MMA 808: Inside Hawaii's Fight Game (Documentary)

by dmayeda on Oct 9, 2008 12:11 PM EDT

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

MMA 808: INSIDE HAWAII'S FIGHT GAME (Documentary)

URL to see the documentary in its entirety - http://pacificnetwork.tv/mma-808.asp

Aloha members of Bloody Elbow,

For the past six months, I have been working with PacificNetwork.tv to create a documentary on MMA in Hawaii. Titled "MMA 808: Inside Hawaii's Fight Game," our one hour documentary takes a behind the scenes look at Hawaii's mixed martial arts industry.

"MMA 808" tracks amateur MMA fighter, Steven Saito, into his first full MMA match, mentored by Chris Leben and Travis Ewing. It follows the 42 year old Egan Inoue and his family through Inoue's come-back match with Hans Marerro, a competitor 20 years Inoue's junior. And it showcases the story of B.J. Penn and his family as they built their family gym in Hilo, Hawaii.

In addition, "MMA 808" pays significant attention to women in the sport, youth in MMA, the pros and cons of regulation, MMA's influence on street/internet violence, and civic responsibility. Also included are exclusive interviews with UFC President, Dana White, and ESPN's Jon Anik of MMA Live. It was a lot to pack into one hour!

We hope this documentary pushes the MMA industry in some positive directions, not only in Hawaii, but internationally. Feel free to write me here for questions and comments (feedback is greatly appreciated). Thanks to Luke Thomas, BloodyElbow.com Editor in Chief, for your help and support. Also of note, this documentary preempted the entire broadcast of the CBS 10:00pm news across the entire state of Hawaii this past Saturday night. Yes, we canceled the news! Kind of crazy...

David T. Mayeda, PhD

URL to see the documentary in its entirety - http://pacificnetwork.tv/mma-808.asp

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The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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Comments

Awesome, thanks for making the documentary available to the BE members. I’ll be sure to check it out tonight when I get home from work.

by Day Man on Oct 9, 2008 12:52 PM EDT reply actions

Not a problem. Hope you enjoy it.

by dmayeda on Oct 9, 2008 2:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Great job, David. Very interesting to see the history and background info. Thanks for sharing. Thoroughly enjoyed this. One tip – you may want to smile or gesture or something. If I didn’t understand English and was just observing body language, I’d have thought someone died.

by INGO B on Oct 9, 2008 3:29 PM EDT reply actions

INGO B – Yeah, thanks for the suggestion. Outside of quick news interviews, this was my first time in front of a camera for something like this. The other producers and directors were trying to coach me on body language, voice pitch/pace, and stuff like that. I was very uncomfortable, and you could tell! Pretty funny in retrospect.

by dmayeda on Oct 9, 2008 3:35 PM EDT reply actions

Really great stuff here. I really liked how you talked about how boxing helped change the way America looks at race, and how MMA could do the same for how people look at other countries. I feel like if the New York athletic commission sat down and watched this along with a pamphlet with the rules of American MMA they would sanction it in a heartbeat.

by dumbwhiteguy on Oct 9, 2008 4:20 PM EDT reply actions

I really liked that, too. I had no idea Hawaii had such a combative culture. It seems counterintuitive to me.

by Carpal on Oct 9, 2008 5:20 PM EDT reply actions

Thanks for the comments. Not sure if Hawaii has a combative culture any more so than other parts of the U.S.; hope it didn’t come off that way. I was hoping that the messages expressed by Steven Saito and Egan Inoue showed a pretty non-violent (or non-combative) attitude outside of competition. The posting of fight videos on YouTube is a problem out here, but my guess is it’s a problem nationally. Still, you’re right MMA as it relates to violence and combat in society is complicated; Luke Thomas’ commentary on violence in his podcast (9/21/08) is pretty interesting, and I think related to this.

by dmayeda on Oct 9, 2008 5:53 PM EDT reply actions

Great doco. Refreshing to see you explore the meanings behind MMA too

by Benicio on Oct 9, 2008 6:17 PM EDT reply actions

off topic but...

I recently purchased your book and thanks to your book I failed a test…. I was too busy reading your book and not studying.

Well, I’m joking about the test but my underlying point still stands. I couldn’t put your book down. I’m an avid MMA fan and I have a huge interest in psychology/sociology and I found the book to fill both my interests.

by Discman2 on Oct 10, 2008 11:14 AM EDT reply actions