MMA fans are by far the snobbiest in the sports world, and it’s largely because of the Internet and the cultural zeitgeist they were and are surrounded by.
The genesis of modern mixed martial arts is unique when compared to the upbringings of the other major sports. While football and baseball had the telegraph and the newspaper, mixed martial arts had the Internet.
But it’s not just the Internet that made the growth of the MMA fanbase unique, but it was the societal circumstances, too, that had a massive impact.
Baseball and football fans had to survive depressions, world wars and other horrific calamities.
Compare this to the overly-entitled Occupy Wall Street generation that MMA draws much of its fanbase from.
When these two factors are combined, it creates the perfect storm for a fandom that is a wretched hive of petty elitism and other sordid practices.
MMA almost died once, but intrepid fans kept it alive through exchanging VHS tapes and by posting on obscure Internet chat rooms.
These fans later proclaimed themselves “hardcore” fans and developed an entitlement complex. They feel that MMA owes them for “saving” the sport during the dark ages.
They look down on “casual” fans who started watching the sport after they did.
Why?
Probably because they’re pathetic ne’er-do-wells whose greatest accomplishment in life is posting on a forum before other people did or buying an old PRIDE tape.
They need to say that they helped the sport, and that they are better than other fans so that they can feel like big men.
However, this is not to malign people who are passionate about MMA.
MMA is the greatest sport in the world, and there is almost a sort of brotherhood between fans.
It’s just that fans can be far too critical. Do football fans divide themselves into “hardcore” and “casual” camps? Do baseball fans get mad when they see another fan wearing a jersey or a team shirt and say, “If you don’t play baseball, you don’t have the right to wear that?”
Of course not, because football and baseball fans are just happy watching the sport, not berating “lesser” fans or any such nonsense.
But some fans aren’t snobby, they’re just entitled.
They feel as if they shouldn’t have to pay for events for any number of pathetic rationales (and there are thousands).
For some reason, they feel that paying for one pay-per-view, or watching the sport during the dark ages, or not liking Dana White gives them the right to STEAL (and it is stealing) pay-per-views.
The fact that a significant amount of MMA fans are elitist snobs is one of the biggest factors holding the sport back. Once they can learn to just relax and appreciate anyone who has even a slight interest in MMA (even if they wear a TapouT shirt, even if they call it “UFC”), the sport and its growth will be that much better off for it.
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