“One thing I’ve learned about this cagefighting, it’s going on now, and it’s going on in an unregulated fashion,” Daugaard told Montgomery. “I know some of the proponents of this bill made the argument that regulating it would create more safety than exists today, and I have to agree that’s true…Would I like this kind of thing to not occur at all in South Dakota? I would, yes. It doesn’t deserve the word sport in my mind.”
If you’ll recall, the proposal to regulate MMA in South Dakota was the subject of controversy last month, as Daugaard blasted “the bloody violence that those kinds of spectacles create,” while State Representative Steve Hickey torpedoed any chance for a civilized debate when he compared the sport to child porn, then got into an ill-advised blog war with Seth Falvo. Nevertheless, the athletic commission bill was passed overwhelmingly by votes in the South Dakota Senate and House of Representatives, and will now be signed into law by Daugaard. Score one for the good guys.
With the addition of South Dakota to the MMA map, only New York, Connecticut, Montana, and Alaska remain as the holdout states that don’t formally regulate professional MMA competition. Alaska lacks an athletic commission, though MMA events are still regularly held there. (Remember Gerald Fike getting slinky-KO’d? That happened in Fairbanks.) And of course, Montana remains a hotbed of flying-motorcycle vale tudo.
“One thing I’ve learned about this cagefighting, it’s going on now, and it’s going on in an unregulated fashion,” Daugaard told Montgomery. “I know some of the proponents of this bill made the argument that regulating it would create more safety than exists today, and I have to agree that’s true…Would I like this kind of thing to not occur at all in South Dakota? I would, yes. It doesn’t deserve the word sport in my mind.”
If you’ll recall, the proposal to regulate MMA in South Dakota was the subject of controversy last month, as Daugaard blasted “the bloody violence that those kinds of spectacles create,” while State Representative Steve Hickey torpedoed any chance for a civilized debate when he compared the sport to child porn, then got into an ill-advised blog war with Seth Falvo. Nevertheless, the athletic commission bill was passed overwhelmingly by votes in the South Dakota Senate and House of Representatives, and will now be signed into law by Daugaard. Score one for the good guys.
With the addition of South Dakota to the MMA map, only New York, Connecticut, Montana, and Alaska remain as the holdout states that don’t formally regulate professional MMA competition. Alaska lacks an athletic commission, though MMA events are still regularly held there. (Remember Gerald Fike getting slinky-KO’d? That happened in Fairbanks.) And of course, Montana remains a hotbed of flying-motorcycle vale tudo.
(The Twitter avatar of a rational man capable of leading the nation, obviously. Props to Fightlinker for the find.)
Background: Like many of you, I was very upset when Ben Goldstein published a post about South Dakota State Representative Steve Hickey’s ridiculous tirade against MMA, but probably not for the same reasons that you may have been. As a Christian, I found it odd that a pastor would not only write things about death that I felt contradicted the messages contained in the Bible, but also cite Forrest Gump while doing so. It’s bad enough for a pastor to write that he can’t muster up sympathy for a person who has died because said person was just asking for it through his hobbies – I cringe picturing Hickey’s stance on rape if it’s anything like his stance on death – but to essentially say that a dim-witted, fictional Hollywood character has more wisdom than the person who your entire religion is built around is just completely unacceptable.
And that’s when I made the mistake of emailing Hickey, telling him that while I couldn’t care less what his opinion on MMA is, his stance on death is disgusting to me. For whatever reason, I was expecting a completely rational response. Instead, Hickey published an “Open Letter to Christian MMA fans” that I can’t help but feel is sort-of directed at me, where he accuses me of writing the piece that I not only told him was written by Ben Goldstein, but also was signed with Ben’s initials. Today I’m here to respond to that open letter. If this isn’t of any interest to you, move along, there’s nothing to see here.
(The Twitter avatar of a rational man capable of leading the nation, obviously. Props to Fightlinker for the find.)
