From ‘human cockfighting’ to the White House, UFC marches into cultural mainstream

As workers put final touches to a massive arena for Sunday’s cage fight on the White House South Lawn, a few miles away, a professional pianist is learning how to choke someone unconscious.
Across the same mat, an immunologist-by-day is teaching students how to pin a struggling opponent.
They represent the grass-roots of a US martial arts phenomenon that has brought the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) from what was once derided as “human cockfighting” to the cultural mainstream – and now...