Dear UFC: Wingspan Is Not Reach

Although I try to act like an adult and not let small things bother me, sometimes I fail. And sometimes, these things are so shockingly small, yet cause me so much irritation that I must share my thoughts with the world. Even though I love watching mixed martial arts fights, I get irritated before every single fight when they display the tale of the tape.

I have no problem with the photos, the age, height, the weight, or even the shitty advertisement at the bottom. it's just that Reach column that irritates me more than I would like to admit. According to this, Robbie Lawler has a 74 inch reach and Rory MacDonald has a 76 inch reach. Reach, like how far you can reach with one of your arms from your body. According to this, both of these men have arms that are over six feet long, each arm being taller than their entire body. How is that possible?

It isn't; it's all because the UFC doesn't know the difference between reach and wingspan. You don't measure from the end of one hand to the end of the other hand for reach, because that is completely irrelevant when it comes to fighting. Reach is actually super important, and it would be interesting to see the actual reach of the fighters.

You may be thinking that you can just cut the advantage in half and call it a day, but again, wingspan is not directly correlated to reach. There is this thing called the torso in between and that can vary from athlete to athlete. So a guy with a longer wingspan wouldn't necessarily have the reach advantage in a fight. Unfortunately, we'll never know, because the entire sport of mixed martial arts is too stupid to recognize the difference between reach and wingspan.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. I have my dream. Although mine is much smaller and less impactful, I think it could bring a lot of joy to people's lives if mixed martial arts finally figured out the difference between reach and wingspan. Please, Endeavor, you own the UFC; now is your time to make a difference.