Fans 17 and Under Banned from Attending UFC 99 in Germany
The UFC has agreed to ban fans 17 and younger from entering the Lanxess Arena on June 13th in Cologne, Germany to watch UFC 99: The Comeback, which is headlined by Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva.
Here’s an excerpt from a Yahoo! Sports report on the ban:
A front-page article on Sunday in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, one of the country’s biggest newspapers, has led to a slew of negative publicity in the country. This resulted in the arena agreeing to ban anyone under the age of 18 from attending the show at the Laxness Arena after the head of a local child protection commission pushed for it.
In Monday’s edition of BILD, the country’s biggest newspaper, Marek Lieberberg, UFC’s local promoter, said child protective services of Cologne asked for a ban on minors’ attendance at the card, and he accepted it. However, the article itself had incorrect information, stating that everything is legal in UFC fights with the exception of biting and eye poking.
7,200 tickets, for a live gate just shy of $1 million, have been sold thus far for the card, which has been plagued by a lack of public and media support, inlcuding attempts the ban the event earlier this year. The Lanxess Arena can accomodate up to 18,000 spectators.
Yesterday, heavyweight Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic announced he’d be returning to the Octagon at UFC 99 to take on Mustapha Al-Turk.
Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest UFC 99 news.
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The UFC’s first foray into Deutschland doesn’t seem to be going so swimmingly as one might hope. It would seem that they are fighting the same battles there that had to be fought here ten years ago. I wonder if Bob Reilly had anything to do with this.
I’m really not surprised after some of the more gory events the last few years. I think it would take a good smooth event before they lift the ban. It sucks for the gate but I think if they see the UFC(and it’s a good clean show) they’ll realize(like a lot of people here) that it’s not as bad as the propaganda clips make it look.
I definitely agree on that one chris. I also think that the poor ticket sales, and this other BS have a lot to do with CroCop being on the card. There was early talk that he would be, but then it looked like he wouldn’t because of other contract situations, and recovering from the knee injury, now only about a month out it comes out that he will be fighting there.
well like I said on another thread Cro Cop-Al Turk is a true Euro match up so that may bring fans from both camps. I think it may see a last second surge as far as tickets go…hopefully. At least they’re getting to see quality fighters from top to bottom so that may help.
The under 17 policy is a good one. I wish they had it in the USA. This is not baseball, this is violence and an adult sport. Sick of idiot parents ruining adult activities/places (there are lots of places to go other than vegas if you want a vacation and have a baby).
I will never get that image of Mark Coleman’s daughter in his arms crying after the fight having seen her dad’s face get smashed by Fedor. Fedor was just as disturbed. Completely unnecessary.
I have nor will I ever take a child to a MMA event, I’m not one to allow children to watch MMA events… I do agree that this is an adult sport and without understanding certain aspects of MMA children can end up like O’Reilly (whatever the guy from NY is), futhermore the age demo for ZUFFA is 18~34 so if a few teenies don’t get into a live event soo be it, I’m not too upset about this…
The pure ignorace of the Germans towards MMA is unbelievable on sooo many levels that well if you were a history freak such as myself we could start that conversation as well, wtf people boxing is more dangerous than MMA and always has been but you Germans fail to see that… Goodness this is annoying me…. O and I’m like 75% German myself and well those people over there are nutz Im soo happy my family came over here longago….
I’m with ya there. I don’t believe kids should be allowed but I do wish that the decision was made w/ the correct information.
As an Italian I would love the historical irony if Italy has the same issues.
definitely
I’ll get in a few more of my thoughts on this whole deal.
1. It’s Reilly in NY. O’Reilly is the TV talk show host.
2. The ignorance to the sport is ridiculous, I’m rather surprised that the UFC didn’t do more research on the country’s feelings towards MMA before going there, in the end I think a successful UFC event in the country will go a long way to turn around their opinion. It’s also interesting to see that German politicians are just as stupid and ill informed as American ones.
