POINT OF VIEW BY RACHELLE BRONFMAN
The UFC is Here to Stay A Jewish mother’s perspective on mixed martial arts
As a mother of three Jewish day schoolers, someone with 15 years involvement in Jewish philanthropy, and who enjoys the privacy and safety of the Jewish commu- nity, I now find myself on a different planet that some of us land on when our whole life changes almost overnight. What would compel a soon-to-be 50-
year-old Jewish woman, who has enjoyed a quiet, luxurious existence, to step foot into a world where men are bashing each other to submission? Over the past few years, mixed martial arts (MMA), in particular the Ulti- mate Fighting Championship (UFC), have grown by leaps and bounds. It’s tough, action packed and controversial, mainly because many people claim it is too violent, that it is a blood sport, or that it is not a sport at all. Tis is all far from the truth. Tose that oppose it don’t fully understand it. I never thought I’d ever be supporting
anyone who fights for a living. Participants in MMA learn their trade just like a hockey player or gymnast. Most of the top MMA athletes have trained all of their lives in one or more of the martial arts, such as sambo, judo or jui jitsu, to be where they are today. Actually, it was through one young
23-year-old fighter that I finally understood it all. Roman Abramovitch stood in the doorway of Powerclub, my personal train- ing facility in Forest Hill, and said in his bro- ken English, “I am in judo and will fight for Canada.” Leading up to this moment, I was introduced to this form of fighting by Erez Cohen, an Israeli judo champion who helped establish Powerclub. Now, this young Jewish guy was telling me
he has been training in martial arts since he was eight years old. Sweet and smart as he is, despite the image cast by his imposing muscular physique, MMA is all that he has trained for. He didn’t go to school to become a dentist, carpenter or businessman. Instead, he trained all these years to become the best in what he knows and loves, and that’s MMA. He is the best in Israel in his weight division. He was the sambo world champion and Israeli national judo champion for more than seven years. But with those as his only credentials, how
Photo courtesy Rachelle Bronfman
does he make a living? Cohen explained that Abramovitch can
fight in the UFC and finally have a career. Intense training has begun and he is now winning his Canadian judo competitions. Te UFC can help so many individuals in
their fight to better themselves. It is a sport and a new way of fighting that is not as brutal as it looks like on television. Flipping through the channels, what one typically sees when pass- ing by a MMA contest are two guys smash- ing each other in the face, with one or both of them sometimes a bloody mess. What you don’t see is that they tap out whenever they feel enough is enough and they don’t want a bro- ken arm, leg or to pass out. Te fights have an advantage over pure boxing in that the whole point is to use martial arts wisely enough that you will be able to submit your opponent. In the end, the fighters give a little hug at the end or tap on the back for a job well done. With the recent sanctioning of the UFC in
Above: Roman Abramovitch hopes his hours of training result in a featured fight in the UFC
Ontario, now many of these athletes finally have a way to earn a little money. Fighters live off sponsorships and once they find sponsors, they can continue to do their job, which is to train and fight. Like Abramovitch, many of the fighters
didn’t come from wealth. Abramovitch, who once lacked bus fare to get to a big tourna- ment when he lived in Israel, knows one thing for sure: the UFC is his one hope to use his skill to help get him out of poverty. Tere would be little controversy over
the UFC and its existence if more of us met people like Abramovitch. My encoun- ter with the quiet, unassuming Jewish boy fighter opened my eyes and brought me into that Orwellian world that ensures once you meet the characters, there is no turning back – they are fighting machines, but still very human.
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Rachelle Bronfman is the president of Power- club, an elite training facility in Forest Hill.
Winter 2011 friday night 17
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