Most of us only watch the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, and maybe some PGA or NASCAR. However, there are a lot of other sports to try out.
So set your DVR to record the Yankees-Red Sox game and miss an inning. Instead, take a trip around the world to see the craziest, grossest, sexiest, and just plain weirdest sporting events that people have ever thought up.
15 Weirdest Sports in the World
1. Mokomoko Boxing
You don’t think Ultimate Fighting is hard enough? Well, too bad. That’s about as hard as it gets these days. But Polynesians used to do mokomoko boxing a long time ago. That’s boxing with no gloves. And it seems that a closed fist was the only acceptable way to block an oncoming blow. Youch! Oh, and every blow was meant for the face.
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Yeah, they just stood there and hit each other until someone fell. But here’s the best part: the boxer who lost was told to “go eat chicken dung,” which was his victory cry. I think it should be the state motto again.
Place of origin: Hawaii.
2. Limbo Skating
Who hasn’t been to a party where someone gets drunk and pulls out the limbo stick? But it’s not really a sport, is it? But what if, instead of a bamboo pole, you had to limbo under something more difficult, like a row of parked cars?
And why not add some speed to a sport that moves pretty slowly? How you ask? By adding roller skates to the mix, competitors became like limbo missiles. Welcome to limbo skating, an exciting sport.
Aniket Chindak, who is now nine years old, has held a record in his sport since he was six years old. He still holds the world record for the longest limbo skate. It took him 53.02 seconds to skate under 82 parked cars. Oh, and he puts on a blindfold just for fun when he’s bored.
Place of origin: India
3. Lingerie Football
Someone once thought it would be a good idea to mix chocolate and peanut butter, and happiness was born. And it’s happened again.
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Mix equal parts football and scantily dressed women. Behold, lingerie football. There are six teams in two conferences, big plans to grow the sport are in the works, and MTV2 shows the sport all over the country.
Place of origin: USA
4. Quidditch
Quidditch has become a real sport. Quidditch began at Middlebury College in Vermont in 1997, but it was first played at Hogwarts. There is now a professional league and even a world cup for the sport.
Players run around a field with a broomstick between their legs, trying to catch the golden snitch. Since it’s hard to find flying, intelligent golden balls in the real world, a squealing guy in all yellow with a ball tied to his sock plays the part. Snigger at will.
Place of origin: The Muggle world.
5. Sumo Wrestling
Even though sumo wrestling is a little more well-known than the other sports on this list, have you ever stopped to think about how strange it is?
Men who are so fat that they wear diapers, grunt, slap each other in the face and squish their fat rolls into each other. Can you believe that these guys are big in Japan as rock stars?
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Check out this picture of the Japanese model and former girlfriend of Sumo champion Chiyotaikai Ryji Hikaru Kawamura smoking.
Place of origin: Japan
6. Shin Kicking
Costs little. It’s quick. It is easy to understand. It’s a cruel sport called shin kicking. Also called “purring,” “hacking,” or just plain stupid.
Not much to say about this. Booted contestants face each other, put their hands on each other’s shoulders, and kick each other’s legs until they look like raw meat.
Every time a soon-to-be-crippled competitor falls to the ground and screams in pain, that person gets a point. A stickler (ref) is there to make sure that competitors fell because of a shin kick and not, say because they were bleeding heavily.
Place of origin: Wales, UK.
7. Worm Charming
Competitors get a three-by-three-meter plot of land, a garden fork, a piece of wood, and a boom box if they want.
Once the timer goes off, these competitors have 30 minutes to pull as many worms out of the ground without digging as they can.
The fork, the wood, and the music all make vibrations, which charm (read: drive crazy) the worms and bring them to the surface. In 1980, 511 worms set the official record.
Place of origin: Willaston, England.
8. Wife Carrying
Think of Tyra Banks, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Anna Nicole Smith. There’s nothing wrong with a woman having some muscle. Unless you’re a male athlete from Finland.
See, wife-carrying is a very uncool sport that involves picking up your lady and, well, running. through the woods. across sand. Using water. Over log hurdles.
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There are three ways to carry your lady: on your back, upside down over your shoulder, or crosswise on your shoulders. The sport started when people would just steal a girl from a neighboring village to get a girlfriend. Since 1992, the Wife Carrying World Championships have been held every year in the city of Sonkajarvi.
Place of origin: Finland.
9. Bird Song Competition
This tiny South American country where people speak Dutch is not exactly a sports and entertainment mecca. There is only one place to play golf, one place for sports, and one movie theater. All over the country.
