OVER the festive holidays I was listening to the radio and there was an interesting sports’ feature about Mixed Martial Arts.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport that allows both striking and grappling, using techniques from other combat sports and martial arts.

I never knew that MMA, as its called, is so popular, with, apparently, 1.2 billion television viewers worldwide.

The sport is big in Brazil, but also has a strong following in US, Canada and Japan and a growing following in the UK — although it is banned in France. One of its stars, Anderson Silva, is reported to earn more than $500,000 per event.

Unsurprisingly the sport has a high injury rate of one in five of every fight.

On this radio programme celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay admitted that he keeps fit with this martial sport, the 50-year-old has his own personal coach in Los Angeles and has even fought in a cage.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I don’t do it at home but I’ve been into a cage and worked closely with a coach and it’s something I’ve worked heavily on in the last couple of years.

‘I started it because it’s a work of art. You’re standing there in that cage and the door gets closed and you think “this is it”.

‘Now I’ve been in 12 times and had the most amazing time, but would I do it publicly? Not really, no. But I do enjoy doing it.’

Brave man. But I don’t understand the appeal. No way would I do it. I don’t see the point of cage fighting and have never even seen it — live or on television. Personally I couldn’t think of anything more boring, two cages having a fight! Neither would I pick a fight with one — I would probably get a right grilling.

Mind you, I did walk into a bar once. My head was sore for days!