Sportsnet’s James Brydon’s feature on “praising God” in mixed martial arts rubbed me the wrong way. Ben Henderson and Anthony Pettis both “touched gloves” with “the Lord” after their victories at the WEC show back in April. Okay, it happened. Yes these fighters have interesting stories. Actually I thought Brydon handled most of the article with a certain even-handedness often missing from articles like this.
Then came two sentences that should not come one after the other.
(Quoting Henderson) “I am very grateful that God has blessed me with the life I do have.”
“Clearly, Henderson is a humble person.”
What?
There is nothing humble about believing — or worse, “knowing” — that there is an omnipotent and omniscient being that created the universe (for us!) who loves you and has a special plan for you such that it interferes in the natural world to give you assistance in our comparatively mundane and trivial lives.
On the contrary, it is a form of extreme arrogance when looking at the vast universe with all its mysteries to believe you have some special knowledge of its origins or inner workings. To think a being with so much power would care enough about you to help you win an MMA fight says far more about your inflated sense of worth than it says about anything outside of ego. Frankly, its absurd to think you’re that special.
I’m not surprised to see this kind of thing so often in MMA. Probably more than most other sports, MMA requires you to be “in the zone” where you can push your body and mind to their limits. Perhaps believing the gods they believe in are with them helps in this regard putting them in a mental state more conducive to winning. Consider Diego Sanchez when he is psyched up. There’s no doubt he’s a better fighter in that state so whatever helps him get to that state will be advantageous.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be disgusted by the display of arrogance or the proselytizing or whatever else these comments might be. We should understand them and maybe take them with a grain of salt. This isn’t nearly as bad as survivors of medical emergencies thanking the gods for curing them when they should be thanking the doctors and scientists who made those cures possible… though fighters have coaches and training partners too.