Over the past five years, Brazil has seen rapid growth establish the production and consumption of a movement called mixed martial arts, popularly known as "MMA". The consuming public of MMA integrates the productive process of developing such a practice as an option for leisure and sport. The production of this new entertainment offering consists of symbolic goods that convert people into consumers, a social relation mediated by the media, advertising and consumption ranging from dietary supplements goods, passing through components of male and female clothing, even to the toys for children. With the recent growth of MMA in Brazil, either through the interest of the population practicing this new sport, either by increasing viewers of fighting through television, position ourselves in front of a relevant research: the research of the formation and consolidation of a specific category of consumers. This dissertation addresses the consolidation of a new "sport-entertainment" through the relationship between individuals and the symbolic practices immersed in an extremely excited society. The dimension of wellness will be presented here in the midst of a symbolic logic that potentiates the social construction of masculinity, where questions about the body and the masculinizing practices become important keys to understanding the formation of the habitus that consumer. In this context, the configuration of the consumption practices of MMA shows us a society whose habitus favors the search for ecstasy. / Nos últimos cinco anos o Brasil viu se estabelecer um vertiginoso crescimento da produção e do consumo de um movimento denominado artes marciais mistas, popularmente conhecido como “MMA” (que em inglês significa mixed martial arts). O público consumidor do MMA integra o processo produtivo de desenvolvimento de tal prática como opção de lazer e de esporte. A produção desta nova oferta de entretenimento é composta por bens simbólicos que convertem indivíduos em consumidores, numa relação social mediada pela mídia, campanhas publicitárias e bens de consumo que vão desde suplementos alimentares, passando por componentes do vestuário masculino e feminino, chegando até mesmo a brinquedos para crianças. Com o recente crescimento do MMA no Brasil, seja por meio do interesse da população em praticar este novo esporte, seja pelo número cada vez maior de espectadores dos combates por meio da televisão, posicionamo-nos diante da oportunidade de uma pesquisa relevante: a investigação da formação e consolidação de uma categoria específica de consumidores. A presente dissertação aborda a consolidação de um novo esporte-entretenimento por meio da relação dos indivíduos com as práticas simbólicas imersas numa sociedade extremamente excitada. A dimensão do bem-estar será aqui apresentada em meio a uma lógica simbólica que potencializa a construção social da masculinidade, onde questões referentes ao corpo e às práticas masculinizantes se tornam importantes chaves para compreendermos a formação do habitus desse consumidor. Neste contexto, a configuração das práticas de consumo do MMA nos mostra uma sociedade cujo habitus favorece a busca pelo êxtase.

Scholarly research has analyzed how female athletes use their social media platforms and how they are represented in news media coverage. However, no scholarly literature has specifically looked at Ronda Rousey, an American mixed martial artist. The current study used a quantitative content analysis to examine how Rousey has utilized her Twitter account as well as how local and national newspapers in the United States framed coverage of Rousey between 2014 to 2016. For the tweets, content, referring to pictures that Rousey posted, was the most popular category; the second most prevalent category was promotional, referring to tweets that promoted upcoming events or sponsorships. Rousey mainly used her Twitter to post pictures of herself and promote her personal brand. For the newspaper articles, the most frequently used frames were agency, powerless, and goals and ambitions. Two new frames emerged from the current study – fame, referring to Rousey’s film career, and relations, referring to Rousey’s personal life and relationships. The newspapers were predominantly neutral in their coverage of Rousey throughout the three-year study period. This case study is important because it found that Rousey was framed in a way that differed from previous research. The findings in this study demonstrate that Rousey was not marginalized in newspaper coverage or portrayed in a negative manner, as other female athletes have been in the past. Rather than focusing on her appearance or sexuality, the news coverage highlighted Rousey’s success and athletic achievements.

This study is an analysis of the process of creating subtitles for the National Geographic documentary Fight Science: Mixed Martial Arts. The difficulties encountered during this project have included the translation of subject-specific terminology, the handling of source-text mistakes and the process of deciding how to condense the spoken dialogue when writing the subtitles. By studying these issues, certain conclusion can be drawn about the difficulties encountered when creating subtitles and translating texts with subject-specific terminology. The study is primarily based on the theories of Runo Ingo (2007), Vinay & Darbelnet (1977) and Chesterman & Wagner (2002). To find appropriate translations for subject-specific terminology, it is important to understand which translation device should be used (for example a loan or literal translation) through the examination of parallel texts and it is important that the translator be familiar with this terminology. How to properly handle mistakes in the source material depends greatly on the situation, the text concerned and the translator’s judgment. Decisions about which information can be omitted can be based on the information’s importance to the overall understanding of the show or the implicit nature of the information. The science of translation can be considered vague, but there exist theories and principles to aid translators when making such touch decisions as those encountered during this project.

