And I do mean ALL respect.  I do not maintain for a minute that your skills are in even the slightest bit of question, however if I may attempt to clarify, this should be pretty easy to resolve.

Art can be effectively defined as any form of self expression or communication meant to identify and direct our attention to the nature of the human condition. Art provides a window through which we are better able to see ourselves and hopefully come to understand something we were previously ignorant to.

I think that is as objective of a definition as we could get out of something as subjective a term as art. I find in most cases understanding art is a matter of being able to see through the window and the perspective required is not always inherent. Sometimes it helps to have someone direct us to the perspective required to understand a given expression.

Now, with that in mind, lets look at competitive fighting from an artistic perspective. When the fight is understood to be a representation of life challenges, the metaphor is opened. It doesn’t matter what they are fighting for but the artistic expression remains, there are two men with one need who stand in each others way, only one can have it. These men are deliberately matched by their body type to ensure that possible physical advantage is minimized, meaning that the only asset these two men have in their fight against one another is their creativity. Whoever has the best trick wins and that is where the art happens.

Sport of any kind could be easily defined as art in it’s attempt to epitomize the applicable skill most effectively. I don’t think it matters if it is a spin move into a perfectly executed fade away jump shot in a basketball game, a perfectly timed Hail Mary, barely snagged by the tips of a receivers fingers in the end zone with no time left on the clock, the execution of Tchaikovsky’s first symphony, or a smooth duck spun into a spinning back fist for the knock out.

When any skill is executed with previously unrecognized creativity, it is unarguably art. When the venue of the exhibition of that skill is any competition, it is ALSO called sport, but the two are by no means mutually exclusive and to deny that is to deny yourself the greatest appreciation for sport for no other reason than maintaining a black and white view of a colorful world.