The sport of mixed martial arts is noted for many things such as being the fastest growing sport in the world, being the purest combat sport on the planet, demanding the highest level of athleticism from it’s participants…and having perhaps the most notoriously difficult to please fans in sports.
When an event disappoints, MMA fans will light many an Internet forum ablaze with complaints and criticisms faster than any other group of fans.
This even happens if only the main event is bad. Such is the case with Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum, a fight card in which many of the fights were packed with solid action but the main event was seen as a disappointment. Thus, the entire event was seen by many fans as lackluster even though a majority of the fights were good.
Unfortunately, this trend is nothing new. There almost always seems to be complaints coming from the fans about one thing or another.
This inclination towards misery and negativity is commonly just written off as people being spoiled and is given little more than a sigh before attention is moved elsewhere. This stance on the constantly changing (although often only changing between varying negative extremes) has its merits but also its flaws.
First, finicky fans shouldn’t always be taken seriously; people will complain about anything and everything.
Second, many fans have selective memories and only remember the bad about an event. Does anyone remember UFC 112 for anything but the Anderson Silva-Demian Maia fiasco?
However, the general opinion(s) of the fans cannot be wholly discounted, for it is their wallets that are responsible for keeping the sport alive and growing.
Therefore, if the fans are consistently bored and become disillusioned with the sport and the UFC ignores them, the organization and the sport could be brought down. Case in point: many professional sports organizations have had to alter their rules to make for a more exciting contest.
Will the UFC have to do this? Only time will tell, although many fans are becoming concerned with the prevalence of “fighting not to lose,” a fighting style which UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is acrimoniously accused of employing.
An interesting point to note is that the UFC under Zuffa ownership has “grown up” in the age of the Internet (as did many of its fans). It’s possible that the fickleness comes from living in a quick-fix/instant-oatmeal society in which people want more for their time and money, and they aren’t willing to wait for it. Maybe most fans expect every main event—or even every fight—to be Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar all over again?
So will the fickleness of the fans be the sport’s downfall? Probably not. Many of the fan’s complaints are bombastic, and sometimes ignorant. In addition, the fans (as well as people in general these days, does anyone remember the BP oil spill anymore?) have a short memory regarding many things. While people will remember UFC 112 for being bad, the sour taste in their mouths will likely have dissipated when it’s time pay up for the next event.
Nevertheless, the fans cannot be completely disregarded as high-maintenance complainers. If enough fans fall out of love with the sport, MMA could drop off the face of the sports world as soon as it appeared.
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