Martial arts are becoming increasingly popular in Germany. This is especially true for MMA – Mixed Martial Arts. Here is an overview of this trend sport.
MMA – Mixed Martial Arts – is still looking for recognition in Germany. Events in this martial art have been regularly filling the country’s large halls for years. One of the stars of the German MMA scene is Christian Jungwirth from Bopfingen in the Ostalbkreis.
Christian Jungwirth has been fighting as a professional MMA fighter for six years. His record: 22 fights, 14 wins, 8 defeats. Photo: Press photo Baumann/Julia Rahn
The 37-year-old looks back on an eventful biography. He used to want to become a professional footballer for VfB Stuttgart. But at the age of 22, his dream of playing professional football was dashed due to numerous injuries.
At the age of 30, Christian Jungwirth first came into contact with the combat sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Today he is “the face of sport in Germany,” as “The Kelt,” his nickname in the ring, says about himself.
Here you can read Christian Jungwirth’s life story in the StZN.
Was sind Mixed Martial Arts?
Mixed martial arts – translated as mixed martial arts – are a full-contact combat sport that uses techniques from martial arts such as judo, wrestling, grappling, boxing, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, Muay Thai, taekwondo and karate. Fighting takes place with the whole body while standing and on the ground.
How dangerous are MMA?
There are hardly any rule restrictions when it comes to the combination of punches, kicks, knee strikes and elbow strikes. The fighters, who are divided into different weight classes, are in an octagonal wire mesh cage, the octagon.
A victory can be achieved by submission, knockout, referee abandonment, or points. Since the opponent can also be attacked on the ground, the sport known as “cage fighting” has come under public criticism. The fighters wear bandages and gloves as well as mouth and groin guards.
How popular are mixed martial arts?
In the USA, mixed martial arts have long been more popular than boxing because spectators find the sport more spectacular because of the different fighting styles and the few restrictions. More than 100 million viewers worldwide are now watching the fights of the “Ultimate Fighting Championship” (UFC), the best-known MMA organization in the USA, which first took place in 1993. Since then, there have been hundreds of UFC MMA events around the world.
How popular is MMA in Germany?
The sport is becoming increasingly popular in many European countries and in Germany attracts tens of thousands of spectators to the halls. According to the “German Mixed Martial Arts Federation e. V.”, there are around 55 sports schools and clubs that are organized within their association and have a total of 23,000 members.
In 2021, the Bundestag’s Scientific Service published a status report on “The extreme martial arts scene. Overview, organization and regulation” created in Germany.
Are MMA fights broadcast publicly?
In 2010, the Bavarian State Center for New Media enforced a ban on broadcasting MMA on television. The media protectors considered “the massiveness of the violence shown to be unacceptable.” In 2014, this ban was lifted by the Munich Administrative Court. Since then, MMA fights have been seen again on private channels and on the Internet.
In Germany, UFC fights are not broadcast on free TV, but are limited to DAZN. DAZN is a paid streaming service that has been operating since August 2016 and offers sports broadcasts over the Internet.
How big is the martial arts scene?
Some martial arts such as judo, wrestling or karate are organized in associations, but not MMA, which is why there are no reliable figures about this sport.
The martial arts athlete Sixt Wetzler, whose main job is the head of the German Blade Museum in Solingen and works internationally as a teacher for the Filipino (blade) martial art Kali, estimates that around two million people in Germany practice martial arts. “If you just add up the karate, judo and taekwondo athletes, wrestlers, boxers and fencers in the German Olympic Sports Confederation, you get 630,000 members.”
Where can you train mixed martial arts in Germany?
In the full-contact division, you don’t train in clubs like in football or athletics, but in so-called gyms Naveen. These are training rooms for martial arts, which corresponds to the dojo in traditional Japanese martial arts. As commercial facilities, gyms are run by martial arts trainers who usually offer several martial arts.
The training differs significantly from the competitions. You get in gently and gradually work on levering, choking and punching techniques. It only really gets down to business in competitions. “MMA is holistic training par excellence,” says Ingo Froböse, sports scientist at the German Sport University in Cologne, “as long as you respect each other’s taboos and boundaries.”
Who does mixed martial arts?
According to Martin Meyer, martial arts scientist and lecturer at the University of Vechta, people with a migrant background are represented above average in MMA gyms. “The small-scale nature of the structures in MMA has also meant that gyms can easily slide into the underground, as we see with neo-Nazi groups, for example.”
2024-03-20 11:27:34
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