Traumatic brain injury, concussion, and subconcussion are different clinical conditions associated with head injury. These conditions share a common origin, mechanical forces directly or indirectly transmitted to the head. In sports, modalities with high exposure to head traumas require further investigation, especially those in which strikes directly to the head are allowed and a determinant of success, such as combat sports. The causes and effects of brain injuries in combat sports such as Mixed Martial Arts, boxing, Muay Thai, and kickboxing are complex and require a comprehensive investigation of many factors. The objective of this dissertation was to explore the main causes that justify combat sports as the main sport sample when it comes to head injury and the effects of chronic exposure to head trauma in this population. Original studies were developed to assess the head injury risk in competition and in training, the level of knowledge of athletes and coaches, and the consequences of chronic exposure to head traumas in the balance function, brain activity, and spinal cord excitability. The risk of a fight ending due to head strikes in competition is directly related to the weight category, and the risk seems to be exacerbated in female athletes. Combat sports athletes are exposed to numerous strikes to the head in simulated fights on a weekly basis in training, when healthcare professionals are absent. During this time that makes up the bulk of exposures, therefore, athletes and coaches are the ones managing potential cases of concussion. However, coaches are not familiar with assessment tools and don’t often seek out concussion knowledge. Alarmingly, coaches, often prior athletes themselves, are the main source of concussion knowledge for their athletes. High exposure to head trauma both in competition and training in addition to iv poor knowledge and behavior are liable to cause consequences in the nervous system. Athletes chronically exposed to head trauma presented subtle deficits in static balance in the most basic human stance, which is the double-leg over a firm surface. Moreover, while the literature consistently shows impairments in brain function, our study expanded the association between head trauma and nervous system deficits to the least studied component of the nervous system, the spinal cord. While athletic training promotes neuroplastic benefits in spinal cord excitability, these were hindered in a sample of athletes chronically exposed to head traumas. The studies in this dissertation demonstrated that athletes in combat sports are chronically exposed to intentional and repetitive head traumas, and that this exposure is likely associated with long-term functional detriments in balance and spinal cord excitability. / Graduate

This is an early history of Mixed Martial Arts in America. It focuses primarily on the political campaign to ban the sport in the 1990s and the repercussions that campaign had on MMA itself. Furthermore, it examines the censorship of music and video games in the 1990s. The central argument of this work is that the political campaign to ban Mixed Martial Arts was part of a larger political movement to censor violent entertainment. Connections are shown in the actions and rhetoric of politicians who attacked music, video games and the Ultimate Fighting Championship on the grounds that it glorified violence. The political pressure exerted on the sport is largely responsible for the eventual success and widespread acceptance of MMA. The pressure forced the sport to regulate itself and transformed it into something more acceptable to mainstream America

Submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for a Master’s Degree in Technology, Department of Chiropractic and Somatology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Background: Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a contact sport that has grown in popularity worldwide. MMA has been shown to be an activity that generates a high volume of injuries in its participants, especially when subjected to particular factors that are known to carry high risk in contact sports. Limited research has been conducted concerning the risk for injury development in MMA, with no South African statistics being produced to date. This study aims to bridge this gap. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of and risk factors associated with musculoskeletal injuries in Mixed Martial Arts athletes in the greater Durban area of KwaZulu-Natal. Method: This study was a prospective, quantitative survey that sampled 105 MMA athletes from 16 accredited gyms in the greater Durban area. The information captured from the questionnaires enabled compilation of a fighter profile, training profile and injury profile assessing injuries present at the time of data collection and a history of injuries over a 12 month period. Data was analysed with SPSS version 23.0. Inferential techniques included the use of correlations and chi square test values, displayed as p-values and Eta scores. Relationships were considered significant with a p-value of <0.05 and an effect size of >0.23. Results: A 91% response rate was achieved with 83.3% male and 16.2% female participation. Overall, the most commonly injured areas were the upper extremity (36.5%), followed by the lower extremity (34.3%), spine (14.2%), head (8.6%) and trunk (6.5%) regions. In terms of single areas, the most common injuries were to the shoulder (30.9%), knee (29.2%) and elbow (14.4%). The most common injury types were joint sprains (31.1%), muscle strains (20.7%) and ligament tears (18.6%). The most common injury mechanisms were being struck (16.1%), falling (15.7%) and striking an opponent (13.6%). Participants were unsure of the mechanism of their injuries in 7.5% of the injury reports. The number of days missed from training due to injury ranged from zero to 270 days of incapacitation. Risk factors for injury were significant for favoring the dominant hand while fighting (p = 0.011), flexibility training/ stretching (p = 0.019), ground arm-bars (p = 0.014), ground strangles (p = 0.028), groundwork holds/pins (p = 0.028), falling (p = 0.006), increased age (η = 0,619) and increased body weight (η = 0.706). Participation in CrossFit as an additional sport/ conditioning program was a protective factor against injuries (p = 0.007). Conclusion and recommendations: Favouring one side, falling, stretching, arm-bars, strangles, pins and increasing weight are some of the largely modifiable risk factors that play an important role in the development of injuries in MMA athletes. Coaches and their athletes will benefit from adapting training strategies to reduce injury rates from over-exposure to activities that present a high risk of injury as well as by furthering the extent of exposure to conditioning. / M