Background: Like many of you, I was very upset when Ben Goldstein published a post about South Dakota State Representative Steve Hickey’s ridiculous tirade against MMA, but probably not for the same reasons that you may have been. As a Christian, I found it odd that a pastor would not only write things about death that I felt contradicted the messages contained in the Bible, but also cite Forrest Gump while doing so. It’s bad enough for a pastor to write that he can’t muster up sympathy for a person who has died because said person was just asking for it through his hobbies – I cringe picturing Hickey’s stance on rape if it’s anything like his stance on death – but to essentially say that a dim-witted, fictional Hollywood character has more wisdom than the person who your entire religion is built around is just completely unacceptable.
And that’s when I made the mistake of emailing Hickey, telling him that while I couldn’t care less what his opinion on MMA is, his stance on death is disgusting to me. For whatever reason, I was expecting a completely rational response. Instead, Hickey published an “Open Letter to Christian MMA fans” that I can’t help but feel is sort-of directed at me, where he accuses me of writing the piece that I not only told him was written by Ben Goldstein, but also was signed with Ben’s initials. Today I’m here to respond to that open letter. If this isn’t of any interest to you, move along, there’s nothing to see here.
It came as a big surprise to me this morning when I woke up to read on other MMA news sites that you have apparently published part of an email I had sent you. I don’t regret anything I’ve written, but I did find it odd that you took my email as a defense of MMA. As I wrote in the email, not only couldn’t I care less about how you feel about the sport, but also, I didn’t even write the article that you have attributed to me. I also found it pretty odd that you didn’t chose to publish that part, but I digress.
I’m not here to point out the factual inaccuracies in your posts about MMA. I’m not here to debate you. I’m also not here to encourage you to watch a sport you have no interest in. I’ve already seen dozens of people try to do all three of those things on the comments sections of your website, only to watch you essentially claim that knowing absolutely nothing about the sport helps you see it for what it really is (?). I may be a lowly writer for CagePotato, but even I have better things to do with my time than argue with a guy who genuinely seems to believe that his ignorance towards a topic makes him the only trustworthy source of information on it.
Rather, I am here to tell you that if you are serious about getting MMA banned, you may want to consider stepping down from your unofficial position as the anti-MMA community’s mouthpiece.
Up until now, the only reason that anyone has paid attention to your rant has been your comparison of the sport to child pornography. In your mind, you didn’t receive the reaction you wanted because other people were too shocked to focus on the point you were making. In reality, other people dismissed the comparison because, believe it or not, they can tell that you didn’t even have a point when you made it. You’ve flip-flopped on what the comparison is supposed to mean – a telling sign in itself that you made it without any real point in mind – going from ”MMA is the worst sport in terms of injuries and violence” (which it clearly is not, as anyone who knows who Lawrence Taylor and Joe Theismann are would know) to “Anyone who understands addiction knows that it starts off with MMA then progresses to murder!” (Because obviously, porn addiction starts with innocent stuff like child porn then works its way to buying a Girls Gone Wild DVD, right?).
Making such an over-the-top comparison does nothing but turn away people who may otherwise agree with you, and serves no purpose other than turning your own argument into a gigantic self-parody. Perhaps if you are serious about getting MMA banned, you should allow more rational people to lead the argument. Who knows, maybe a businessman who has actually researched whether or not MMA legalization affects the economy or a doctor who has researched the long term negative health effects of being an MMA fighter may be taken much more seriously than a pastor who tries to use scare tactics and shock value to make his case.
Sincerely Yours,
Seth Falvo
P.S. If you really want answers to the questions you have posed at Christian MMA fans and fighters, Fightlinker has already published a rebuttal, and I personally think it’s fantastic.
P.P.S. While I appreciate your offer of a free book, if you did as much research while writing it as you did while being South Dakota’s unofficial voice of the anti-MMA community, I must decline your offer. I have no use for a doorstop, paperweight, or firewood, and frankly, I bought more toilet paper today at Sam’s Club than I’ll ever go through.
(Damn it, Hickey…why can’t you guys be more like Montana?)
