it's a little ****sexual," he says, sucking down some foamy amber backwash and slamming an empty pint onto a wet napkin.

"What do you think makes MMA fighting so appealing to heterosexual guys then?" I ask.

"Guys watch it with their girlfriends so they can go home and grapple with their girlfriends."

"But most guys here don't seem to be watching with their girlfriends. They seem to be watching with their boyfriends."

"Fine," he says, picking up a fresh brew, "then straight guys watch it with their boyfriends so they can go home and have a circle jerk."

"Excuse me?" says a man standing nearby, his cheeks speckled with pockmarks. "They're not gay; they're fighting."

"You don't think it looks a tiny bit gay when two guys are on top of each other, sweating, panting —"

"Elbowing each other in the face? No," he says to me so closely that I smell the Tennessee whiskey on his breath. "This is a real sport for real fighters. It is 100 percent not gay."

A promo for the headlining fight for the night — Sean Sherk (who was stripped of his lightweight title when the UFC found traces of steroids in his system) versus BJ Penn (who won the title in Sherk's absence) — pops up on every one of Gatsby's 4,985,803,458,340,580 TV screens.

Walking past a well-lit billiards area, I spot a private lounge decked out in burgundy leather couches and a red-felt pool table. A large group of guys sits around the lounge's big-screen TV set, and in the back a good-looking guy sporting a buzzcut reclines with a tattooed arm perched on a pretty brunette's shoulders.

"Do you guys find this sport gay at all?" I ask. The girl stares blankly at me.

"She can't speak any English," the 25-year-old Jason says. "But, yes, it's pretty gay. Sometimes I whack off to fights instead of buying porn — it's cheaper." He smiles and says something to the girl in Spanish. She giggles. "But seriously," he continues, "I've been wrestling since high school, and the first time a guy pinned me down, it did feel kind of gay. But when someone's got you in a can opener and you can feel his breath on your face, you don't want to, like, kiss him; you want to puke."

"If you could watch any girls duke it out in an octagon cage, who would they be?"

Jason tightens his arm and draws his petite companion closer.

"My girl versus Elizabeth Hurley," he says. "It would be great titties against great titties, and I love some great titties."

Just then Sherk gets knocked out on the floor of a bloody cage. As groups of men jump up to hug one another in excitement, I can't help but think that at this moment, Jason might be the only one in the place with a preference for the females of the species.

[MasterKiller]

Full story. (http://www.mattbattle.com/)

[Lucas]

Full story. (http://www.mattbattle.com/)

All i get from that link is a Bio

[sanjuro_ronin]

I don't get it, where the story about happy MMA ??

[couch]

I don't get it, where the story about happy MMA ??

Meet the Flintstones...a yabba dabba do time...we'll have a gay 'ol time!

[sanjuro_ronin]

Meet the Flintstones...a yabba dabba do time...we'll have a gay 'ol time!

You know they were swingers right?

[couch]

You know they were swingers right?

Really? I didn't know, but now I know. :p

[sanjuro_ronin]

Really? I didn't know, but now I know. :p

Glad I could be of help.

[Water Dragon]

Ya wanna know what's really gay?

This thread

[mawali]

Great venue!
A nice place to meet macho! guys.

[Kevin Huang]

I've seen it in MMA firsthand, but I've seen it in ALL sports.

Any sport that has intense male-male contact will draw some of the gay element. That includes the NFL (huge percentage of gay males on the gridiron), wrestling, and other sports.

I see nothing wrong with having gays in sports as long as they abide by the same rules as everybody else.

[doug maverick]

I've seen it in MMA firsthand, but I've seen it in ALL sports.

Any sport that has intense male-male contact will draw some of the gay element. That includes the NFL (huge percentage of gay males on the gridiron), wrestling, and other sports.

I see nothing wrong with having gays in sports as long as they abide by the same rules as everybody else.

its a statistical fact thaty one in every three nfl players are gay.

[uki]

MMA is gay to begin with... besides, being gay is the new american trend.

[Raipizo]

agreed with uki.

[Kevin Huang]

I wouldn't say that MMA is gay, but I do recognize that some gay people train it.

Gay people train kung fu too, and they do just fine.

To me, MMA is neither "gay" nor "hetero". It's just "martial arts" to me, not a sexploration.