Zay ma da’man byhky ……………. Hard Work pays off.

Well.. I went to my first fight. It was MMA (mixed martial arts, for the newbies in the crowd).. and it was in Jordan.

Really, who would have thought?

If I could capture the diverse ways of life present in one image,

it would be something like this:

The young but HUGE fighter knocks his opponent out after exchanging blows that left his nose bleeding. The crowd goes wild and loud American rap music plays in the background. The camera pans out and lingers on the fighters’ mother… who is a small women wearing a hijab, jumping up and down, cheering with a big smile.

It was actually beautiful. and even us Fulbrighters, who consider ourselves aware of Jordan’s diversity and open to learning new things.. couldn’t help laughing in surprise. We joked forever about how this could be next years’ research project.. the MMA community in Jordan.

Here’s a quick look to get a sense of the atmosphere:

Apparently MMA fighting is a becoming a “thing” in Jordan.. and around the Middle East. There were fighters from Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Egypt, and Lebanon present in this tournament. The main event was Biff’s friend, Haidar (Jordanian) … who was the last match and won after a close three rounds! The tournament was hosted by one of the princesses (still unclear exactly who, though she was at the event!) and her husband, who used to fight and now is an announcer and organizer.

Prior to coming, I thought 1) we would be the only women there and 2) that I wouldn’t like it.. because the idea of “fights” in general didn’t really appeal to me.

Turns out I was wrong on both counts!

1) There were women — young, old — wearing a hijab, uncovered — Arab, foreign — everywhere. I could not tell you how many, but it was not a visible minority… more than I feel attend in the States. (Though again, this is probably due to my ingrained stereotype that fights are a “guys” thing…and I // women in general don’t like fights).

2) Anyway, that stereotype also blew out the window as me and my girl friends watched the fights.. the most common line of the nice was: “I am shocked by how much I like this…”  Learn something new every day!

Anyway, one last quote to end on…

The talks between the fights (announcer and fighter) was largely in Arabic… but, as many Jordanians/Arabs do, something people threw in English words. Our favorite line was from one of the Jordanian fighters…

“Zay ma da’man byhky… HARD WORK PAYS OFF”

(As they always say…. HARD WORK PAYS OFF)