CAGE FIGHTING FOR KIDS IS SLAMMED BY EXPERTS AS “BARBARIC”

IS THIS THE DE-HUMANISATION AGENDA?

Professional appearance: Just like in an adult event, the tiny fighters have an entourage. 

 

And I thought “Toddlers and Tiaras” was child abuse! This children cage fighting is the male equivalent of hideous! 

 

The other day I posted about the theft of children in Britain by the Social Services, more often than not on trumped up charges to meet a certain adoption quota as outlined by the Blair government. From the article that follows, it seems that Social Services stops caring after a certain age because certainly what you are about to read qualifies as child abuse. And child abuse covers many activities other than sexual exploitation it seems.

According to the misguided parents of these children, this training and violence seems to be better than the kids being on the streets with knives and guns. Now, What kind of parenting is this? What kind of options? What society condones this? Americans have brought it into clandestine vogue and importing it wherever they can.

CAGE FIGHTING FOR KIDS IS SLAMMED BY EXPERTS AS “BARBARIC”

Steve White

Sovereign Independent

September 22, 2011

HE is introduced to the huge crowd of cheering fight fans under his ring name of Lucas the Bone Breaker.

But at 4ft 2in, and just eight years old, little Lucas Deelay scarcely seems to live up to his fearsome billing

Seconds out: The boys are brought together in the middle 

of the cage fighting ring, prepared to do battle

Suddenly the ashen-faced youngster’s bottom lip begins to quiver and he bursts out crying after slumping to the canvas with a leg injury.

The baying mob eggs him on… and he bravely struggles to his feet to continue the battle with his taller opponent ~ a comparative veteran aged nine.

This is the sickening spectacle of Britain’s newest so-called sport ~ junior cage-fighting.

Terrified children are paraded in front of hundreds of screaming adults who pay up to £25 a head to watch them beat hell out of each other.

And, amazingly, it’s all perfectly legal.

The latest shameful contest ~ slammed by child welfare experts as “barbaric” ~ was staged at a social club in Preston, Lancashire.

Shocking video footage shows kids battling bare-handed and without protective equipment as 450 boozy spectators ~ mainly men ~ jeer and wolf-whistle at scantily-clad girls who appear between each of the nine-minute bouts.

Parental support: Kian with his father Nick Hartley, the youngster features in the shocking video which shows hundreds of baying adults goading the primary-age boys to fight each other. Read those dead faces, dear Readers.

Giving The Bone Breaker’s weight as 23 kilos ~ around three and a half stone ~ a commentator on the video says: “He’s earned his nickname by the age of eight ~ that’s what I find a little worrying.”

In the first round, as the weeping schoolboy receives treatment for his injury, the commentator says: “He looks a bit distressed. That’s the danger with juniors, they are very young and can get very upset and swept away in the moment.”

In the second round, he admits: “This needs stopping, I think that’s enough. Everyone has seen enough.” But anguished Lucas is urged to carry on.

Last night experts were outraged after being shown the disturbing footage ~ and condemned those responsible for organizing the bouts. Child psychologist, Emma Citron, described it as “the modern-day equivalent of bear baiting”. 

She added: “The violence could cause long-term psychological damage. And it can only encourage anti-social behaviour.”

Peter McCabe, chief executive of Headway, the brain injury association, said: “We’re hugely concerned. Children are being put at risk. Encouraging them to take part in cage fighting is dangerous and wrong.”

Local vicar Timothy Lipscomb, said: “It’s not the way we want children to be brought up. It should not be a public spectacle to see them bashing the living daylights out of each other.”

But, worryingly, impressionable kids are said to be taking up the “sport” in droves ~ with the blessing of their misguided parents.

Nick Hartley, the father of Lucas’s nine-year-old opponent Kian, defended the fight. But while shamelessly parading his son in front of a photographer he refused to have his own picture taken.

Mr. Hartley, 33, of Preston, insisted: “None of the children was ever in danger. There’s no harm in cage fighting at all.

 

Grappling: The pair begin their fight slowly,
testing out the space between them as they start their bout

BANNED

“If he wasn’t doing this he would probably be chucking stones at buses and giving people grief. But now he has learnt some respect and he would rather go training than play out.”

Mr Hartley, who is friends with event organizer Steven Nightingale, added: “Kian has chosen to do this on his own.

“I don’t force him ~ he does it because he wants to. He is quite good at it and we know he is safe while he is there. He is off the streets and not causing havoc.”

Mr Hartley, a breakdown recovery worker, said of Kian’s fight with Lucas: “The other lad was crying, but only because he’d never been beaten before.