The latest political firestorm over MMA is happening right now in South Dakota, as a proposal to create a South Dakota Athletic Commission — which would regulate sports such as boxing, kick-boxing and mixed martial arts, making them safer and more accessible for fighters in the state — was submitted in a State Senate hearing today, amid protests that MMA is a dangerous, violent enterprise, and unfit for the good people of the Mount Rushmore State. You can listen to audio of the hearing right here.
Leading the charge to create the athletic commission is Republican State Senator Mark Johnston, who is currently being cockblocked by Governor Dennis Daugaard. Daugaard had this to say about MMA last month:
“I’m offended that the state would legitimize cage-fighting and the bloody violence that those kinds of spectacles create. I think it’s interesting that we declare that it is a crime for one human being to strike another, and yet the state now proceeds to legitimize, and label a sport, cage-fighting.”
One of Daugaard’s main allies in the anti-MMA crusade is State Representative Steve Hickey (booooooooo!), who has offered an amendment to the proposal that would ban MMA, while still allowing boxing and traditional martial arts. “The conversation on violence in society needs to start somewhere — why not with our most violent entertainment, and that’s mixed martial arts,” Hickey wrote on Saturday. Yep. Let’s start the conversation by banning MMA. It’s not like parenting or our approach to mental health has any influence on this sort of thing. But wait, it gets worse — so much worse:
(Damn it, Hickey…why can’t you guys be more like Montana?)
The latest political firestorm over MMA is happening right now in South Dakota, as a proposal to create a South Dakota Athletic Commission — which would regulate sports such as boxing, kick-boxing and mixed martial arts, making them safer and more accessible for fighters in the state — was submitted in a State Senate hearing today, amid protests that MMA is a dangerous, violent enterprise, and unfit for the good people of the Mount Rushmore State. You can listen to audio of the hearing right here.
Leading the charge to create the athletic commission is Republican State Senator Mark Johnston, who is currently being cockblocked by Governor Dennis Daugaard. Daugaard had this to say about MMA last month:
“I’m offended that the state would legitimize cage-fighting and the bloody violence that those kinds of spectacles create. I think it’s interesting that we declare that it is a crime for one human being to strike another, and yet the state now proceeds to legitimize, and label a sport, cage-fighting.”
One of Daugaard’s main allies in the anti-MMA crusade is State Representative Steve Hickey (booooooooo!), who has offered an amendment to the proposal that would ban MMA, while still allowing boxing and traditional martial arts. “The conversation on violence in society needs to start somewhere — why not with our most violent entertainment, and that’s mixed martial arts,” Hickey wrote on Saturday. Yep. Let’s start the conversation by banning MMA. It’s not like parenting or our approach to mental health has any influence on this sort of thing. But wait, it gets worse — so much worse:
“Decent and civil societies have to draw the line somewhere; with smoking we draw the line after tobacco and before pot*; with ‘adult entertainment’ we draw the line at child porn. With violent combative ‘sports’ I suggest we draw the line at cage fighting. The line should be drawn after boxing, wrestling and legitimate martial arts. They are violent too but the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) or ‘cage fighting’ is over that line — in fact, even the martial arts people I talk to tell me they hate cage fighting because it is a smear on legitimate martial arts.**
MMA Cage Fighting is the child porn of sports.*** The psychological community will tell you that desensitization to violence works exactly like desensitization to porn. You know how porn progresses****… a peek at topless isn’t enough, it all has to come off, then a pic is not enough… it goes to video then to virtual***** and then to the devaluation and mistreatment of women, human trafficking and sex crimes against women. Violence works the same way. Boxing wasn’t enough so they took the gloves off, then they allowed kicking, kneeing people in the head, then elbows to the face, then they put a cage around it. The point is to knock the other guy unconscious while pay per view crowds cheer it on. Why not nunchucks? In Rome they’d gather in colosseums and bring out prisoners and entertain themselves by making them fight to the death. That wasn’t enough so they brought out the helpless and the hated and brought in the hungry lions. Crowds cheered…
If we want to attract dirty and bloody money why not legalize prostitution or bring back the gladiators?…Proponents say it’s going on here already so we need to regulate it to make it safe. Meth use is going on here too, should we regulate Meth labs?******…
When people get hurt and die in extreme sports I’ll confess I sometimes have trouble mustering up sympathy and compassion (even as we should comfort their families and guys like me officiate these funerals). At some point we can’t call these things “accidents” as they are more the product of our carefully thought out decisions. I have to bite my tongue because instead of the passages that comfort the grieving I feel like quoting the great philosopher Forrest Gump: Stupid is as stupid does*******…
In a restaurant the other day I heard a lady say about the MMA match on the television… Oh my, when did they take the gloves off? I wanted to say… Madam, they took the gloves off when we weren’t watching.******** Folks, it’s time to start paying attention because we are creating today the world our grandkids will live in tomorrow.
