South Dakota Senator Calls MMA ‘Child Porn of Sports,’ Attempting to Ban It

By John Heinis on February 26, 2013

Like any commentary piece here at eDraft, this article represents the opinion of the author and not necessarily other members of the eDraft team or its affiliations.

As the sport of mixed martial arts gains steam in attempting to be legalized in New York by the end of the year, it looks like it is going to be some time before cage fighting is accepted in South Dakota.

South Dakota, like Alaska and Montana, currently does not have a statewide athletic commission to regulation boxing and MMA.

However, state rep. Steve Hickey went on a tangent on his Word Press blog on Saturday, pushing to see the combat sport banned in South Dakota despite coming across as very uneducated on the subject.

“MMA Cage Fighting is the child porn of sports. The psychological community will tell you that desensitization to violence works exactly like desensitization to porn,” Hickey wrote.

“You know how porn progresses... a peek at topless isn't enough, it all has to come off, then a pic is not enough... it goes to video then to virtual and then to the devaluation and mistreatment of women, human trafficking and sex crimes against women.”

“…In Rome they'd gather in colosseums (sic) and bring out prisoners and entertain themselves by making them fight to the death. That wasn't enough so they brought out the helpless and the hated and brought in the hungry lions. Crowds cheered.”

That is just a small excerpt from the blog post (which can be read here), which also has Hickey calling legalizing the sport “dirty and bloody money” which would be as moral as making prostitution legal or brining “back the gladiators.”

Hickey also makes a couple references to MMA fighters competing without gloves, which only happens under Vale tudo rules.

Vale tudo fights are not sanctioned in the United States and all MMA athletic commissions require competitors to wear the standard four-ounce gloves. 

While South Dakota isn’t a major hot bed for MMA organizations, the goal is for the sport to be accepted worldwide one day so close-minded legislators like Hickey are not going to make that easy.