So what's this all about?

I turn forty at the end of the year. Before I get there I want to have another amateur MMA fight. This blog is a record of how, and if, I manage to achieve this.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Grapplethon 2013 - Grappling with a thorny issue.


Spending any kind of time on the internet - especially the various forums that abound - can be depressing.  There is so much negativity around and the downer it brings is often compounded by the fact that we feel that we should feel some kinship and share the views of those who frequent the same forums as us.... after all, we've been brought together by our love of something...haven't we?

Most recently I've found the debate around Fallon Fox to have uncovered a whole heap of transphobia  and narrow-mindedness on various forums in the MMA and BJJ worlds.  My initial reaction is always to engage with these views but it gets so, so tiring and do I ever achieve anything by it?  I doubt it.

The controversy surrounding Lloyd Irvin and his team and Irvin's cynical and disgusting (non)response to the actions of two of his team members allegedly raping a team-mate is a HUGE cloud over the BJJ/MMA scene and it'll be interesting to see how the community responds to it over a longer period of time.  However a beautiful ray of sunshine in this whole miserable affair has been the response of some of the UK's BJJ community. 
Can Sönmez of Slideyfoot BJJ Blog has set up the Grapplethon 2013 to support Rape Crisis.  Setting out to raise £3500 for this cause, the Just Giving pages have already raised over £4000 with a month to go until the actual event.


On top of this Meerkatsu produced a 'Heavenly Footlock' T-shirt to raise funds for the same cause.  An awesome shirt that had sold out of my size before I could grab one (Sad Face!).

 
So, all things considered, my faith in human nature has been restored and my misanthropic tendencies can be put back in a draw... until next time.

Please check out the Grapplethon Just Giving page and also the site of Rape Crisis to see what work they do - I don't believe in blindly supporting causes/organisations without finding out what they do or stand for - this is a good one.

http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/

1 comment:

  1. Cheers Jake! I'm looking to get the live feed for the 4th May set up soon: once that's all sorted I'll stick the details up on Twitter. :)

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