(That face you make when you realize that you’re an overpaid dinosaur who has long since worn out his welcome. And whatever facial expression Hulk Hogan is making.)
Considering that people already aren’t buying tickets to this show, I have to ask: Are any of our readers about to drop over thirty bucks on this card? Because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not about to spend that much money on this. Maybe if it was stacked with the fighters who have made Bellator so much fun to watch over the past few years — guys like Alexander Shlemenko, Rich Hale, David Rickels and The Pitbull Brothers — I’d be able to justify dropping thirty bucks on it.
(That face you make when you realize that you’re an overpaid dinosaur who has long since worn out his welcome. And whatever facial expression Hulk Hogan is making.)
Considering that people already aren’t buying tickets to this show, I have to ask: Are any of our readers about to drop over thirty bucks on this card? Because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not about to spend that much money on this. Maybe if it was stacked with the fighters who have made Bellator so much fun to watch over the past few years — guys like Alexander Shlemenko, Rich Hale, David Rickels and The Pitbull Brothers — I’d be able to justify dropping thirty bucks on it.
But $34.95 for two fights between UFC washouts I haven’t cared about since I was still in college, a completely pointless do-over, and only two fights that I’m willing to pay for?
The only reason that I’d buy this card is out of sympathy for Bellator. They’re sort-of banking on this thing working out, and I’d hate to see a promotion that has given us so many exciting fights go under. But if Bellator is going to continue to be a Station of the Cross for the UFC gatekeeper in decline, then, as much as I hate to type this, I can live without it.
That’s my two cents, guys. Feel free to add yours below.
(Not pictured: Anything Fallon Fox has actually done in the cage.)
Let me make one thing clear from the very beginning: I’m not trying to say that it wasn’t newsworthy — even inspirational — when Fallon Foxfirst came out as a transgender MMA fighter. Transgender individuals are extremely prone to harassment, discrimination, violence and bigoted stereotyping — all tragically evident by looking at the Facebook posts and tweets that have been directed at Fox since she came out roughly one month ago. I am in full support of her rights to be socially acknowledged and treated as any other woman would be treated outside of the cage.
Yet during this past month, Fallon Fox has received more attention for simply existing (she’s 0-0 since coming out) than most professionals have received for actually fighting. We’ve seen numerous fighters come forward to offer their opinions on whether or not Fox should be allowed to compete against women. Some have managed to do so in a reasonable, intelligent manner. Others have spoken about “it” as if she isn’t even human. For that matter, even people who aren’t MMA fighters have expressed a willingness to compete against her.
Mind you, this was all before Matt Mitrione called Fox “a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak” on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour,” earning him an indefinite suspension from the UFC.
Despite the punishment, UFC fighters are still willing to discuss Fallon Fox — who, let’s remember, doesn’t even fight in the UFC — with reporters. Yesterday, The New York Post published an interview with one of the most talented, popular, and accomplished female fighters of all time, Ronda Rousey. A total of zero questions had anything to do with Rousey’s own future in the sport, instead focusing on how she feels about potentially fighting Fallon Fox:
“She can try hormones, chop her pecker off, but it’s still the same bone structure a man has,” Rousey told The Post. “It’s an advantage. I don’t think it’s fair.”
(Not pictured: Anything Fallon Fox has actually done in the cage.)
Let me make one thing clear from the very beginning: I’m not trying to say that it wasn’t newsworthy — even inspirational — when Fallon Foxfirst came out as a transgender MMA fighter. Transgender individuals are extremely prone to harassment, discrimination, violence and bigoted stereotyping — all tragically evident by looking at the Facebook posts and tweets that have been directed at Fox since she came out roughly one month ago. I am in full support of her rights to be socially acknowledged and treated as any other woman would be treated outside of the cage.
Yet during this past month, Fallon Fox has received more attention for simply existing (she’s 0-0 since coming out) than most professionals have received for actually fighting. We’ve seen numerous fighters come forward to offer their opinions on whether or not Fox should be allowed to compete against women. Some have managed to do so in a reasonable, intelligent manner. Others have spoken about “it” as if she isn’t even human. For that matter, even people who aren’t MMA fighters have expressed a willingness to compete against her.
Mind you, this was all before Matt Mitrione called Fox “a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak” on Monday’s edition of “The MMA Hour,” earning him an indefinite suspension from the UFC.
