I stopped going to mixed martial arts events years ago. It was getting hard to just go and have a good time. Too many nights out in the MMA scene would include people exuding tough guy attitudes I didn’t like: fights would break out in parking lots, accidentally bumping someone at the event would cause peoples hackles to raise and other testosterone filled antics ensued.

The crowd had changed since MMA had first come on the scene. It had become more immature and ill tempered. The testosterone had always been there, but hadn’t seemed as unfocused in its aggression.

MMA was slowly moving toward the end of the entertainment spectrum that is spectacle, and the crowd was reflecting that. Now sound bites are played where MMA fighters describe how they are going to defeat their opponents that are plain and simple trash talk.

Some would retort that same goes on in boxing. Of course it does, I’m not saying it doesn’t. I’m just not sure if the infamous trash talk of people like Mike Tyson telling his opponent he is going to eat their children is something that boxing wants to be remembered for or if the clip of Tyson biting Holyfield’s ear off is exactly a shining moment in the sport.

There are myriad of reasons why the last matches of Sam Vasquez and Michael Kirkham went the way they did. It’s hard for me not to think of the obvious, albeit insidious, answer: People that watch MMA want to see fighters get pummeled, and the referee’s actions reflect the needs of the audience.

I used to fight in amateur tae kwon do competitions while I was in high school. The longer I fought on the national level, the more I came to realize why the point system that was used to determine the winner was geared to encourage people to land kicks to their opponents head.

Encouraging kicks to the head makes matches flashy, but it also makes them more dangerous for a couple of reasons. The contender receiving the full blast kick to the noggin is going to have his brain sloshed around. That is potentially a bad thing.

The person throwing the kick is up on one leg leaned back in order to deliver the blow. I’ve known many athletes who have had their martial arts career ended abruptly due to losing their footing mid kick and slamming backward onto their head and neck.

That’s what happens though when a sport starts to cater to spectacle, to the bellows of the crowd and to ticket sales. Things start to happen that aren’t necessarily in the best interest of the athletes participating in the sport.

It may be better for ratings to let an athlete pound on his opponents face, or to not disqualify someone for throwing illegal blows. It’s not better for the athletes though, and sometimes when a person’s body receives enough trauma the worst case scenario happens.

MMA needs to take a long hard look at where it’s going compared to where it started and where it’s been. Why now, after all these years, are people dying from injuries sustained at regulated events?