Everything Great is *Nixbased

The Ultimate Fighter reality show has been a hit season after season, being someone who is involved in the world of MMA I have enjoyed the show even when the content is obviously cut and re-mastered to portray a specific character (like all reality TV). On Episode two of season 6 that I just finished watching there was an interesting theme, or sub-plot. Coach Matt Hughes, a believer in the Christian faith brought bibles for each member of his team to practice and asked if each member would read The Book of Esther. Now, I’m not Christian and Hughes isn’t my favorite fighter by any means but I can see both a fair and a not so fair side to this. Hughes tells everyone reading The Book of Esther is an option, which they do not have to do so. He also mentions that it’s “just a story” when Mac Danzig opts not to read it, he does seem pushy at this point but I will give him the benefit of the doubt on that.

The not so fair side of things was pointed out by Matt Serra when he asked if their were any Jewish members on the team, implying that it would be insulting to people not of the Christian religion and that religion and training are two different entities which do not need to collide (I think the Jewish celebration of Purim has something to do with this area of the bible though correct me if I’m wrong please). On the other hand when you are really interested in anything be it Christianity, MMA or any other topic you tend to want to share it with others. This is where I feel people get edgy because beliefs are such a touchy subject. If he had brought in a bunch of fly fishing mags would people have been so touchy about it (those on the show and on the net)? I don’t think they would have, I think he would just get laughed at.

Personally it seems like a lot of editing to make Hughes seem like an inconsiderate ass and people are overstating the meaning of the whole thing just because it was a bunch of bibles. As you can see from Mac Danzig’s blog their was a reason he brought in those bibles, it wasn’t out of the blue, it was however probably a poor decision image wise as it is not hard to see why people may think he was taking advantage of the situation. We have all met others who try to push their religion onto other people. As for him saying he would be the queen in The Book of Esther, you guys can play with that all you want, I will keep my trap shut because if he’s the queen and he can beat my ass what would that make me?

Overall I think Hughes may have just been eager to share another passion he has with people who already have something in common with him. Trying to open new doors maybe, I’m not sure. What do you guys think?

PS. For those of you who misspelled “The Book of Esther”, you may want to correct it. It is not “The Book of Ester” as was printed on many other MMA lovers’ blogs I frequent.