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How the media portrays combat sports and the issues within these types of sports

Superstar status of athletes within combat sports  In the recent years the media has portrayed many boxers and mixed martial artists as superstars. Such athletes include Conor McGregor, Demetrious Johnson and Anthony Joshua, these athletes are seen as “modern day gladiators” as they are constantly portrayed as strong, successful individuals and the fans rarely see what’s happening behind the scenes in regard to injuries, surgeries or athletes like these struggling with weight cuts. An issue of the media only portraying them as superstars is that it only gives half the story, the successful one. This means that fans would only see these athletes in a positive spotlight and no media coverage of them in a negative spotlight while preparing for fights through difficult weight cuts for example. However, the media may be doing this to protect the athletes spotlight to ensure that they seen as superior than the average human and this can link to the huge support for the gladiators in the coliseums in the Roman age and that they were superstars who were adored by everyone. This image the media gives the fans around the world leads to international fandom of these athletes and this ensures an increase in demand for the sports events they are involved in. Conclusion Overall, the media do not portray and report combat sports enough regarding the issues such as doping, weight cutting, risk of brain injuries and the superstar status of athletes. Some issues need the help of globalised media to address the issues more such as weight cutting to ensure there are safer ways to proceed. The media also do not portray the whole story in the case of doping to ensure a fair, non-biased opinion on an athlete who has doped in the past.

References • D'Amato, G. (2014). Injuries a growing concern in MMA, other combat sports. [online] Archive.jsonline.com. Available at: http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/Injuries-a-growing-concern-in-MMA-other-combat-sports-b99373433z1-281716991.html [Accessed 29 May 2017]. • Honeybourne, J., Hill, M. and Moors, H. (2004). Advanced physical education & sport for A-Level. 1st ed. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. • Lovell, M. (2004). Traumatic brain injury in sports. 1st ed. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger. • McPherson, S. (n.d.). Doping in sports. 1st ed. • Oxford Dictionaries | English. (2017). media - definition of media in English | Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/media [Accessed 28 May 2017]. • Pugmire, L. (2017). More questions about cutting weight raised after Khabib Nurmagomedov pulls out of UFC 209. [online] latimes.com. Available at: http://www.latimes.com/sports/boxing/la-sp-ufc-209-advance-20170303-story.html [Accessed 29 May 2017].

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How the media portrays combat sports and the issues within these types of sports

Weight cutting Another issue within combat sports is weight cutting, this is the action of losing weight quickly prior to a sports event in order to allow fair competition regarding similar weight to the opponent. There is a lot of controversy over this in the past years as there has been reports of deaths and significant damage to athlete’s health while they cut weight. The reason why its so dangerous to an athletes health is because the fastest way to lose this weight is to cut down on water weight which leads to severe dehydration and can potentially lead to kidney failure. However, the media do not focus on this significant issue, which can be argued to be the biggest issue in combat sports today. The media only want to report and focus on the action itself in the cage, this can be because they want to keep the fighters image positive and portray them as a superstar to attract more fans and to influence them that these fighters are “immortal” much like the successful gladiators in the roman age. If the media report more about it and talk about it, for example if it starts trending on twitter or big sports news companies discuss it more frequently, this issue could be resolved before its too late and takes another life. However, in recent months after some high profile fighters being heavily affected by weight cutting, such as Khabib Nurmagomedov who had to pull out of his recent fight due to falling ill trying to make weight. A reason to suggest that it is potentially the biggest issue in the sport is that its supported by the LA times who say “While doping has long been considered the sport’s most serious problem, pushing bodies to the breaking point in weight cuts again appears to be a subject ripe for renewed review.”( (Pugmire, 2017). This means that as it pushes bodies to the limit and through severe dehydration, it should be the most serious problem to deal with. This also shows that it is getting talked about more recently as it is affecting bigger fighters and big media outlets are now discussing this such as the BBC where they have a very informative documentary on the dangers of weight cutting. It can be argued that weight cutting can be linked to doping as some athletes have used amphetamines to decrease their appetite and diuretics to flush out substances and to help lose the weight. This suggests weight cutting can be so mentally challenging, some athletes are willing to risk suspensions and fines during their careers to have the ability to make fights. Risk of brain injuries In the sport of boxing and Mixed martial arts, the risk of brain injury in later life is getting increasingly likely, this is supported by D'Amato who says “University of Toronto researchers analysed seven years of UFC scorecards and watched videotape of bouts. They found that knockouts occurred in 13% of matches and technical knockouts occurred in 19% of matches, for a combined incidence of match-ending head trauma at 32%.” (D’Amato,2014). This suggests that as head trauma is 31% likely, around 3 out of every ten athletes in the sport of MMA will develop head trauma in each fight they have. This shows that this can heavily increase the likeliness of a brain injury in the future due to the constant trauma on the head. Aswell as MMA, there is also great risk of brain related injuries in boxing, even deaths as there around 9-10 deaths per year from brain injuries. “the usual cause of boxing deaths was subdural hemorrhage (Payne, 1968). The mechanism of injury is related to the mechanism of injury is related to the rotational acceleration of the head from a blow sufficient enough to cause a rupture of the bridging or connecting veins” (Lovell,2004). The media does however discuss this issue to a great extent as there are many articles and much discussion of head injuries such as concussion and to more severe brain injuries. However, there is reason to suggest that they do sometimes exaggerate stories and findings on deaths/injuries within boxing, for example if an athlete suffers a devastating injury or even death, the media automatically focuses on the sport of boxing/MMA and points fingers at the sport itself. An example can be the boxer Pedro Alcazar who died 36 hours later without showing any signs/symptoms of severe injuries, only a headache which is seen as a normal thing to have.  This can have great effects as it would decrease demand for consumption and participation within the two sports. As media is globalised, it is able to reach everyone and would affect participation and demand for consumption internationally. As there are only 9-10 deaths per year in boxing over thousands and thousands of bouts per year, when there is a death the media pounce on the issue and discuss it with the motive of discouragement and reporting how dangerous the sport is.