[MY FOOTNOTES BELOW]
* In other words, completely arbitrarily.
** Also, because MMA is making traditional martial arts obsolete, which is hurting their strip-mall dojo businesses. Keep in mind that some people consider this to be a “legitimate martial art.”
*** If you’ve lived on the Internet long enough, you’re probably aware of Godwin’s Law (“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1″) and its corollary which states that once such a comparison is made, the discussion is finished and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost the debate. I think that invocations of “child porn” — especially in relation to a combat sport that has existed for decades, is popular worldwide, and has resulted in a surprisingly low amount of deaths and serious injuries compared to other contact sports — should be viewed with the same rhetorical disregard as Hitler-comparisons. Hickey’s ghastly hyperbole does nothing except make him look illogical, reactionary, and emotional to a fault. In short, he’s the last kind of person that should be influencing decisions affecting athletes and sports fans. Let’s hope there are enough passionate pro-MMA voices in the state to drown out his half-evolved gurgles.
******** If you put your bifocals back on, you’ll notice that THEY ARE WEARING GLOVES YOU DUMB FUCK. Is it okay if we disregard your argument entirely now?
(BG)
Update: The Senate Commerce and Energy committee voted unanimously to pass Senate Bill 84, which would mandate the creation of a state athletic commission. The bill is now headed to the state’s house of representatives. If it passes the house, the bill would make its final stop at the governor’s desk to be signed into law or vetoed. Keep in mind that Governor Daugaard is not a fan of MMA. We’ll keep you posted.
Jenson, pictured on the right (black shorts), died of a seizure after competing in an unregulated MMA event.
On May 18th, twenty-six year old Sturgis, South Dakota native Dustin Jenson competed in an unregulated Ring Wars event in South Dakota. Although Jenson was quickly submitted by a triangle choke by Hayden Hensrud, he took no significant blows to the head and remained conscious after he tapped out. However, shortly after the fight Dustin was found by another fighter having a seizure. He was rushed to Rapid City Regional Hospital, where he would eventually die on May 24th.
An autopsy has revealed that blunt force trauma suffered the week before his fight is the official cause of Dustin Jenson’s untimely demise. As The Rapid City Journal reports:
The autopsy indicated the cause of death was a subdural hemorrhage resulting from blunt force trauma to the head. A subdural hemorrhage is a collection of blood on the surface of the brain and often causes brain injury and death.
The cause was related to an injury about a week earlier, according to the autopsy. The Sheriff’s Office said there is no conclusive evidence the injury was sustained in the fight.
Jenson, pictured on the right (black shorts), died of a seizure after competing in an unregulated MMA event.
On May 18th, twenty-six year old Sturgis, South Dakota native Dustin Jenson competed in an unregulated Ring Wars event in South Dakota. Although Jenson was quickly submitted by a triangle choke by Hayden Hensrud, he took no significant blows to the head and remained conscious after he tapped out. However, shortly after the fight Dustin was found by another fighter having a seizure. He was rushed to Rapid City Regional Hospital, where he would eventually die on May 24th.