The diploma thesis presents a media image of one of the fastest growing sports in the world. Mixed Martial Arts, abbreviation MMA, has a history in the Czech Republic since the 1990s. The media portrayal of male and female Mixed Martial Arts represents one of the aspects that are not fully covered in the Czech Republic. With the help of qualitative and quantitative content analysis, articles from the four most read Czech printed periodicals are explored - Blesk, Mladá Fronta DNES, Právo and Sport and four Czech news websites - Blesk.cz, iDNES.cz, Sport.cz and iSport.cz. A total of 1331 articles are analyzed in the research. The main goal of the work was to map the media image of this sport and to point out possible differences in referring to female and male athletes. The results of the research showed that although the female MMA received significantly less media attention, there was no downplay on the abilities of the female athletes. The secondary goal of the work was to discover and analyze possible stereotypes that are associated with Mixed Martial Arts. Out of a total of 1331 articles, stereotypes were traced only in 34 cases. The analysis traced a stereotype associated with the characteristics and visage of female athletes and a stereotype called Bad Guys, which portrayed MMA as a brutal sport.

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Intense exercise is known to cause alterations in the psychophysiological status of an athlete. Monitoring the health and recovery of an athlete is imperative for the maintenance of performance and reduced fatigue and injury incidence. The physicality associated with select sports results in significant elevations and suppression of psychophysiological biomarkers that are often modulated by game-related impacts, intense training regimes and psychosocial aspects associated with the professional era. The aim of the studies outlined in this thesis were to determine the effectiveness of selected “stress” markers in several sports that result in significant “stress”, and quantify the level of acute and chronic “stress” following individual games and competitions to improve athlete management and recovery. Study one aimed at developing a new strong-cation exchange high performance liquid chromatography (SCX-HPLC) method for the detection and quantification of urinary pterins and creatinine in a body-building cohort completing high intensity resistance training. The method had an intra- and inter-assay variability of 3.04 % and 5.42 % respectively, with visibly clear peaks and no tailing. Urinary neopterin (NP) and 7,8-dihydroneopterin during a week of competitive natural body-building did not significantly change indicating no alteration in immune system function and oxidative stress. It did provide evidence for the use of specific gravity as a similarly reliable method for urine volume correction following exercise. Study two focused on a playoff game of elite amateur rugby. The time course changes of NP, cortisol, salivary immunoglobulin A (sIgA) and myoglobin in 11 elite amateur rugby players were measured up to 86 hours post-game. Cortisol increased 4-fold, myoglobin 2.85-fold, NP 1.75-fold and total NP 2.3-fold, all significant, whilst sIgA did not change. All markers returned to baseline within 17 hours providing valuable information for sample collection schedule optimization. Respiratory elastance was also measured by ventilation for the assessment of exercise induced lung inflammation/injury following the game (Chapter three). There was an increase in elastance in selected individuals that did not correlate with either global positioning system (GPS) or impact data. It was shown however, that a ventilator is capable of measuring respiratory changes in a conscious and healthy individual. Study three focused on the final three games of professional rugby in the 2013 ITM Cup. The acute and cumulative changes in the same four markers were analysed following three home games. There were significant increases in NP, total NP, cortisol and myoglobin along with significant suppression of sIgA (p < 0.05). Large intra- and inter-individual variation existed between players with changes associated with total impacts. Moreover, impact induced muscle damage may account for changes in oxidative status. Specific gravity (SG) was shown to be a more reliable marker for urine volume correction in comparison to creatinine; while some players showed signs of cumulative stress. Study four examined stress in a professional team throughout the 22 week 2014 Super 15 competition. Part one investigated changes in oxidative stress and muscle damage markers to solidify the muscle damage/oxidative status theory postulated in the previous study. Experimental evidence showed iron and myoglobin are separately capable of oxidizing 7,8-dihydroneopterin to NP in vitro. It was then identified that players who suffered the greatest muscle damage as a result of impacts also had the greatest change in oxidative status (NP). This evidence suggests rugby union induces significant alterations in oxidative status that may be exacerbated by the impact induced release of