Author: Matt Saccaro

UFC on FOX 5 Results: Why Rory MacDonald Doesn’t Need Fan Support

Rory MacDonald may have lost some fans with his taunting of the famed, popular fighter B.J. Penn at their UFC on Fox 5 bout, but it hardly matters. MacDonald’s skills will carry him where the fans wont. MacDonald is talented enough where he doesn’…

Rory MacDonald may have lost some fans with his taunting of the famed, popular fighter B.J. Penn at their UFC on Fox 5 bout, but it hardly matters. MacDonald’s skills will carry him where the fans wont. 

MacDonald is talented enough where he doesn’t need fan support in order to get pushed into big fights. He got a fight against B.J. Penn on Fox when his fan support was tepid at best. 

That fight was set up not because of MacDonald’s popularity, but because of his raw fighting prowess and his ability to cause harm to another human being. The UFC knew they had a prospect that was going to be a force at welterweight for quite some time, so they had to unleash him, even if the fans had taken issues with him. 

A rare talent like MacDonald (23 and already a monster—a monster who trains at the Tristar Gym with the likes of welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre) can’t be ignored, even if the fans think he’s a conceited jerk, a drab individual who lacks personality or what have you. 

Fan support is overrated.

Fans don’t need to support or love a fighter for that fighter to be successful. A fighter needs to be talented (in an entertaining way) to be successful.

Being successful like Jon Fitch wasn’t enough because he put fans to sleep despite amassing a great record. (And, for his efforts, he was put on the undercard as soon as he lost a fight after his initial 8-0 streak in the UFC.)

But being successful like Rory MacDonald—a young stud who powers through the opposition almost as if he’s insulted that he was matched up with someone so beneath him—is a ticket to MMA success no matter what the fans think. Even if they hate MacDonald, they’ll still part with their cash for the slim, evanescent hope that he’ll be brought down from Olympus. 

Thus, the fans need Rory MacDonald more than he needs them. They can hate as much as they want; he’s not going anywhere.

 

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UFC on Fox 5 Results: Questions Answered and Lessons Learned

The UFC’s fifth venture onto Fox is over and done with. Benson Henderson defeated Nate Diaz and Rory MacDonald outclassed B.J. Penn in every sense of the word. UFC on Fox 5 saw other fights happen throughout the night. Several of them taught the M…

The UFC’s fifth venture onto Fox is over and done with. Benson Henderson defeated Nate Diaz and Rory MacDonald outclassed B.J. Penn in every sense of the word. 

UFC on Fox 5 saw other fights happen throughout the night. Several of them taught the MMA world important lessons and answered lingering questions that fans and pundits had about certain fighters. 

So what exactly did we learn?

Read and find out!

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Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz: Why It Will Be a Disappointment

Fans have been waiting for Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz for quite some time. It’s arguably the most anticipated fight in the welterweight division.Too bad it’ll be all for naught. The matchup, as considerably hyped up by the fans and media as i…

Fans have been waiting for Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz for quite some time. It’s arguably the most anticipated fight in the welterweight division.

Too bad it’ll be all for naught. 

The matchup, as considerably hyped up by the fans and media as it may be, will almost definitely disappoint the majority of fans.

Why?

Read on to find out!

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UFC 157: What Happens If Ronda Rousey Gets Beaten Badly by Liz Carmouche?

Ronda Rousey is fighting Liz Carmouche and she’s expected to trample her—but what if Rousey doesn’t?What if the unthinkable happens and Rousey, the UFC’s poster-woman for women’s MMA, gets beaten? And what happens if she gets beaten badly?How bad…

Ronda Rousey is fighting Liz Carmouche and she’s expected to trample her—but what if Rousey doesn’t?

What if the unthinkable happens and Rousey, the UFC’s poster-woman for women’s MMA, gets beaten? And what happens if she gets beaten badly?

How badly? Like Mark Hominick vs. Jose Aldo or Joe Stevenson vs. BJ Penn badly. What on earth would happen then? Could women’s MMA really survive that?

No, it couldn’t. 

If Rousey loses—even if it’s by a decision—WMMA in the UFC will almost definitely crash and burn. 

UFC president Dana White was an outspoken critic of WMMA and once said that women would “never” fight in the UFC. Yet now, here they are, about to fight in the UFC.