But if you go to a park in the capital city of Paramaribo at 5 am on a Sunday, you might see one of the most intense piss-offs in the world. Men walk cockily across the lawn, showing off their twa-twas with pride. Get your thoughts together. The twa-twa is a prized bird that sings.
This is how bird song is played: Two tall posts are driven into the ground next to each other. A caged bird is hung from each post. A scorekeeper with a portable chalkboard stands ready by each cage. People gather around. A timer starts the clock. Everyone, except the birds, falls silent and watches with intense passion. The scorekeeper marks a point for each time a bird chirps. The bird that gets the most chirps in five minutes is the winner. Tens of thousands of Euros can be spent on verbose twa-twas.
Place of origin: Suriname.
10. Sepak Takraw
Watching a game of sepak takraw might make you feel like you’re in The Matrix. Because there’s no way a player in the real world could jump up into the air and spike a ball over his opposite shoulder WITH HIS FOOT.
Or send a serve over the net by kicking with the flat of his foot, like a mule. In this game that has been around for hundreds of years, the acrobatics are just unbelievable. Screw $60 seats for Cirque du Soleil.
Just find a local sepak league (yes, it’s played in the US, too) and head to the bleachers for a much better show. And it won’t take long for you to figure out how to play. I can say it in four words: it’s like volleyball, but without hands.
Place of origin: Southeast Asia.
11. Hornussen
The Swiss are known for a lot of things, but most people don’t think of them as the ones who came up with Hornussen. The “hornuss” (hornet) is a puck that is thrown into the air by the striker, who hits it with a whip. The players on the other team then throw schindels, which are big signs on long sticks, at the puck to try to knock it out of the air. There are 18 people on each team, and each game lasts for 4 quarters. Even though Hornussen has been around for a long time (the first record of it is a complaint about two men playing on a Sunday in 1625), it is only now starting to become popular outside of Switzerland. In 2012, an international association was created to promote the sport.
Place of origin: Switzerland
12. Capoeira
Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that combines dance, music, and acrobatics into a thrilling match. It is sometimes called the “Dance of War.” When capoeira is used for self-defense, it has a lot of sweeps and low moves. However, when it is used as a performance piece, it usually focuses on acrobatics and full cartwheels. Most of the time, capoeira is done to music, which sets the pace of the performance. Even though its history isn’t clear, capoeira seems to have been created by African slaves in Brazil in the 1800s. Many fight scenes in popular movies and TV shows today are based on capoeira. People even argue about how much capoeira influenced breakdancing. Some say it was an early form of the dance.
Place of origin: Brazil
13. Kabaddi
Kabbadi is a contact sport that combines wrestling and “captures the flag.” During a game, a “raider” runs across the court’s center line and tries to tag opposing players. The raider can’t take another breath until they’re back on their side of the court. They’ll chant “kabaddi” under their breath to show that they haven’t breathed. They won’t get a point if they don’t tag a player on the other team. Kabbadi is popular in India, Pakistan, Japan, and Iran, among other places, but Bangladesh has made it its national sport. Kabaddi is becoming more well-known around the world thanks to pro leagues and cup competitions like the Asia Kabaddi Cup and the Kabaddi World Cup.
Place of origin: Bangladesh
14. Ferret-Legging
This strange sport seems to have started with coal miners in Yorkshire, England. The sport, which is also called “put ’em down” and “ferret-down-trousers,” is more of an endurance test than anything else. Competitors put live ferrets in their pants and tie the ankle holes shut to keep the animals in. The winner is the person who can keep the ferret in their pants the longest. The world record is 5 1/2 hours. Some people think that the sport may have started when only the wealthy were allowed to keep animals for hunting, so poachers had to hide their ferrets. The sport has been around for a long time, but it really took off in the 1970s. Between 2003 and 2009, a competition was held in Richard to bring it back.
Place of origin: England
15. Bossaball
Bossaball is a sport that is played all over the world. It was made by a Belgian and played for the first time in Spain. It combines soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, and capoeira from Brazil. The court is made up of two trampolines, one on each side of a net, and an inflatable surface around them. On each side of the net, one person from each team is on the trampoline. The attacker is one of these players, and they serve the ball. The other team has to try to get the ball back over the net without touching it more than five times. Not only is it fun to play, but it also looks amazing as players do tricks in the air while bouncing around the court.
Place of origin: Spain
