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> The idea that society has moved past the need for violent spectacle or something just doesn't work for me, because I enjoy the sport. And plenty of other people do, too

Ironically the growth of UFC and Boxing tells me we're trending back to the Roman days. Sure we won't have full on gladiators but everything old is new again feels like...

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The reality is combat sports have been popular for many 1000s of years. Before the romans and after. Certain forms of wresting were incredibly popular in the past. The amount of people that watched or listen to major historical boxing fights is crazy.

To hold up Roman as some sort of maxima doesnt really hold up. Its just that they were rich so they invested more in spectical, just as we do now.

The one change that has happened is that animal fighting and baiting has become unpopular and unacceptable over the course of the last ~200 or so years. It's not 0 but there's much less dogfighting, cockfighting, bear-baiting etc

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