(It will take one million dollars to buy our group’s support)
For about the past three years I have spent an hour or so every four to six months in the office of an old curmudgeon of an allergist in my small town in Ontario. He’s close to retirement, but he’s the best in his field bar none and he has pioneered several allergy testing techniques that have been well-documented, so I sit through the annoyance I’m about to describe.
Every visit starts the same way:
Him: Are you still writing about that crazy sport?
Me: Yep.
Him: I told you I tried to watch it once and couldn’t even get through ten minutes.
Me: Yeah, you mentioned that a few times.
Him: I just don’t understand how two men who are apparently of sound mind can get into a ring and try to knock the other guy unconscious.
Me: Well, there’s quite a bit more to the sport than that. The object isn’t to…
Him: …And how any doctor could sit there at an event and watch these two guys try to give each other brain damage. What kind of medical professionals are these guys and what kind of a society are we living in?
Me: Well, boxing is accepted by the same society and the biggest goal of a boxing match is to land as many punches to your opponent’s head to try to knock them out. MMA is different in that…
Him: …I’m not a boxing fan, but at least that sport takes a certain amount of skill and has rules.
Me: Well, I should probably get going. My meter is about to expire. See you in December.
Mixed martial arts, with the UFC leading the charge, has cleared another hurdle in the goal of bringing the sport to as much of the world as possible. 
