Tag: Sports Entertainment

The Underdog Heel: How Chael Sonnen Became a Sports Entertainment Superstar


(They say Chael is still out there somewhere, working as a real estate agent and speaking with a Hispanic accent. / Photo via Getty)

By Seth Falvo

We know that the UFC is a sports entertainment company, but few fighters have ever embraced sports entertainment as fully as the recently retired Chael Sonnen had. “The Gangster from West Linn” understood the importance of drawing attention outside the cage, and shamelessly promoted himself as one of the most outlandish heels on the planet. But now that his fighting days are behind him, how will the fans remember Sonnen? There’s little doubt that Sonnen was one of MMA’s most infamous personalities, but was Sonnen a truly great sports entertainer?

Before we begin analyzing Sonnen’s smack-talking, fake championship belt wielding antics however, let’s not forget the overwhelming majority of his career: the thirty-plus professional fights (including his initial 1-2 run in the UFC) he had between 1997 and 2008. During this time, Chael Sonnen was a name that only the most hardcore fans had known of. He was a skilled, albeit smothering (and submission-prone) wrestler who could dish out one-liners and give thoughtful interviews, but was mostly known for his part in the unmitigated disaster that was Filho vs. Sonnen II.

If that seemed like a half-assed recap of twelve years of fighting, that’s exactly the point. Despite the best attempts of MMA fans to pretend that they’re above valuing personality over talent, the relative obscurity of Sonnen’s “pre-heel” career proved otherwise. If it weren’t for his ability to give a memorable interview, it isn’t entirely unreasonable to wonder if he would have even been invited back to the promotion when the WEC did away with the middleweight division. It’s even more likely that he would have been cut after getting choked out in the first round by Demian Maia during his Octagon return at UFC 95. The bottom line is, one doesn’t need to be entertained by Sonnen’s attempts to stand out in order to acknowledge their importance; Sonnen pretty much told Thomas Gerbasi just that back in 2010:

“You listen to some of these guys and it’s like hitting ‘play’ on a tape recorder. Whether these guys just aren’t free thinkers or just scared, I truthfully don’t know, but it is pretty annoying. Every now and then you get a guy that appears that he’s read a book or watched a news program and has an autonomous thought, and those are the kind of guys that I would visit with, but it’s pretty hard to find them in a UFC locker room.”


(They say Chael is still out there somewhere, working as a real estate agent and speaking with a Hispanic accent. / Photo via Getty)

By Seth Falvo

We know that the UFC is a sports entertainment company, but few fighters have ever embraced sports entertainment as fully as the recently retired Chael Sonnen had. “The Gangster from West Linn” understood the importance of drawing attention outside the cage, and shamelessly promoted himself as one of the most outlandish heels on the planet. But now that his fighting days are behind him, how will the fans remember Sonnen? There’s little doubt that Sonnen was one of MMA’s most infamous personalities, but was Sonnen a truly great sports entertainer?

Before we begin analyzing Sonnen’s smack-talking, fake championship belt wielding antics however, let’s not forget the overwhelming majority of his career: the thirty-plus professional fights (including his initial 1-2 run in the UFC) he had between 1997 and 2008. During this time, Chael Sonnen was a name that only the most hardcore fans had known of. He was a skilled, albeit smothering (and submission-prone) wrestler who could dish out one-liners and give thoughtful interviews, but was mostly known for his part in the unmitigated disaster that was Filho vs. Sonnen II.

If that seemed like a half-assed recap of twelve years of fighting, that’s exactly the point. Despite the best attempts of MMA fans to pretend that they’re above valuing personality over talent, the relative obscurity of Sonnen’s “pre-heel” career proved otherwise. If it weren’t for his ability to give a memorable interview, it isn’t entirely unreasonable to wonder if he would have even been invited back to the promotion when the WEC did away with the middleweight division. It’s even more likely that he would have been cut after getting choked out in the first round by Demian Maia during his Octagon return at UFC 95. The bottom line is, one doesn’t need to be entertained by Sonnen’s attempts to stand out in order to acknowledge their importance; Sonnen pretty much told Thomas Gerbasi just that back in 2010:

“You listen to some of these guys and it’s like hitting ‘play’ on a tape recorder. Whether these guys just aren’t free thinkers or just scared, I truthfully don’t know, but it is pretty annoying. Every now and then you get a guy that appears that he’s read a book or watched a news program and has an autonomous thought, and those are the kind of guys that I would visit with, but it’s pretty hard to find them in a UFC locker room.”

