First rule of Fight Club: Don’t get orphaned in China.
Probably because the trainers at Enbo MMA Club will adopt you and turn you into one of the War Boys from the last Mad Max movie. Just kidding. They will, however, make you a pre-teen cage fighter.
According to the South China Morning Post, hundreds of orphaned children have been recruited as cage fighters over the last 16 years, which by the club’s argument, beats leaving them on the streets where they can succumb to a life of poverty or crime.
Police are currently investigating, though not all of the kids are complaining.
“There is everything here – food, clothes and a place to live,” one of the wee lads said. “The food here is much better than at home. There is beef and eggs here, but at home I can only eat potatoes. [If i go back home] I will have to take up laboring jobs.”
This sort of practice is not uncommon. Video surfaced from Akhmat MMA last October that featured a handful of tiny tots beating the shit out of one another in Grozny, Russia (watch it).
And of course we can’t leave Japan out of the fold, where 12-year-old girls can turn pro and fight opponents half their age.
Interestingly enough, I don’t see any of the Enbo kids training Tai Chi.
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