ABSTRACT
In the last decade, there has been an upsurge in interest in the senses in the social sciences (Pink 2009; Westhaver 2006; Stoller 2004; Howes 2003). This growing attention is due, in part, to the recognition of the primacy of the senses in our day-to-day lives. Howes (2003) and Simmel ([1907] 1997) both assert that we learn our social divisions based on the senses, insofar as we come to recognize various cultural characteristics through sensory distinctions. In the sociology of sport specifi cally, the senses remain poorly studied despite the fact that the body has received considerable attention over the last two decades. Hockey and Allen-Collinson (2007) fi nd it peculiar that despite the primacy of bodies to sport, they are often addressed at the abstract, theoretical level with relatively few accounts grounded in the corporeal realities of the lived sporting body. Both Shilling (2007) and Klein (2002) affi rm such a diagnosis citing the lack of consideration of bodily practices within the sociology of sport (see also Allen-Collinson 2009; Sparkes 2009; Rinehart 2010). Quotidian and academic descriptions, while hinting at the various ways the senses are registered in sport, fail to adequately engage with the full spectrum of the senses and how sensory dimensions are experienced in concert. The primary aim of this
chapter is to go beyond the public, mediatized vision of MMA and offer a depiction of this sport at the level of embodied experience.