When Sonnen fully began to embrace the self-promoting heel antics he’s known for, he immediately took the spotlight. What he lacked in innovation — his brash overconfidence, the heat he would generate by insulting Brazil and his willingness to call out other fighters by name are all textbook heel tactics — he made up for in sheer wit and charisma. Any halfwit could have said “Silva sucks and I will beat him.” Sonnen made it interesting and fun. Whether fans tuned in because they believed in Chael’s hype or they tuned in because they believed he’d eat his words, what’s undeniable is that they tuned in when heel Sonnen was fighting.

While certain aspects of his schtick were by the numbers, what was unique about Sonnen was that he managed to be both a heel and an underdog throughout his second stint in the UFC. Heels are almost always dominant to the point where it’s hardly fair to allow them to compete; that’s why the New York Yankees and the Miami Heat have so many haters. Even in professional wrestling, the heel is rarely portrayed as the underdog while leading up to the payoff match. Yet even as an underdog, Sonnen always managed to generate heat from the crowds.

Of course, by now I likely have dozens of readers screaming “BUT MMA IS REAL!” while reading this article. Usually, such a non-observation wouldn’t be worth responding to, but in this case, real life events helped keep Chael Sonnen grounded as a heel to most fans — even while they were laughing their ways through “I am a gangster from America.” There was the (first) failed drug test. There was the UFC middleweight championship replica belt that he’d carry around. There were the money laundering charges. There was his eyeroll-worthy post-fight interview at UFC on Fox 2 where he ripped off a classic “Superstar” Billy Graham promo — which wouldn’t be the last time he’d swagger-jack a pro wrestling legend — and there were more than a few critics who were uncomfortable with Sonnen’s race-baiting antics. In other words, Sonnen wasn’t just a heel because he said outlandish things, Sonnen was a fighter who fans could truly despise if they wanted to.

Though Sonnen would briefly win over the fans by offering to fight Jon Jones on short notice to save UFC 151, the callout can in retrospect be viewed as the “We want the wind!” of his career. Despite his best attempts to hype their eventual fight at UFC 159, no amount of smacktalk could convince fans that Sonnen was any threat to Jones. The fight itself was predictably unspectacular, the pay-per-view numbers were less than impressive, and when all was said and done, Sonnen had lost too many high-profile bouts to be taken seriously as a contender again. He’d stick around for two more fights, but he was far more reserved than he had been during his second UFC run, and fans began to lose interest.

Unfortunately, things weren’t quite over yet for Sonnen. He was booked as a coach for TUF: Brazil 3 alongside his rival, Wanderlei Silva. After years of heated confrontations and a seemingly neverending supply of callouts from both fighters, the payoff ended up being a hilariously awful brawl on the TUF set and Wanderlei Silva literally running from a drug test. This wasn’t just an instance of a feud crumbling under the weight of its own hype — this was a fight years in the making falling apart at the last second in the ugliest manner possible.

So where exactly does this leave Sonnen in the grand scheme of things? He was hardly the most original heel in sports entertainment during the past five years, he was certainly not the first heel in the history of MMA, and possibly wasn’t even the most popular heel in MMA. Yet you could make the argument that Sonnen was the most notorious heel in sports entertainment to have never worked for Vince McMahon. He wasn’t a product of the WWE’s booking and the crossover appeal he had to casual fans — he was an MMA fighter who managed to become a household name through his own self-promotion. When determining the greatest heels in sports entertainment, that has to be worth something.

Interestingly, there’s a rumor going around Twitter that Chael Sonnen was offered the Bellator President position that Scott Coker recently filled. That such a rumor could gain traction is proof of the charisma that Sonnen possesses, and just how eager the fans are to see him promoting fights again. Sonnen did what any great heel should do: He put some butts in the seats. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

Why More Fighters Need to Talk Sh*t (Hint: It Works)


(What are you gonna do against the largest arms in the world, brother? / Photo via Getty)

By Matt Saccaro

MMA is the ultimate “nice guys finish last” sport. It’s called prize fighting for a reason, and “I respect him; he’s a great opponent” doesn’t sell.

