I know it's just my opinion, but I think I may be the only one who finds Mixed Martial Arts just a violent beat-each-other-to-a-pulp sport?

Yes, what you mention that is what I saw - - the bleeding guy on the bottom looked literally dazed-out-of-his mind and the other guy just kept smashing him until the ref stopped it.
I've read on the site here what you've posted about your career and I assume you're a much tougher and stronger guy than I.
I can't get the images out of my head  -- I guess it's time for me to be OK with myself that the sport is not for me.
Yes, and I do know that females do this sport, too -- I just haven't seen them. I should've added females into my question's wording.

We’re all tough and strong in our own way. 16 years working in a prison has hardened me. I wasn’t squeamish to begin with, but violence, blood, and gore don’t faze me at all these days. I’ve seen too much and have been in the middle of breaking up violent scuffles. 

I can't imagine. Really. I admire you.
I do wish you had been there in a TV Land and had stopped this particular fight way before the ref did.
:)

Ha! But you would have probably liked being up close to the action, ha!
:)
Thanks for adding more to your answer. (And, yeah, I agree - - we are all tough and strong in our own ways.)

I hope I didn't go too far with my humour about your enjoying being close to the action in my other comment. No harm was intended.

Humor never goes to far with me. I can’t be offended. 

Thanks Rizz.
:)

I just saw your addition about football. Thanks.

I think it's the idea of two guys/women going after each other to solely beat terribly hard on each other. It just seems like they're beating each other up. That's what it looks like to me and I get upset. That guy on the bottom in the picture I posted -- the guy I saw on TV just looked completely dazed and bloody, too, and I felt sorry and wanted him to be OK. And he didn't look OK.
I don't know.
:)


This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at August 9, 2018 7:06 PM MDT

I too, am a fan of combat sports. Bare knuckle boxing has been sanctioned in the state of Wyoming. A couple of months ago, they held a very successful event in Cheyenne. More to come in September. We'll see how it all plays out.

I don't know. Just too upsetting for me, even knowing that.

Well, unlike the Gladiators of Rome ... they are in there by choice.

Excellent point. But sad, too - - about Rome, that is. This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at August 9, 2018 7:06 PM MDT

LOTS of money.

From the little I've seen, this is way more brutal than boxing to me; though I'm not much of a fan of boxing, either.
:)

It is very much more brutal than boxing and the reason I like Ali was because he never beat the living daylights out of his opponents.  It was never a bloody mess.

Thanks. I wouldn't have known. I didn't watch him regularly or anything. 
:)

Ug. (That'd be People-Minus-One.)
:)
But you probably are right.
:)

I "get" very little of it, too. I can see some of the in's-and-out's people are saying - - I just know I got really upset emotionally watching it.
:)


This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at August 10, 2018 2:23 AM MDT

No wonder, then, that I avoid watching it.
:)