3. I understand why some people make the argument towards not letting kids see MMA. I disagree with that though for a number of reasons. (Not trying to step on any toes… but that could happen.) I was eight when the first UFC took place, and I saw it then, and was sold on the sport. We let kids train in martial arts, including MMA, why not let them watch them? There is fighting in Hockey, are we going to tell kids they can’t watch hockey? Can we not let kids watch boxing either? What about Wrestling Entertainment, and violent children’s TV shows? I watched WWE and WCW as a kid, and it took until I was closing in on my teenage years to recognize that it was “fake”, and they have people hitting each other with chairs and bats and jumping off ladders, and all sorts of shenanigans. In regards to violent children’s TV shows, I spent my years from 5-10(ish) watching Power Rangers, where they killed a bad guy every episode. I was smart enough to recognize that as fake, but I knew people who did not. I think that it is the job of parents to parent their kids, not the government, so it should be a parent’s decision what their kids can and can’t watch. Accordingly, if a parent allows their child to watch MMA, they have a responsibility to explain to them that those guys are adults and are trained to do that. Just like if you take your kid to watch skydivers, you’re going to explain to them that the skydivers are adults that are trained to do that so that your kid doesn’t try to jump out the emergency exit the next time you fly cross country, or the same way that you would teach a child about guns if you had just let them watch a tv show/movie with gun violence.
Reilly (really?) or O’Reilly kinda the same misinformed individual no?
German politicans haven’t been known to be the wisest in the world
I do however get what you’re saying about the kids thing, I also believe that “taking them” to an event is different than seeing it on the bigscreen… If I was teaching my child the martial arts that I know or had them enrolled in BJJ or otherwise, then perhaps ya I can see letting them watch our sport… I don’t think that our sport is overly violent what so ever,yet alot of teenies get the wrong idea watching MMA (Dr. Phil thingy right)…… I don’t want to get into personals here, yet I do want to state that MMA isn’t too violent for a child to watch if like “one of us” could sit with them and inform them (someone educated in MMA) and explain to them this beautiful sport… Rather than have some simple minded drunkard who wanted to see some people get beatup tell their child that its cool and easy to do….. We know that MMA isn’t as violent as boxing persay or hell even WWF who has had more deaths in the last 20yrs than I believe MMA has (don’t quote me could be wrong, but I remember the Erickson brothers, Owen Hart, Eddie Gurrero…..) so I’m not sure the visual violence is what I would be protecting against but more of the ignorance factor….. As far as taking a child to a live event well it just isn’t the smartest idea imo, the lanuage, fights in the crowds, spilling beer on a child would make me go crazy, etc….. I’m not against educating a child about MMA but more apt to protect them from certain aspects of MMA crowds…..
good points fr and justin, I would like to add to it though.
Its like both of yous two said, its how you go about showing the kids the sport. if you educate them on it and the beauty, and perhaps see if they want to learn some techniques like boxing, kickboxing, jj, etc. then cool. you teach them that it should only be done when they are training or have a fight. a ton of people are not informed about the sport and the vast majority are people who have tv shows or are writers for papers. people read or see those and then take on those views without even learning about the sport. I try to be open minded to things, and thankfully I was able to see mma for myself and form my own opinion instead of having mine formed by the paper or tv, which portray it as human cock fighting and barbaric. uh no peoples, boxing is more like that.
I agree that most kids shouldnt be allowed at an mma event, but it has more to do with being around the intoxicated people who are bloodthirsty and disorderly then it does with the sometimes violent action. its like taking your kid to a bar or strip club. it shouldnt happen. thats not a good place for them to be.
I’ve seen intoxicated people who are bloodthirsty and disorderly at NFL and NHL games, does that mean you shouldn’t take kids there?
So UFC 99 is basically being rated R to protect the kids.The same kids that are exposed to much greater violence in movies,tv,music,video games,etc.You’ll find more violence and negativity on the evening news than you’ll ever find at a UFC event.At least it’s not being banned outright and the fans that aren’t allowed in can still watch via ppv.
I didnt mean it like that justin, I honestly didnt know how to put it to make it sound the way it should, and you are 100% right jaymz. there is more violence in tv and movies as well as sex and drug use, yet the people that have power in the us (congress and senators, all are old geezers that are using taxmoney on stupid things, that is a argument that doesnt need to start here) and writers portray mma in the wrong light because they are ill informed. however the ufc and mma are exploding in popularity and I think they are here to stay even with all the negative criticism. I for one am glad that mma has flourished, I just wish I could wear my tapout shirt and cap without having to defend mma everytime I do wear it.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Video games with blood CANNOT be sold in germany. They get their own special bloodless versions.. I **** you not.