Despite the punishment, UFC fighters are still willing to discuss Fallon Fox — who, let’s remember, doesn’t even fight in the UFC — with reporters. Yesterday, The New York Post published an interview with one of the most talented, popular, and accomplished female fighters of all time, Ronda Rousey. A total of zero questions had anything to do with Rousey’s own future in the sport, instead focusing on how she feels about potentially fighting Fallon Fox:
“She can try hormones, chop her pecker off, but it’s still the same bone structure a man has,” Rousey told The Post. “It’s an advantage. I don’t think it’s fair.”
Rousey said Mitrione worded his views “extremely poorly” and believes the UFC was justified in suspending the heavyweight fighter. But she thinks his sentiments came from the right place. In Rousey’s opinion, Mitrione believes Fox is still a man, who wants to beat up women for a living.
“I understand the UFC doesn’t want to be associated with views like that,” Rousey said. “I’m also glad they didn’t straight cut him.”
Speaking of questionable word choices, I can’t help but feel that her usage of the word “pecker” is going to create an overreaction among the mainstream media outlets. But I digress.
It’s right around now — when accomplished athletes such as Ronda Rousey and Alexis Davis are fielding questions about Fallon Fox instead of their own careers — that we in the MMA media need to stop and ask ourselves what we’re actually doing. Are we really respecting a woman’s right to be treated as any other female, or are we treating Fallon Fox like a sideshow and milking her transgender status for as many page views as we can get?
Because — let’s be honest — if we’re truly concerned with treating Fallon Fox the way that we’d treat any other woman, we wouldn’t continue to force her name into interviews and conference calls. As Jonathan Snowden recently argued, Fox is a thirty-seven year old fighter competing in a small-time, regional promotion that even most hardcore MMA fans wouldn’t recognize. She is 2-0 in her professional career, but has yet to fight an opponent who has actually won a professional bout. She has not been offered a contract by the UFC, Invicta, or Bellator. This is all to say that she hasn’t accomplished anything yet that justifies the non-stop media attention that she has received for the past month.
Giving Fox undue attention over her transgender status isn’t embracing her so much as it’s exploiting her. Forcing her into conversations with UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez isn’t being tolerant, it’s being a carnival barker — we’re emphasizing what makes her different in hopes of generating reactions from other people. Emphasizing her reputation over her skills and accomplishments wades into Kimbo Slice territory; that’s bound to make the fans’ reactions that much more harsh when she actually loses. Also, when former UFC heavyweight Sean McCorkle starts looking for ways to involve himself in this story by taking credit for Mitrione’s suspension-earning jokes, it’s safe to say that we’re no longer coming from a place of acceptance.
This doesn’t mean it’s wrong to make the distinction between Fallon Fox the woman and Fallon Fox the fighter. As of now, there is no conclusive evidence that transgender females do not have unfair competitive advantages over their opponents. There is research that suggests that unfair advantages exist. There is also research that suggests they do not. Another “MMA fighter says Fox has/doesn’t have a competitive advantage” article isn’t going to bring anything new to the discussion.
But you know what will bring something new to the discussion? The result of her fight against Allana Jones on May 24th. After that we might be able to gauge what kind of future — if any — she has in our sport. We’ll be able to publish a story about Fox that’s actually pertinent to what she has been doing in the cage. And if we’re truly concerned with treating her as an equal, we can hold off on cramming her into our headlines until then.
For that matter, could Good Guy Junior have saved last season?
We’rejust finishing up with a season of The Ultimate Fighter that most of us didn’t even pretend to watch, and are getting ready for a season that we’ll only watch to see how creatively Chael Sonnen can troll Jon Jones. Okay, perhaps some of us actually want to watch TUF for less cynical reasons – say because it’s free MMA or to see if the show discovers a legitimate fighter who has slipped through the cracks – just like how some professional football fans actually keep up with the UFL.
With the show in desperate need of a mix-up, Dana White has been open to the idea of casting Ronda Rousey as a coach, while still keeping the contestants themselves men. The idea picked up even more steam yesterday when White suggested that Ronda Rousey could be coaching against Miesha Tate on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. Via MMAFighting:
“It could happen,” White said. “If there’s two people who would probably coach, you kick [the idea] around, this could happen, that could happen. If they did, it could be [Rousey] and Miesha. You know, we’ll see. Timing has a lot do with it.”
For that matter, could Good Guy Junior have saved last season?
We’rejust finishing up with a season of The Ultimate Fighter that most of us didn’t even pretend to watch, and are getting ready for a season that we’ll only watch to see how creatively Chael Sonnen can troll Jon Jones. Okay, perhaps some of us actually want to watch TUF for less cynical reasons – say because it’s free MMA or to see if the show discovers a legitimate fighter who has slipped through the cracks – just like how some professional football fans actually keep up with the UFL.
