De-sportization of fighting contests: The Origins and Dynamics of No Holds Barred Events and the Theory of Sportization

M. van Bottenburg, Johan Heilbron

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    On the basis of an empirical analysis of the emergence, spread and transformation of
    No Holds Barred fighting contests during the 1990s, we argue that Norbert Elias’s model of sportization
    represents a fruitful but not sufficiently differentiated framework for understanding the recent
    development of combat sports and fighting contests. Although the martial arts in the 20th century provide
    striking examples of processes of sportization and para-sportization, the rise of No Holds Barred
    events in the 1990s represented an opposing trend, a process of de-sportization. The analysis of
    No Holds Barred contests demonstrates that both sportization and de-sportization trends depend
    primarily on the interests of the organizers, and in particular on the degree to which they rely on the
    perspectives of practitioners, spectators, or viewers. The decisive factor for the predominance of the
    latter perspective was the formation of a new and poorly regulated market for visual material, which
    emerged with pay-per-view television. This allowed media entrepreneurs to commercialize nonsanctioned
    events, which depend primarily on the demands and fantasies of viewers who are less
    interested in the specifics of particular sports or games than in the antinomian excitement produced by
    the transgression of the rules and conventions of ordinary life. The case of No Holds Barred fighting
    thus suggests that new markets for visual material are likely to become an important factor in the
    development of spectator sports and sport-like forms of entertainment. It also suggests that regulatory
    regimes are an essential feature for the actual outcome of the changes that these new markets may
    bring about. Public pressure eventually led to the disappearance of No Holds Barred events from the
    major US cable television networks and from the full contact fighting scene in most Western European
    countries. In response, various initiatives worked towards a re-sportization of the matches, a process
    that has led to the transformation of No Holds Barred tournaments into Mixed Martial Arts matches.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)259-282
    Number of pages24
    JournalInternational Review for the Sociology of Sport
    Volume41
    Issue number3/4
    Publication statusPublished - 2006

    Keywords

    • commercialization
    • (de-)sportization
    • fighting contests
    • mediasport
    • new media
    • violence

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