An autopsy has revealed that blunt force trauma suffered the week before his fight is the official cause of Dustin Jenson’s untimely demise. As The Rapid City Journal reports:
The autopsy indicated the cause of death was a subdural hemorrhage resulting from blunt force trauma to the head. A subdural hemorrhage is a collection of blood on the surface of the brain and often causes brain injury and death.
The cause was related to an injury about a week earlier, according to the autopsy. The Sheriff’s Office said there is no conclusive evidence the injury was sustained in the fight.
Jenson, a husband and father, was participating in only his fifth fight since taking up the sport less than a year ago.
This is a tragic twist that confirms what most of us had already feared: That regulation of Mixed Martial Arts competition in South Dakota – requiring basic medical screenings such as blood tests to make sure unhealthy fighters aren’t competing – could have easily prevented Dustin Jenson’s death. But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this article is the final paragraph:
South Dakota has no governing body overseeing boxing or MMA. Dean Schrempp, a state legislator representing Corson, Dewey and Ziebach counties, has advocated for a governing body and said Jenson would still be alive had there been one in place.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard disagrees, saying a commission would lead to more fights and therefore more injuries and deaths.
Obviously, Governor Daugaard’s opinion is completely backwards; The South Dakota State Jackrabbits football team does not see players die every week because there is a commission overseeing the sport making sure that individuals who aren’t healthy enough to play aren’t needlessly risking their lives. But as long as people like Daugaard are in power, little will change in South Dakota.
If you live in South Dakota, please write to your local representatives urging them to create a commission to oversee MMA. What would truly be a shame is if we learn absolutely nothing from this incident. Fighters, like all athletes from full-contact sports, are risking their health every time they compete. There’s no need to add even more risks on top of it, especially when they could easily be prevented.
If you’d like to send a donation to Dustin’s family, please go here.
(Dustin Jenson, shown with his daughter Amora and wife Rebecca. Photo courtesy of his family’s GoFundMe page.)
A 26-year-old amateur MMA fighter named Dustin Jenson died last Thursday, after suffering a seizure following a triangle-choke loss to Hayden Hensrud at a Ring Wars event, May 18th in Rapid City, South Dakota. Jenson was participating in his fifth fight, and had begun competing in the sport less than a year ago. Funeral services were scheduled today at First Wesleyan Church in Sturgis. Rapid City Journal has more details:
Dustin Jenson, 26, was participating in full-contact fights at a RingWars event May 18 when he tapped out — a signal to end the fight. According to his mother-in-law, Violet Schieman, Jensen then watched the next two fights before going to the locker room area, where he suffered a seizure.
“He laid down to do his stretches, and another fighter heard a moan,” Schieman said. “He went over and saw Dustin having a seizure. They called an EMT, which took him to Rapid City Regional Hospital.”
Schieman said medical personnel determined that Jenson had increased pressure on his brain and put him in a medically induced coma before surgery was performed to relieve pressure. He was declared dead May 24 and was taken off life support the next day, Schieman said.
“He did not wake up after the surgery and was declared brain dead at 10:23 a.m.,” she said. “He remained on life support until his organs were donated.”
(Dustin Jenson, shown with his daughter Amora and wife Rebecca. Photo courtesy of his family’s GoFundMe page.)
A 26-year-old amateur MMA fighter named Dustin Jenson died last Thursday, after suffering a seizure following a triangle-choke loss to Hayden Hensrud at a Ring Wars event, May 18th in Rapid City, South Dakota. Jenson was participating in his fifth fight, and had begun competing in the sport less than a year ago. Funeral services were scheduled today at First Wesleyan Church in Sturgis. Rapid City Journal has more details:
Dustin Jenson, 26, was participating in full-contact fights at a RingWars event May 18 when he tapped out — a signal to end the fight. According to his mother-in-law, Violet Schieman, Jensen then watched the next two fights before going to the locker room area, where he suffered a seizure.
“He laid down to do his stretches, and another fighter heard a moan,” Schieman said. “He went over and saw Dustin having a seizure. They called an EMT, which took him to Rapid City Regional Hospital.”
