KIDDIE CAGE FIGHTING! 8 & 9 YEAR OLDS GET IT IN!

Outrage over an Internet video of pint-sized child cage-fighters going at it among a throng of screaming, beer-guzzling fans in Britain is putting heat on the social club that hosted the bout.
In the video, two boys, ages 8 and 9, scrap inside an octogon-shaped ring in front of a rowdy crowd of some 200 adults.

The boys' burly handlers can be seen standing outside the caged-in platform, urging the two fighters on.

The event was held at the Greenlands New Labour Social Club in Preston, Lancashire, in northwest England, more than an hour north of Manchester.

Officials from Britain's health ministry and the country's official cage fighting association slammed the event as "moronic" and potentially dangerous to the children's health.

"Boxing and cage fighting are sometimes defended on the grounds that children learn to work through their aggression with discipline and control," the British Medical Association said in a statement.

"There are many other sports, such as athletics, swimming, judo and football, which require discipline but do not pose the same threat of brain injury."

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said it was "disturbing" that parents allowed children to fight "at an age when they are still developing, physically and mentally," Britain's Sky News reported.

But the families of the puny prize fighters said the bouts were no different than any other contact sport.

"It's more wrestling than fighting," Nick Hartley, a father of one of the fighters, told Sky News on Wednesday. "What they call wrestling is grappling. There's no physical punching or kicking or anything like that…it's a controlled sport."

And according to the video, the matches aren't exactly the bloody, brain-bashing affairs put on by the UFC and other mixed martial arts promoters.

A referee marshals the fight, and rules prevent the boys from punching and kicking each other.

At one point, the match is paused when one of the boys bursts into tears. The entire tussle lasted about 10 minutes, the organizers said.

Lancashire Police told Sky News that they won't pursue any charges or stop future matches because no laws were broken.

Michelle Anderson, who owns the club that held the events, said she didn't see what all the fuss was about.

"The children were doing what they call grappling. The cage fighting only comes when they get older," she told Sky News.

"It's just the name 'cage fighting' that people are getting annoyed at, or they criticize it because they know nothing about it."




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