Obviously, it’s no coincidence that as soon as an attractive, young, silver-tongued, female fighter showed up that he suddenly changed his tune; Ronda Rousey is an easy sell. Unfortunately, other prominent female fighters don’t have as much earning potential.

Zuffa (the company that owns the UFC and Strikeforce), throughout its voyage through WMMA, has shown that the only way it knows how to market a female athlete is through sex appeal. Why else would they have put Sarah Kaufman in that ridiculous white leather outfit?

The UFC needs Ronda Rousey for their female-fighter venture to be successful. It’s sad that when women are involved, sex appeal has to be part of the equation but that’s the unpleasant truth.

If Rousey‘s star is dimmed by a loss, or if it goes outright supernova by a devastating beatdown, Dana White’s tune will change. After all, his commitment to WMMA seems tepid at best. “We’re kind of playing with it,” he said. “I know this, over the next couple of years we’ve got fights in the 135-pound division, good fights. Ronda’s the champ and she’ll come in and we’ll see how this thing plays out.”

Should Carmouche win, White will likely deem that the foray into WMMA played out poorly, and the plug will in all likelihood be pulled. The upshot of the UFC’s WMMA experiment would be naught but for the disappointment of Zuffa brass.

 

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Fighters Need to Take After Jon Fitch and Learn That MMA Is About Entertainment

UFC welterweight Jon Fitch has discovered a truth that all fighters need to learn if they haven’t already: The UFC is in the business of entertainment.Fitch learned this lesson the hard way.The former Purdue wrestling standout won fights in the UFC, bu…

UFC welterweight Jon Fitch has discovered a truth that all fighters need to learn if they haven’t already: The UFC is in the business of entertainment.

Fitch learned this lesson the hard way.

The former Purdue wrestling standout won fights in the UFC, but he did so in unpopular fashion. Fans disliked Fitch for his use of wrestling and smothering control in his fights as well as for his lack of finishes. They branded him with the dreaded “lay and pray” and “boring” labels. 

Thus, the ever-disfavored Fitch had to earn eight wins in a row before being given a title shot against Georges St-Pierre. And what happened when he came up short in that title shot? He was sent straight to the prelims in his next fight.

I’ll say that again so it sticks: He went from contending for a title in the main event of a pay-per-view to being on the preliminary portion of a card in his next fight. That’s what neglecting the entertainment aspect of MMA does to your career.

Fitch knows better now. He told MMAjunkie the following (emphasis added): 

One of the things I’ve come to learn over the years is that the fight itself is a sport, but everything around it is a big circus. If you can make a case for being center ring in the circus, then they’ll give you a chance to take a place in that sport.

I wanted it to operate like a sport, but it’s not. It’s about entertainment. I didn’t spend enough time convincing fans that they wanted to see me in those fights. It was one of those things that I had to accept. If you want to get the big fights, if you want to make money, you’ve got to make sure the fans want to see you fight. 

Fitch has finally listened to reason (and dollar signs). After resisting that aspect of MMA for so long he’s accepted the truth: Fans will only part with their money/time if they feel that the event (be it a PPV or a free event on television) will be worth that money/time in terms of entertainment value. 

There’s a reason why major networks don’t make collegiate wrestling a big part of their programming. Yes, the athletes are superbly conditioned and are some of the most mentally tough people on the planet, but the average spectator doesn’t care about that. 

Viewers want to see action.

They want to see phantasmagorical displays of violence and symphonies of submissions and strikes. If you, as a fighter, can’t deliver this, or feel you shouldn’t have to, have fun fighting for the small crowds on the preliminary bouts.

This rings even truer during the age of the UFC on Fox, where millions of new, relatively uninformed people will be watching—not for Joe Rogan discussing the finer points of the whizzer and how wonderful it is to see two guys clinching for half a round—but for what they perceive to be fighting.

Many MMA fans have this bizarre, orotund belief that appreciating skill above all else gives them some sort of moral high ground and lets them denigrate all those who watch the sport for an afternoon/night of excitement. 

Skill is obviously important. I’ve long maintained that there’s no such thing as a boring fight, only fans who can’t appreciate certain aspects of fighting. But skill that doesn’t produce a memorable fight or skill that is used only to coast to a decision hurts the long-term growth of the sport.

