Mixed Martial Arts Shoot

I went to a MMA fight last weekend and took shots from a perch above the octagon. I didn’t get very good shots, most of the fights were very short and the fighters weren’t in a convenient position to my angle, but below are the results from that exciting shoot!

For those of you unfamiliar with the sport, it’s basically a mix up of various fighting styles. People are cross trained in multiple styles including, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling/grappling, jujitsu, and others. Once you are in the ‘octagon’ pretty much any fighting style can be used. The fight can be ended by either a knockout or a tapout or if needed, a judges ruling after 3 rounds. Usually the fight goes to the floor and one of the fighters is able to get the other one into some kind of hold which causes them to give a quick tapout signal to the referee. Some of these fights last less than a minute.

Here you can see the fighter on top in a choke hold and he is tapping out.

What’s cool about this sport is that a every fighter has a chance against every other fighter. For example, you might be 7 foot tall and be a great boxer but if you get taken to the floor you could easily get choked out by a guy 5 feet tall with great grappling skills. In the photo above, the guy with the tattoos actually lost the fight shortly after this photo was taken.

It’s definitely a lot less chaotic than it looks. The placement of the legs and arms is very strategic and each movement has a very definite purpose.

I love this shot…

This guy lost his fight. He was pretty torn up when I saw him a few hours after the match.

This is my only shot from the championship fight. It lasted about 40 seconds before a clean jab to the chin knocked this guy out cold. He eventually recovered, but it was a rather anticlimactic championship fight.

Here is the winner from the championship fight. He barely worked up a sweat! I guess that’s why he’s the best!

Anyway, I learned some stuff about shooting action and sports, which was my goal, and I had a great time while watching the fights. Shoutout goes to Chris and Christian of Outrage Fight Gear for hooking me up with access!