Filed under: MMA Media Watch
This local TV news interview with mixed martial arts coach Greg Jackson doesn’t break any news for anyone who follows the sport, but it’s interesting for a few reasons anyway.
For starters, it’s a reminder of how far MMA is from being mainstream: When a local channel (in this case, KRQE in Albuquerque) does a show on MMA, they feel the need to spend a full minute telling the viewers to brace themselves because it’s “not for the faint of heart.” It’s just assumed that most of the viewers will have no idea what MMA is, and will be turned off when they see the footage.
But once we get that bit of unpleasantness out of the way, the interview is also interesting because Jackson does such an impressive job of portraying MMA as a cerebral exercise, not a violent competition.