Nobody wins when the sport permanently loses a potential fan due to a bad fight.

We all need to remember that the casual viewership watches the UFC on Fox for the same reasons they’d (presumably) be watching anything else that night: to be entertained. The casual fan will gladly switch back to a rerun of The Office or some other show if they don’t find MMA particularly enthralling.

The majority of viewers (casual fans) don’t care about how good a guy’s transitions are.

They don’t care about footwork. They don’t care about high-level guard passes.

They might in time as they become more educated, but right now, what they care about the most is that a fight delivers one of three things: a knockout, a submission or a captivating and exciting 15-to-25 minutes of entertainment.

Jon Fitch knows this now.

The parts of the MMA world that haven’t figured it out yet need to soon.

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MMA 2012: As the Sport Grows so Will the Amount of Criticism

MMA fighters aren’t paragons of virtue that are above all forms of criticism simply because they beat up other people in a cage. But you wouldn’t know this if you’ve spent any time in the MMA bubble, where UFC heavyweight Pat Barry can call fans “…

MMA fighters aren’t paragons of virtue that are above all forms of criticism simply because they beat up other people in a cage. 

But you wouldn’t know this if you’ve spent any time in the MMA bubble, where UFC heavyweight Pat Barry can call fans “roaches” on his YouTube channel and be praised by most commenters, and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal can belittle the people who essentially bankroll the sport and not be met with any ill will. 

Their position stems from the harsh jeers and insults regularly received by fighters from fans, whether at live events, or on Twitter and MMA message boards across the Internet. They are right to a degree, sometimes fans of the sport can be insensitive.

MMA is a sport where two men try to incapacitate one another. To some fans, the winner is a hero and the loser is naught but a tomato can, fit only to beat up bums behind a Waffle House somewhere.

Is it right that fans denigrate men who train hard, risk their health, and burn more calories in a week than they do in a lifetime?

Probably not, but that’s the way the sports world is—and as MMA grows, the criticism is only going to get worse, so fighters better get used to dealing with it.

Just look at the amount of criticism NFL players deal with. These athletes are under intense scrutiny from the fans and from mainstream media outlets each Sunday during the season and when they mess up, millions will be decrying them, often with colorful language. But they deal with this issue like professionals.

Did Mark Sanchez go on a tirade against fans at any point so far during his disastrous season that’s seen him mocked by the entire football-literate world? 

Did Tim Tebow challenge pundits when they critiqued (or outright insulted) his throwing mechanics? Did he belittle them by saying that they know nothing because they never played a down in the NFL?

Did Cam Newton throw a temper tantrum and propose a boycott of the Charlotte Observer when it depicted him wearing a Hello Kitty shirt in a cartoon making light of his touchdown celebration?

And how many New York Jets players lashed out at fans after a receiving a pernicious verbal beatdown from fans at halftime during their game against the New England Patriots on Thanksgiving?

Only one did—Bart Scott—who likened the fans to dodgeball rejects before recanting his statements and saying that he had “a tremendous amount of respect for fans.”

If these athletes, who are being insulted by far more people, can handle the slings and arrows of being a professional athlete, fighters can too.

The belief that MMA fighters are somehow special and different (I like to call it “MMA Exceptionalism”) and don’t adhere to the same rules as other athletes is groundless and wrong. 

Basketball players, football players, baseball players, tennis players, MMA fighters, etc. are all athletes and they’re all criticized at points in their careers—it’s just that some MMA fighters haven’t figured out how to deal with it gracefully yet.

Saying “Well I can beat you up” or “You don’t train so you can’t criticize me” doesn’t work outside of the MMA bubble, where fans who train and/or understand the difficulties of the sport are few and far between. 

The FOX generation is appealing to the kind of fan that feels perfectly at home saying things like “125 lbs? I could throw that guy through the wall,” or “That dude sucks so bad even I could beat him up,” and fighters have to accept this.

They may go a little too far with trash talk sometimes, but dealing with legions of angry fans is part of a mainstream athlete’s job description; Employee of the month isn’t all ham and plaques.

Fighters (and angsty fans who long for the old days where fighters weren’t criticized as heavily) must learn to unencumber themselves of orotundity and ideological baggage. Fans make the sport popular, the paychecks bigger and commentary on the sport is their right, even if it’s entirely negative.

 

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