myoglobin. Part two measured urinary NT-proBNP during the last two consecutive home games to identify whether rugby union causes significant cardiovascular stress and if the pre to post-game change can be explained by GPS technology. Significant individualized elevations were observed in games one and two which did not correlate with any GPS measurements or impacts. Concentrations returned to normal ~ 36 hours post-game suggesting no permanent damage to cardiac muscle had occurred. The lack of correlation suggests GPS technology is not an accurate measure of cardiovascular stress in professional rugby union. Part three involved the measurement of cortisol, total NP and sIgA throughout the season to assess the degree of cumulative stress. Samples were taken at regular intervals ~ 36 hours post-game for 22 weeks. Extreme inter-individual variation was present. Select individuals showed continual elevation in immune system activation and psychophysiological stress, whilst others presented with a continual decline in immune system function. Collectively however, minor deviations from baseline in all markers were observed and participation in long distance travel did not significantly affect the psychophysiological status of the group. Together this suggests a season does not cause an accumulation in psychophysiological stress, although careful individual player analysis is warranted. Understanding rugby union positional demands is essential for training program specification and position specific development of players. Part four used GPS, video-analysis and biochemical analysis to identify positional demands in five regular season games. Forwards tended to be involved in more impacts and covered less distance, while backs covered more distance and carried the ball into contact more regularly. There was no difference in the psychophysiological status between positions indicating both aspects of stress (impacts and distance covered) may induce a similar response. Alternatively, individual biological variation may be solely responsible for this change suggesting careful consideration should be given when using traditional work-load measures such as GPS when quantifying “stress”. Part five assessed the effectiveness of varied recovery interventions. Total NP, cortisol, myoglobin and sIgA were measured pre- post- and ~ 36 hours post game to identify which intervention was most effective at returning players to a psychophysiological state that allowed for the resumption of normal training. Findings concluded the immediate post-game strategy employed by the team (cold bath, consumption of protein and carbohydrates, compression garments and eight hours sleep) seemed to provide the greatest psychophysiological improvement regardless of the “next-day” intervention. There was large inter-individual variation and players were still in a state of recovery ~ 36 hours post-game as indicated by the elevated total NP and sIgA concentrations. Study five had four aspects. Develop a new, cost-effective and simple reverse phase HPLC (RP-HPLC) method for the quantification of urinary myoglobin in a clinically relevant range, quantify the level of structural stress following a simulated mixed martial arts (MMA) contest, determine whether cold water immersion attenuates the level of inflammation and muscle damage following a contest, and whether this hypothesized attenuation may be explained by cryotherapy induced mononuclear cell activation suppression in vitro. The RP-HPLC method had an intra- and inter-assay variations from 0.32 - 2.94 %. Linearity was in the range of 5 – 1000 µg/mL which detected significant increases in urinary myoglobin following the MMA contest. Total NP was found to significantly increase following the contest and return to approximately pre-contest levels 24 hours later for the passive group only. Cold water immersion was further found to attenuate the total NP increase in the first two hours post-contest solidifying its use as a recovery technique following intense exercise, while cryotherapy significantly suppressed T-cell activation. This study provides a reliable and repeatable assay for muscle damage quantification in a clinically relevant range, evidence of the physicality associated with MMA, and indicates cold water immersion is a reliable recovery intervention that may impart its positive benefits through T-cell suppression. The data generated by these investigations highlights the necessity for individual physiological analysis. Group data often masks the extreme variation that exists in clinical and exercise trials where treatment and management of athletes is conducted for recovery and performance. Biochemical analysis provides an added sophistication of work-load and psychophysiological assessment that common technological methods cannot emulate. With a lack of correlation between the quantitative changes in specific non-overlapping biomarkers and GPS, video-analysis and questionnaires, it would seem pertinent to develop a non-invasive quantitative approach in elite sport to understand the level of exercise-induced psychophysiological stress for the precise management of athletes.