Colossal Concerns

Mma with a twist

In my time of watching and competing in MMA I’ve come across many variations of the sport. I imagine most of these ideas were hatched while consuming gallons of alcohol, drunkenly creating the ‘next big thing’ in combat sports. The geniuses that mustered these ideas have slipped, banged their heads, and in the morning -when sober- the ideas they had still, somehow, held some merit.
Let’s have a quick look at some of these creative ideas…

 

X-Arm – This is where you take a dismembered X-man’s arm. Not really, I’m only kidding as that would be silly. This is much more serious. This is where you strike your opponent while trying to pin their arm, like you would in a wrestling match. Art Davis, the man who brought you the UFC, gave us this gem. One out of one isn’t bad, Art..

 

Chess boxing- Like the name suggests – You play chess for 3 minutes, then you box. It’s apparently got a large following in Berlin, but then again they also put mayonnaise on their chips.

 

Ultimate ball – You have two teams of 4. You put them in a Mma cage. They have a small ball that they have to put it in a small goal on either side of the cage. The other team has to stop them. That’s all I could watch before the over-whelming urge to rip my own eyes out and hurt myself came over me!

 

Ymma- It’s Mma in a slightly different cage (it had slopes at the sides) creatively called ‘the pit’. This was also Art Davis’ brain child. One out of two…Please stop now Art.

 

Now, not one of these “sports” stuck. Which isn’t really that surprising as they’re all, well… shit, for want of a better word. A flash in the pan we call it, where after five minutes of watching them, the novelties worn off and is forgotten about as quickly as it came about.
I’m a Mma purest, in some much as you don’t need bells and whistles to be fitted to MMA. All you need is good MMA and the rest will take care of itself. I don’t get upset over any of it. I just laugh and wonder what Mr X was thinking about when he conjured up most of this shit and let the memory of the whole thing slip into the ether, so not to take up any valuable space on my mind.

Then a fella on twitter named @NeilJones72 asked me my opinion on the ‘Russian Hip Show’. Hmmm…. the hip show sounds like something that would be introduced on Britain’s Got Talent before being booed and buzzed out of the place. I don’t know what ‘hip’ stands for.
Let me do my best to try and explain what this is all about. Bear with me because, as of yet, I haven’t seen any English versions of the rules. What I am about to explain to you about the Russian ‘Hip show’ is just what I’ve gathered from watching myself.

So, you have two teams, made up of two blokes in a team. Both are the same weight (I assume). You give them Mma gloves and head gear and put them in what seems to be a giant jungle gym. This Jungle gym has different levels, slopes, ropes, blocks, walls with holes in, etc. Then throw a few tracksuit wearing Russians in to watch and, hey presto, you’ve got the Hip Show.

The combat icons are placed facing each other over a padded block. A whistle then goes off, and they fight. Now, the big difference here, apart from the fact they seemed to of kicked the kids out if their play area to hold this MMA hip show, is with this the fighters are part of a team. You can help your team mate out.
For example: if your team mate is being choked your ‘team mate’ could push your opponent off one of the giant blocks and rescues you by striking, submitting (not sure if kicking to the face on the floor is allowed) or anyway he sees fit.

If you knock your opponent out the bout is stopped. You go back to your foam block and it’s all restarted, minus the guy who just been KO. So it then becomes 2 against 1… Yep, only in Russia.

What did I think about all this when I watched it? Well, surprisingly, I really enjoyed it. Will it have any staying power, I haven’t a clue. But I found watching good MMA in these different circumstances fun and exciting. I still stand by my earlier statement that I’m an MMA purist and realistically this Russian Hip show isn’t going to take over MMA as really, come on, it’s just MMA but in different surroundings. The whole 2 onto 1 thing, while massively unfair, does make for great viewing

The ‘hip show’ has money. I know this because the format must cost loads (Jungle Gyms weren’t cheap last time I enquired) and they had Vinnie Jones (Britain’s favourite, violent, ex-football player) looking hard in a suit promoting it, and my guess would be that he’s not cheap to hire.

It’s only very early days for the Hip show, but here’s a couple if things that I think they did right, and what they need to do better.

 

Things they did right;

- They had some great fighters that came to fight. This is important as if you a had four guys that didn’t really know what they were doing, it could’ve quite easily become a school playground type environment very quickly

- Kept it about MMA – It’s MMA in a different environment. The ‘team’ element and it going two against one was different and interesting and kept me intrigued.

 

What they need to do better

- Explain what the fucks going on. -What are the rules? Who’s who? Give us some info…

- Make the info English – It’s not just Russians who like to see crazy violence. There should be a site that explains what’s going on in English so we can all understand.

- Change the name- I’m not sure what ‘The Hip show’ stands for. But whatever it is, it’s not working. You’ve done a lot right. You’ve held my interest for more than five minutes, but really, the names not helping

I think if the people behind the Hip show do some of these things then it stands a much better chance of hanging around for longer. It certainly got my interest.

Have a look let me know what you think

 

 

 

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MMA WITH A TWIST