Schieman said medical personnel determined that Jenson had increased pressure on his brain and put him in a medically induced coma before surgery was performed to relieve pressure. He was declared dead May 24 and was taken off life support the next day, Schieman said.
“He did not wake up after the surgery and was declared brain dead at 10:23 a.m.,” she said. “He remained on life support until his organs were donated.”
…
Schieman, who was not at the fight, said her daughter, Jenson’s wife Rebecca Jenson, and several others told her the violence in the fight was “nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Doctors have watched the video and said it shouldn’t have happened,” Schieman said. “They said the fight may have triggered a brain aneurysm, but it was not overly violent.”
Civic center general manager Brian Maliske said Tuesday that he knew that one of the fighters had become ill after tapping out of his fight, but that was the extent of his knowledge of what happened.
Maliske said he was unsure how or if the death would affect the scheduling of future MMA events at the civic center.
“Obviously, if it is connected to the injury here, then we will have to look at and see how it would affect us and what we want to do into the future,” he said…
Maliske said the event was promoted by Matt DeWolfe, who did not return calls Tuesday seeking comment. RingWars formerly was a regular event at the civic center but has become less frequent in recent years.
“Matt used to be here on a monthly basis several years ago, and right now, he does approximately one to two RingWars events here a year,” Maliske said. “This is the first time he has been in in nine or 10 months. The sport itself is not as popular as it used to be.”
South Dakota has no governing body to oversee or regulate the sport, unlike other states, according to Josh Usera, the lead MMA trainer at Dynamic Martial Arts in Rapid City.
“In most states there is usually some kind of governing body, like the athletic commission or the boxing commission for that state, and what I understand is its job is to oversee the operations of the event from the ground all the way up,” said Usera, who has trained MMA fighters. “Safety of the fighter is the No. 1 concern, so most states that have some kind of governing body require some kind of blood work or something that shows the individual is healthy.”
Jenson is the third fighter to die following MMA competition in the United States, after Sam Vasquez and Michael Kirkham. It’s hard to say if regulation would have made a difference in this particular case, but observations like Usera’s are important — at the very least, regulation should be in place for basic medical screening including blood tests, and to make sure unhealthy fighters aren’t competing when their lives could be at risk.
The sport’s political opponents in South Dakota will probably seize on this story as proof that their opinion of MMA was right all along. In reality, incidents like this are the strongest arguments for regulation that we have. R.I.P., Dustin. If you’d like to send a donation to his family, go here.
(Now we know why Brock left…OK, besides ridicule about the tattoo.)
Well, there you have it. Watertown, South Dakota just reverted back to being as closed-minded as New York when it comes to MMA sanctioning.
According to reports, town residents voted 1228-841 to suspend mixed martial arts regulation after a fight between two bar patrons turned fatal when one of the combatants died as a result of injuries he sustained in the fracas. So why would they ban MMA as a result, you may ask? Because one of the combatants, a man by the name of Jerrin Stulken happened to be a local MMA trainer.
Bob Reilly’s cousin Bubba must be the mayor of that podunk town.
(Now we know why Brock left…OK, besides ridicule about the tattoo.)
Well, there you have it. Watertown, South Dakota just reverted back to being as closed-minded as New York when it comes to MMA sanctioning.
According to reports, town residents voted 1228-841 to suspend mixed martial arts regulation after a fight between two bar patrons turned fatal when one of the combatants died as a result of injuries he sustained in the fracas. So why would they ban MMA as a result, you may ask? Because one of the combatants, a man by the name of Jerrin Stulken happened to be a local MMA trainer.
Bob Reilly’s cousin Bubba must be the mayor of that podunk town.
So let me get this straight…banning MMA competition in Watertown is supposed to curb bar fighting? Because we all know only MMA fighters get into bar fights and only trained fighters have been involved in fatal scraps. Taking away their legitimate outlet to compete should help things.
Seriously, that would be like the batting coach for the Dodgers killing someone with a bat and LA banning basebell. I’m pretty sure they didn’t ban hunting in South Dakota after a police chief “mistakenly” shot and killed his wife.
