Sonia O'Sullivan's take on MMA is Thursday morning's must read. The legendary Irish Olympian is open in her admiration for the competitiveness of the UFC fighters, and Conor McGregor in particular.
At it's heart, O'Sullivan is fascinated by how far human's competitive nature pushes us and how close to the limit that sport takes us. It must be said that when, these kind of columns are penned, it's often with only one possible outcome. MMA is very bad/it's not a sport. However, O'Sullivan is certainly not going into with a closed mind. She watched McGregor vs Diaz from the viewpoint of an athlete and in that regard, she had an interesting take on the man that lined up across from Nate Diaz.
McGregor is among the fittest, leanest athletes that I have ever seen, but when he took to the octagon in Las Vegas last weekend he looked like a bloated version of what I’d seen before. He appeared to have an extra layer of himself on top of himself.
MMA is certainly the realisation of the sport going as far as it possibly can but that's where O'Sullivan's view of Saturday night's contest turns negative, the sheer extent to which things can go.
I could hardly believe how far this competition is allowed to go.
There was also a review of the choke-hold earlier in the evening that sent Holly Holm out of the octagon unconscious: is this just one step away from death?
Sport is a game, something that we do for health, fitness or else watch for entertainment. I don’t think anyone would feel comfortable watching a sports event if one of the athletes is left dead.
A perfectly fair assessment according to many and it's a view that has certainly got people talking today. This isn't the typical anti-MMA argument, given that she is full of praise for the athleticism and competitive nature - but it's brought up a lot of the same responses, if argued a little more eloquently.
The Irish Times facebook post is a thread where you should really be taking some popcorn with you, but here are the best and hottest takes from twitter and instagram:
Sonia speaks a lot of sense about #UFC https://t.co/8XTWfpNLD1
— jill (@jillajordan) March 10, 2016
Thank God for Sonia O’Sullivan https://t.co/o27mVrGCSQ
— Pat Geraghty (@patgeraghty54) March 10, 2016
@soniaagrith I was so dissapointed reading your article on MMA. I thought an athlete like yourself would respect it & see it as a sport.
— Katie Ní Leallaidh (@katielally68) March 10, 2016