With the show in desperate need of a mix-up, Dana White has been open to the idea of casting Ronda Rousey as a coach, while still keeping the contestants themselves men. The idea picked up even more steam yesterday when White suggested that Ronda Rousey could be coaching against Miesha Tate on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. Via MMAFighting:
“It could happen,” White said. “If there’s two people who would probably coach, you kick [the idea] around, this could happen, that could happen. If they did, it could be [Rousey] and Miesha. You know, we’ll see. Timing has a lot do with it.”
Having Rousey and Tate coach a season of TUF is an interesting idea on paper. The show would give WMMA exposure, Rousey and Tate would have some memorable clashes throughout the season and the season-ending coaches’ fight would actually be meaningful. It may not be a drastic change, but simply making two skilled female fighters coaches may be able to regenerate interest in the show.
But if the UFC really wants to give the show a complete overhaul, why not cast an all-female season?
My biggest gripe with The Ultimate Fighter is that the show hasn’t been producing relevant fighters, because talented prospects no longer have to go through reality television in order to get a shot in the UFC. Case in point, Hacran Dias was a 20-1-1 fighter when he tried out for TUF Brazil. Rather than being sent through the show, Dias was offered a contract on the spot, and won his UFC debut over Yuri Alcantara at UFC 147. The lesson here is that if you have a shot at immediate relevance, you aren’t fighting on The Ultimate Fighter anymore.
An all-female season could be different because WMMA is still in the early stages of its development. Much like how the first two seasons of The Ultimate Fighter made plenty of previously unknown fighters staples in the UFC for years, it’s possible that there are enough skilled females flying far enough under our radars to be willing to go through a season of TUF in order to land a contract.
For that matter, it’s also possible that established female fighters like Sara McMann would be willing to compete on the show simply because WMMA gets practically zero exposure. Just look at the first article we wrote about Ronda Rousey. When Strikeforce first inked a deal with her, she was…some sort of vegan Olympic judoka, I guess? In hindsight, it’s comical that the collective MMA community wasn’t shitting bricks over such an important signing, but we simply hadn’t heard of her until then. It’s very possible that even more potentially great fighters are going undiscovered due to the lack of coverage that WMMA has been receiving.
The catch is that while fans are more than happy to accept Ronda Rousey as a world-class athlete, they may still not be ready to accept WMMA as a legitimate competition. Female athletes in America simply do not receive the same coverage as their male counterparts, which may make the TUF formula even more stale with the inclusion of women. For example, will an altercation in the TUF house between two women be interpreted by viewers the same way as an altercation between two male contestants, or dismissed as just petty female drama? Logically, the sexes of the contestants shouldn’t make a difference, but it does, and it could wind up turning even more people away from the struggling franchise.
So that leads us directly into our question: Assuming that the editting crews do their best to portray the fighters in a positive light and as serious athletes (i.e. none of this), do you think an all-female season can save The Ultimate Fighter? Would you be more likely to watch the show if Ronda Rousey and Meisha Tate are coaches? And what are the odds that something like this happens if they’re coaching an all-male season? Keep it civil, you guys.
As a quick perusal over the average forum, message board, or comments section on a given CagePotato, MMAMania, BloodyElbow, etc. article will show you, most fans of this thing called MMA would like to think that, on the off chance they were dropped into a random group of their peers and asked to debate various MMA-related issues, they would surely come out the victor. Hence our frequent inability to both see or respect another person’s argument on a given subject, admit in the slightest that we could be wrong, or realize that there might be no right answer to begin with (we’re looking at you, Nippletwist).
However, it would be fairly easy for anyone of us to notice a direct correlation between the increased awareness/popularity of MMA and an increased understanding of the sport by the average person. It only makes sense; with information regarding everything from various techniques used by certain fighters to the long-term effects of the sport on the human body being made more available by the day, the opportunities for fans to elevate their knowledge in regards to the sport are seemingly endless. Even if you aren’t a fan, all you have to do is go channel surfing for about thirty seconds these days to find something MMA-related to absorb.
But let’s be honest, we are still a long way from the universal acknowledgement, not to mention acceptance, of MMA. Go ahead; ask the three nearest people to you at the office what their opinion is on MMA legalization in your state. Make sure not to mention the phrase “UFC” in any way, shape, or form while doing so. Prepare yourself, for you are about to stare deep into the vacant, soulless eyes of someone who hasn’t the slightest clue what the hell you’re talking about. Creepy, isn’t it?
