Entertainment desk
< June 22	<< May \| June \| Jul >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

June 23

Cagefighting

Cagefighting is a redirect to Mixed martial arts, but there is nothing in the latter article to explain the redirect. Are they, in fact, the same thing? --Viennese Waltz 12:20, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I've found these two defintions: def1 and def2. It don't clarify anything, because the two definitions are not identical, but it shows you're not the only one that's confused. The title of this article shows that "cagefighting" can be used as a synonym to "MMA" and this article's contents shows that the rules of the largest MMA "franchise" require that the fight take place in a cage. It remains to be determined if there are other "extreme fighting styles" that also take place in a cage but that are not MMA, and if there are, if they would commonly be called "cagefighting". There's also the matter of the distinction between "cagefigthing" and "cage fighting" even though Google insists on correcting "cagefighting" to "cage fighting".Contact Basemetal here 12:55, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There's the steel cage match, but it's not exactly fighting. Sometimes "extreme". Never called "cage fighting". InedibleHulk (talk) 13:21, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yep. Was also known as "No Holds Barred" (NHB) or "human cockfighting" (by John McCain). As the rules increased, the negative connotations (and literal human cockfighting) decreased. Of course, when kids do it, the outraged still use "cage fighting" (and "disturbing" and "ISIS"). Won't somebody think of the children? Should be playing something normal and safe like football, rugby or hockey instead, I guess. InedibleHulk (talk) 13:03, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Victoria just repealed its ban on cage fighting this March, after having it explained repeatedly that it's easier to fall through ropes than a fence. InedibleHulk (talk) 13:15, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you do not have to watch too many PFC fights to see how obvious the need for a cage is. Even their modified rings, with extra ropes and ties, were not enough. Matt Deres (talk) 13:24, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

And you have to hire (or at least use) guys to hold the ropes out of the way during matwork, lest someone get strangled or just rubbed in the eye. InedibleHulk (talk) 13:28, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c) It depends on how pedantic you want to be. Almost all modern MMA gets done in cages, but there have been exceptions to the rule - Pride Fighting Championship, for example, used a modified boxing right to make the fighters easier to see. Contrariwise, professional wrestling has long used cages in some of their matches. So, the two terms aren't perfect synonyms, but they're largely understood to be interchangeable. Matt Deres (talk) 13:22, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Until the mid-90s, the WWF used boxing rings. Nice, solid platform for sturdy footwork, not so nice for repeatedly landing on. Eventually killed a lot of them, usually through painkiller addictions. The mat's much more trampolinish now, but a rope recently killed Perro Aguayo, Jr. directly. InedibleHulk (talk) 13:36, 23 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]