Although Warrior is dedicated to the late co-founder of TapOut, Charles,“Mask” Lewis, who was an avid promoter and supporter of mixed martial arts, this action-drama hardly depicts the real world of the sport.
The story borders more on an MMA-version of Rocky, and includes boxing staples like the referee with the bow tie and the ring girl in the cocktail dress who throws beach balls into the crowd at the end of each round. These oddities alone will make any true fan wonder if director Gavin O’Connor has ever been to a real MMA event.
What completely eliminated any sense of credibility or realism was the actual MMA event itself, called Sparta, which features a carnival as added entertainment to the two-day tourney. Clearly, O’Connor never bothered to check with the athletic commissions in the U.S. Otherwise he would have known that no professional MMA fighter can take more than one bout in one night, and that visible cuts or bruises lead to an automatic medical suspension of up to six weeks after a fight to ensure the fighter’s safety.
On a purely technical level, the fight scenes deliver sloppy-joe-like MMA action with enough blurry battling to make Cloverfield look like Hubble photos. Body weight doesn’t seem to be a factor either, as some of the fighters actually look like light-heavyweights rather than middleweights.
Miraculously, none of the fighters beaten to a pulp during ground-and-pound action lose one drop of blood or suffer any noticeable bruises. Especially main character Brendan Conlin (Joel Edgerton), who seems blessed with accelerated healing powers — his cuts already look about a week old mere seconds after he gets his face bashed in.
In the final bout that pits the two main characters (who also happen to be brothers) against each other, the referee appears to be completely incompetent and oblivious to the fact that screaming counts as verbal submission. He happily lets one guy almost get his arm ripped off, and allows the bout to continue despite one warrior being reduced to a one-armed zombie who cannot defend himself or throw a punch. As if that’s not ridiculous enough, his brother starts talking to the injured fighter in an attempt to make him quit while appearing hesitant about whooping his butt.
Although O’Connor might have used the Bellator Fighting Championships (an MMA promotion that hosts an elimination tournament over several weeks) as inspiration for the fictional tourney in Warrior, the prize money of five million dollars completely fails the credibility smell test. That kind of money cannot be made in MMA. Period.
Last but not least, the title of this flick is rather ill-fitting, since warriors value honor in the forms of faith, loyalty and courage, all of which are clearly missing in the relationship between the two main characters. The Anger-Bang would have been more appropriate.
As far as MMA goes, Warrior falls short on all counts and only further distorts the sport’s image in the general public.
