Tales from the Mat

Abstract

Based upon five years of observant participation, I examine how participants justify their engagement with the controversial but increasing popular practice of mixed martial arts. Several themes emerge: necessity ("it is a violent world"), sociobiological discourse, emulating the exotic, spiritual teachings, alienation from consumer society, and the body as a project. These themes suggest that this pain-filled-practice is more than simply a site of exercise or sport, and in fact reveals complicated, gendered narratives about the broader social lives and struggles of the men who participate in the practice. I argue that the ambiguously defined field and the feeling of being out-of-place encourage identity exploration. This becomes an important part of the allure as the participants craft stories that provide meaning for the physical training. I conclude with reflections on how meaning is constructed in embodied cultural forms and on the value of these often-ignored forms for making sense of social life.

‘Let's face it, it's not a healthy sport’: Perceived health status and experience of injury among Polish professional mixed martial arts athletes

“…In some of the social research on injury and pain in MMA, in order to get a good insight into the fighters' narratives, a qualitative research approach has been applied (e.g. ethnographic research of Spencer [2009Spencer [ , 2011Spencer [ , 2012, Channon [2022] or Green [2011Green [ , 2016). Our research employed a mix methodology, combining quantitative (questionnaire survey) and qualitative (in-depth interviews) data.…”

“…Some exceptions include the works focusing on pain and injury in MMA in the context of masculinity and gendered narratives (Green, 2016;Spencer, 2012), body perceptions and embodied experience of pain and injury (Spencer, 2009(Spencer, , 2011Stenius, 2014), and last but not least the culture of risk and the concept of edgework (Channon, 2020(Channon, , 2022Sugden, 2021).…”

Negotiating violence: Mixed martial arts as a spectacle and sport

“…Regardless of how MMA has been classified and conceptualized, the sport has entered the mainstream sport context. Researchers have also paid an increasing attention to the sport in relation to gender and embodiment (Uhlmann and Uhlmann 2005;Stenius 2015;Vaccaro and Swauger 2015;Channon and Matthews 2015;Channon et al 2017;Green 2016), body techniques (Spencer 2009), and emotional management (Vaccaro et al 2011), as well as violence, pain and injuries (Stenius and Dziwenka 2015;Jensen et al 2016). One highly influential study was conducted by Spencer (2012a; see also 2014), who ethnographically followed the everyday life at an MMA club (see also Green 2011).…”

Participation, Pain, and World Making

“…The relatively brief history of MMA illustrates the broader identity building and maintenance work of fighting. As ethnographies of MMA have suggested, fighting produces particular types of bodies and bodily awareness of individual and social bodies of self and other (Green 2011, 2015; Spencer 2009, 2014b). Intimacy, or what Laurendeau (2014, 16) calls “inter-corporeal emotion,” brings fighters’ bodies together while, seemingly paradoxically, reaffirming larger boundaries and separations.…”