Ben Smith of Politico uncovers an interesting contradiction: While national Democrats hammer Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon's connection to World Wrestling Entertainment, one of the Democratic party's top-ranking officials favors a pasttime that makes pro wrestling look like Sesame Street.
It's called Ultimate Fighting Championship, a company specializing in mixed martial arts. (For the uninitiated, mixed martial arts is "an intense and evolving combat sport in which competitors use interdisciplinary forms of fighting that include jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling and others to their strategic and tactical advantage in a supervised match,'' according to the company's website. "Scoring for mixed martial arts events in Nevada, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Florida is based on athletic-commission approved definitions and rules for striking (blows with the hands, feet, knees or elbows) and grappling (submission, choke holds, throws or takedowns). No single discipline reigns."
Unlike pro wrestling, UFC is a real competition. (And also unlike WWE, UFC claims that "no competitor has ever been seriously injured in a UFC event,'' despite the intensity of the competition.)