“He wasn’t hurt, just upset. Before they go into the ring, the kids are told there is no punching or kicking. If a punch or a kick is thrown, the kid would be disqualified and be banned. There is no way any of the kids could get injured.

“There are paramedics there, referees and judges. Everything is done by the book.”

Michelle Anderson, who owns the Greenlands Labour Club where the fights were staged, added: “There’s nothing wrong with it. Would people rather these kids were out on the streets with guns and knives?”

But a spokesman for the British Association of Martial Arts said: “It’s shocking. Children this young shouldn’t be cage fighting. This kind of contest is usually reserved for experienced adults who have a background in boxing and martial arts.

“These kids haven’t fully developed physically and would need at least four years’ training before entering into this.

“If they have been trained properly and are fully supervised there could be a reason for it, but I can’t see it. At the very least they should be wearing head guards, groin guards, hand mits, and shin and instep protectors.” 

Brutal: The boys are not wearing padding or head gear
as they grapple and slam each other into the canvas

Harley Street physiotherapist Matt Todman added: “Strangleholds used in these fights could damage young necks. As joints grow, they have very delicate surfaces, and if you stress them you can change the way they grow.”

Cage fighting, also known as Mixed Martial Arts encompasses a range of fighting styles which take place in cages.

Reality star Alex Reid is the sport’s most high-profile figure in the UK.

In the adult version, contestants are allowed to punch, kick, wrestle, and knee and elbow each other into submission, though gouging, elbows in the spine and putting fingers in the opponent’s mouth are banned. 

In America cage fights involve children as young as four. Earlier this summer Bunny ~ Hawkersmith, 55, president of the United Fighters Alliance, pledged to bring the phenomenon to Britain.

He claimed: “This is a proper organized sport and millions watch the pay-per-view adult events for a reason. It’s no different to other contact sports.”

The British Medical Association said: “Cage fighting among young children is particularly disturbing, especially as they are not even wearing head guards.

Upsetting: The young boy seen here is crying in the middle of a fight, and is then attended by medical experts who check if he can carry on with the bout in a Preston working club

THREAT

“There are many other sports, such as athletics, swimming, judo and football, which require discipline but do not pose the same threat of brain injury.”

Organiser Mr Nightingale, 28, a professional cage fighter and gym owner admitted competitions started from the age of five. He said: “We do not let them strike – punch and kick – until the age of 14 or 15.”

Last night, as the NSPCC also expressed deep concerns over the event, Lancashire police confirmed a probe had been ordered into the fights.

Fight: Before long, they have hit the canvas and take turns in pinning each other down

A spokesman said that although no laws appeared to have been broken, the whole issue had been referred to county council chiefs for investigation following fears that children may have been put at risk.

ISN’T THIS JUST FORM OF ABUSE?

By Alison Phillips, associate editor

STARE at the face of little Lucas and behind the blinked back tears you see a look of total confusion.

“What am I doing here?” he appears to be thinking, “with a group of fat idiots yelling at me to fight when my whole body hurts and I want my mum.”

Battle: Kian MacKinson, nine, with an eight-year-old 

whose father has asked for his face to be obscured

Surrounded by boozing blokes and trashy looking girls in suspenders, Lucas’s fight takes place in a pit where losers compensate for their inadequacies by urging youngsters to fight.

Aren’t we supposed to teach kids fighting isn’t the answer? 

Yet here we have adults goading the children on between swigs of lager.

I have a son the same age as Lucas. Like most boys he tries to pretend he’s tough. But beneath the bravado they are still little kids who must be nurtured to develop into well-balanced adults. Doesn’t putting a child in a situation where they are being abused amount to child abuse? Everyone involved should be ashamed of the part they played in treating two little boys so badly.

Time out: Scantily clad ring girls parade on the canvas in between rounds

FIGHTING IS NOT AS BAD AS IT LOOKS

 

By Chris Granet, MMA expert

MIXED martial arts is a sport that has always been misunderstood.

Contrary to popular belief, there are many rules and referees stop the fight immediately contestants can no longer defend themselves.

The kids aren’t competing in MMA, but a form of submission wrestling with no strikes allowed.

Young fighters: The children wear no padding
or head guards for the ten minute bout in Preston

Still, they should be wearing basic protective headgear, as in American college wrestling. Plus this organization allows knee, leg and ankle locks which can potentially lead to long-term injuries, and there’s the question as to whether the kids are licensed and insured.

This bout is no way reflective of the vast majority of conscientious trainers and parents who allow their children to take part in the sport.

 Victory: The fight ends to cheers from the adoring crowd

These events should be in sports halls during the day and not in tawdry social clubs at night.

No more of these bouts should take place to prevent MMA from getting an even worse name.