Conor ‘Notorious’ McGregor, Tyson ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury, Steve ‘The Spine Crusher’ Spinosaurus. Two of the greatest fighters of all time in their respective combat sport and one….other one.
When you think fighting sport, you think boxing, or MMA or even wrestling, but does a certain Jurassic Fight Night ever spring to mind?
It’s a sport sixty five million years in the making, the likes of “Rowdy” Roddy Raptor, 2019 Champion The Indotaker, Timmy “The Tank” Triceratops and Rex “The Carnivore King” descended upon the Gila River Arena in Arizona at the start of October for a sporting event unlike any other.
Created by Pangaea Land Of The Dinosaurs, 2021 sees the fourth iteration of the dino duels which sees ‘athletes’ adorning fairly realistic looking dinosaur costumes and facing off in fights consisting of three two-minute rounds with winners chosen by the panel of judges.
Jurassic Fight Night 2021 saw the debut of the event’s first ever female fighters as they faced off in the brand new Women’s Division, The Diva Dinos.
Founder and owner of the event Adam Kariotoglou spoke of his excitement of the new division: “We are excited to bring this family fun event back to Glendale and show off our newest division, the toughest female dinos you have ever seen, and they are ready to take the belt for the win”.
Ten male and eight female fighters took to the ring to compete for the Supercontinent Championship Belt, hailed as the largest of its kind, standing at nine foot long and fifty pounds (or twenty-two kilograms).
When deciding if something can be considered a sport, we can look at four key aspects: is it done by humans, is there a set scoring system, is there a national governing body, is there some level of physical exertion? In the case of Jurassic Fight Night, it is technically done by humans donning dino-suits so just about fulfils requirement one. The set scoring system in combat sport is a key talking point, a win by knockout can be considered a 1-0 win and therefore the answer is yes, but when scored by judges it's a different story. So the answer is sometimes.
Requirement three requires an NGB, such as The FA for football, one could argue that Pangaea are the governing body of Jurassic Fight Night so this is contentious. For number four, it's clear that this does require some physical effort, as even walking up the stairs does. It's a contentious decision, but it's most likely that Jurassic Fight Night can be considered only a 'combat sport' just as Formula 1 is a motorsport (and not a sport in the normal sense e.g. rugby, basketball and tennis).
It’s definitely a unique event, and certainly one you wouldn’t doubt started in America, but could we one day see the dinosaurs migrate abroad?