{"id":2666,"date":"2017-10-31T11:10:35","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T11:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thisisbanter.com\/?p=2666"},"modified":"2017-10-31T11:10:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T11:10:35","slug":"mma-art-or-savagery-180-nov-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banter.test\/mma-art-or-savagery-180-nov-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"MMA: art or savagery? (180, Nov 2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mixed Martial Arts is one of the world\u2019s fastest growing sports, with stars such as <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/TheNotoriousMMA\">Conor McGregor<\/a> becoming household names. But many critics claim it is no better than street brawling and there have even been <a href=\"https:\/\/web.bma.org.uk\/pressrel.nsf\/wlu\/SGOY-76QEY8?OpenDocument\">attempts by the British Medical Association to ban it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>People within the sport say that far from being a brawler, MMA requires you to be an athlete in prime condition with a strategic thought process, and participants are experts in many forms of martial arts including karate, jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing and kickboxing.<\/p>\n<p>So what makes MMA so appealing and the focus of so much media attention? We&#8217;ll discuss\u00a0this and more with MMA fighters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tapology.com\/fightcenter\/fighters\/72446-leah-mccourt\">Leah McCourt<\/a> (IMMAF European &amp; World Champion), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tapology.com\/fightcenter\/fighters\/63808-phil-campbell\">Phil Campbell<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/witter.com\/corrzo67\">Danny Corr\u00a0<\/a>(MMA World Governing Body Coaching Committee, chairman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Ulsteramateurmma\/\">Ulster Amateur MMA<\/a> and founder of MMA Youth Development programmes).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2667\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2667\" style=\"width: 885px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thisisbanter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/leahmccourt.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2667\" src=\"http:\/\/thisisbanter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/leahmccourt.jpg\" alt=\"MMA fighter Leah McCourt\" width=\"885\" height=\"560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/leahmccourt.jpg 885w, https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/leahmccourt-300x190.jpg 300w, https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/leahmccourt-768x486.jpg 768w, https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/leahmccourt-474x300.jpg 474w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2667\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MMA fighter Leah McCourt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The details: Banter on MMA takes place at <a href=\"https:\/\/bullitthotel.com\/play\/events\/banter-at-bullitt-november\">the Bullitt Hotel, Belfast<\/a> on Wednesday November 1 at 6.30pm. Tickets can be booked <a href=\"https:\/\/events.glistrr.com\/merchant\/e\/100\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mixed Martial Arts is one of the world\u2019s fastest growing sports, with stars such as Conor McGregor becoming household names. But many critics claim it is no better than street brawling and there have even been attempts by the British Medical Association to ban it. People within the sport say that far from being a &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/banter.test\/mma-art-or-savagery-180-nov-2017\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;MMA: art or savagery? (180, Nov 2017)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2668,"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666\/revisions\/2668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banter.test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}