(Based on this, we’re gonna say…maybe?)
As a quick perusal over the average forum, message board, or comments section on a given CagePotato, MMAMania, BloodyElbow, etc. article will show you, most fans of this thing called MMA would like to think that, on the off chance they were dropped into a random group of their peers and asked to debate various MMA-related issues, they would surely come out the victor. Hence our frequent inability to both see or respect another person’s argument on a given subject, admit in the slightest that we could be wrong, or realize that there might be no right answer to begin with (we’re looking at you, Nippletwist).
However, it would be fairly easy for anyone of us to notice a direct correlation between the increased awareness/popularity of MMA and an increased understanding of the sport by the average person. It only makes sense; with information regarding everything from various techniques used by certain fighters to the long-term effects of the sport on the human body being made more available by the day, the opportunities for fans to elevate their knowledge in regards to the sport are seemingly endless. Even if you aren’t a fan, all you have to do is go channel surfing for about thirty seconds these days to find something MMA-related to absorb.
But let’s be honest, we are still a long way from the universal acknowledgement, not to mention acceptance, of MMA. Go ahead; ask the three nearest people to you at the office what their opinion is on MMA legalization in your state. Make sure not to mention the phrase “UFC” in any way, shape, or form while doing so. Prepare yourself, for you are about to stare deep into the vacant, soulless eyes of someone who hasn’t the slightest clue what the hell you’re talking about. Creepy, isn’t it?
And although MMA is still miles behind that of its professional sports counterparts in terms of awareness, it is has begun to attract a whole new type of audience — a more diverse, famous, and dare we say informed audience — that seeks to shed the stereotypical image of MMA fans worldwide as personified by the “Just Bleed” guy. This will probably be the first and last time we ever say this, but if you want an example of an educated, enthusiastic audience, look no further than Canada. This may be painting with too large a brush, but in recent years, there has not been an audience that even comes close to matching Canada when dealing with the intricacies of the sport. Ground transitions, stuffed takedowns, and submission attempts are often treated with the enthusiasm and applause of ten punch combos and wheel kicks in other venues, and truly show how far the MMA fan has come in just a few short years. This observation has been duly noted on several occasions by UFC commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg.
But for every Canadian card, there are two or three cards/venues that make us reconsider how in touch with the underlying discipline, honor, and integrity of the sport fans actually are. Where some audiences applaud the ground aspects of MMA, others relentlessly boo and mock fighters for even considering taking the action there, to the point that it often has an influence on the referee’s decision to stand up fighters for a “lack of action.”
The same can be said about fighters who follow a succinct gameplan; just look at how Carlos Condit was eviscerated for his performance against Nick Diaz as an example of this. In one relatively lackluster fight, Condit’s reputation went from the “Natural Born Killer” to the “Natural Born Runner” amongst many fans, simply because he utilized an effective, albeit unspectacular, strategy against a nearly impossible to finish opponent. Then again, Condit’s gameplan was pretty much a cookie-cutter representation of the “always play it safe” mentality that Team Jackson has nearly patented by this point, which could have been enough in and of itself to earn such ire.
There are an endless number of factors that determine how an audience will react on a given night (fight quality, matchups, and amount of alcohol consumed to name a few), but suffice it to say, as MMA has become more popular, the larger audience it has drawn in has both its upsides and its pratfalls. MMA popularity has, whether directly or indirectly, stirred up a mentality that anyone can become a full-fledged martial artist if they own a Body by Jake and practice Chuck Liddell’s moves from the UFC 52 DVD they own “like a hundred times, bro!” on the heavy bag. This is more a reflection of our society’s long-running tendency to mimic what we see on TV than anything else, but let’s face it, human stupidity will never run out of things to exploit. MMA has also been tied in, often out of ignorance or a hidden agenda, with despicable acts of violence by such anti-MMA organizations as The Culinary Union and unfitforchildren, leading many casual audiences and former New York Assemblymen to believe that the furthering of MMA will come hand-in-hand with a general acceptance of violence.
So with that in mind, we figured we would host a good old fashioned CagePotato Open Discussion. The question: Do you think the evolution of mixed martial arts can be reflected in its fanbase? Or is the popularity of the sport actually diluting the intelligence of the average audience member?
It is not a question that can be easily answered given the ever-changing landscape of both the sport and its fans, but what you really have to ask yourself is whether or not the new breed of fans that have hopped on the bandwagon in the past few years are helping improve the sport’s image or destroy it.
