The moral outrage was risible. A video of two boys grappling in a cage, ringcard girls, and a crowd cheering. No question there were things out of place here. But this wasn't mixed martial arts. Or 'cagefighting', as it is referred to on the high moral ground of news pages.
Sky and the BBC's newsdesks both went in search of experts to explain what we were seeing. The problem is that they don't have anyone who does actually report on the sport.
Both the BBC – and Sky News had reports on it today, and indeed, one of my colleagues at The Telegraph wrote on this matter. I feel sure that they have never seen or been around the sport, or ever reported on it. It is wholly untrue that the sport has 'few rules'.
They are there, deep and complex.
It is now strongly codified. The biggest mistake is that the boys in the video are not taking part in mixed martial arts… but neither Sky nor the BBC have an authority of any description who covers the sport.
Reporting that the moral compass is switching – that's on Sky – is just laughable. Ahem…moral compass. Dear, oh dear. NewsCorp's moral compass is so far stretched with its recent phone-hacking scandals, it really ought not to be given any credence.
What was wrong about this event, which I do agree with, was hiring a fighting arena, and having ringcard girls while children grapple. All three things, separated, have their place. But the boys were having a jiu-jitsu bout.
That's where the moral compass was wrong in this event. I condemn the organiser for that. Wrong place, wrong time. But children do practise MMA, and indeed often jiu-jitsu, which can be gentle, too. MMA and jiu-jitsu have transformed some communities, just as the old boxing club was want to do.
Look closely at whether the children in the video – and they are that – are involved in combat. They are not. They are grappling, and their work is a mixture of wrestling and jiu-jitsu, a form of Brazilian-Japanese combat, designed to help a small man fight a bigger man. This is not MMA.
I'm currently in Denver, Colorado, covering the world's leading MMA organisation, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is taking place in its spiritual home. The UFC began in Denver, Colorado, in 1993.
It was pushed underground at one time, labelled as 'human cock-fighting' by its abolitionists, but it has been owned By Zuffa LLC for the last decade. They invested millions, have unified its rules, and codified mixed martial arts into a sport. From being banned in every US state in the 90s – then often because of being misunderstood and misinterpreted – it has become one of the fastest growing sports in the world.
Three weeks ago the UFC signed a 7-year $700 million dollar deal with the Fox Network in the US. It will take the sport onto the mainstream sporting landscape. It may appear brutal on the outside, but as someone who covers many sports, many many exponents I meet in this sport stand out as role models, both as sports people and in their communities.