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How the media portrays combat sports and the issues within these types of sports

The use of doping within combat sports The use of doping in combat sports is fairly common, especially in Mixed Martial Arts. This can be supported by Mcpherson who says “when tests performed, commissions typically announce the dates ahead of time, giving athletes a chance to mask any use of performance enhancers” (Mcpherson,2016, p.29). This means that unlike many other sports, these commissions notify the athletes and their teams when the drug testing occurs, however other sports commissions do it at random times to ensure they do not have any time to try and hide the use of Performance enhancing drugs. Another reason to suggest that doping is fairly common within mixed martial arts is due to a large amount of high profile fighters who have doped in the last few years. Such athletes include, Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones etc. These athletes are still adored by the fans even though they have essentially “cheated” in the past. One can argue that this constant admiration for the athletes who have doped in the past is due to the use of influence in the media regarding these stories. An example is when Jon Jones was accused and found guilty of the use of Clomid and Letrozole which are both banned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). Both drugs are used to lower/block estrogen levels which in turn helps increase testosterone in the blood which increase muscle growth and strength, they could also indicate that steroid usage would be used prior as they boost decreased testosterone levels. However, there was no proof of intended use of these supplements but you could argue that as a professional of his quality, he and his team mates should have had more prior knowledge of the substance before taking it. And also, there is controversy over if these supplements actually increase one’s level of testosterone as there is a split of opinions on this subject from websites and academic books as well as medical professionals. With stories like this, the media don’t always tell the whole story, in this case many media outlets only report what he has taken and have not explained what the effects the banned substances have on the body, and because of this it can be argued that as fans around the world don’t know the whole story, they all form the opinion that these substances can’t be that bad. It’s important for fans to know the whole story and how damaging doping can be in combat sports, it’s not only cheating but an athlete who has used performance enhancing drugs can seriously harm their opponent, and this could then lead to bad press for the event and athlete in the future.

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How the media portrays combat sports and the issues within these types of sports

Introduction In this day in age the media is constant and very influential on everything which is happening in the world, especially through sport. Media can be defined as “The main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet) regarded collectively.” (Oxford University Press,2017).  Media is indispensable as “The media has a direct influence on the values and morals of a society because it reaches such a large proportion of the population” (Honeybourne et al,2004,p.192). This means that because media is so accessible nowadays and can just about reach everyone, it’s so easy to influence people around the world when they don’t generally have a proper opinion themselves, in other words, many people form their opinions once they’ve heard stories from the media. As the media can have a strong universal influence, their stories will have eminence to an extent as it can be argued that the media is the only significant communication between a sports event and the reader. So, in this case, the media is very significant and has a great amount of influence within combat sports such as Mixed Martial Arts and Boxing. This also suggests that media is heavily  globalised which means it can reach everyone around the world, without globalisation of media, fans across the world would have no idea how their favourite sports team or favourite athlete is getting on and this is essential because without globalised media there would be less demand for sports events. This is supported by the golden triangle theory which is “ The association of between sports event, sponsorship and the media”(Honeybourne et al,2004,p.192) . Such subjects include, the use of doping, weight cutting, the superstar status and finally controversial occurrences within these types of sports such as deaths and severe injuries.