This is no secret. Just look at how Chael Sonnen—a perennial mid-carder who nobody knew or cared about—resurrected his career with carefully executed, bombastic trash talk.

Why am I telling you this if it’s common sense? Because it’s only common sense to people who appreciate MMA for what it is—real-life pro wrestling. Unfortunately, most hardcore MMA fans (and some media members) refuse to see it this way. They either believe in a non-existent code of honor, or an even less corporeal competitive architecture. “It’s a sport,” they maintain. “It should be only about competition. Besides, who wouldn’t want to see the best fighters go at it, even if they have less charisma than a light bulb?” The answer to that question: Most of the country.

There’s a sport with no flash, no glitz, and none of the other maligned “entertainment” trappings of the UFC and the WWE. It’s called amateur wrestling, and nobody watches it. MMA turning into amateur wrestling hurts the fighters. If there’s no viewers, there’s no money. It’s crazy that people still need to be reminded of this, but selling the fight is equally as important as fighting the fight. To quote The Simpsons, “Every good scientist is half B.F. Skinner and half P.T. Barnum.”


(What are you gonna do against the largest arms in the world, brother? / Photo via Getty)

By Matt Saccaro

MMA is the ultimate “nice guys finish last” sport. It’s called prize fighting for a reason, and “I respect him; he’s a great opponent” doesn’t sell.

This is no secret. Just look at how Chael Sonnen—a perennial mid-carder who nobody knew or cared about—resurrected his career with carefully executed, bombastic trash talk.

Why am I telling you this if it’s common sense? Because it’s only common sense to people who appreciate MMA for what it is—real-life pro wrestling. Unfortunately, most hardcore MMA fans (and some media members) refuse to see it this way. They either believe in a non-existent code of honor, or an even less corporeal competitive architecture. “It’s a sport,” they maintain. “It should be only about competition. Besides, who wouldn’t want to see the best fighters go at it, even if they have less charisma than a light bulb?” The answer to that question: Most of the country.

There’s a sport with no flash, no glitz, and none of the other maligned “entertainment” trappings of the UFC and the WWE. It’s called amateur wrestling, and nobody watches it. MMA turning into amateur wrestling hurts the fighters. If there’s no viewers, there’s no money. It’s crazy that people still need to be reminded of this, but selling the fight is equally as important as fighting the fight. To quote The Simpsons, “Every good scientist is half B.F. Skinner and half P.T. Barnum.”

Chael Sonnen understood this. And so does boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. Remember when Mayweather said he was interested in buying the L.A. Clippers after the Donald Sterling fiasco? That’s brilliant promotion; he injected himself into a highly volatile, nation-wide story and in doing so drew more eyeballs onto his upcoming fight. Then there’s the chicanery about cancelling the fight over gloves, which was another great way to build buzz.

A perfect, recent example from the MMA world is Cole Miller. After defeating Andy Ogle at UFC Fight Night 30 this past October, Miller trash talked hot prospect/rising star Conor McGregor, calling him “Colin McGoober.” He went on the attack again in an interview with Fighters Only, calling McGregor a show-pony. And it worked. Talking shit catapulted a guy who couldn’t find sponsors into the main event of a fight card.

Bethe Correia is another example. After defeating Jessamyn Duke at UFC 172, she mocked Ronda Rousey‘s “four horsewomen” (ugh) stable with a gesture, putting up four fingers and then knocking one down. Now it’s a legitimate plot in a division that typically serves as a promotional vehicle for Ronda Rousey. Bethe Correia stood out in a weight class of sacrificial lambs because she said something interesting when she opened her mouth.

Of course, trash talk doesn’t always work (see: Phil Davis), but the rewards far outweigh the risks. More fighters need to embrace their brazen sides, lest they fade into the abyss of generic, video game create-a-fighter lookalikes that is the UFC’s current roster.

 

Five Obvious but Overlooked Things Fans Need to Remember About the UFC


(Just keep repeating to yourself, “Nobody’s making me watch this…nobody’s making me watch this…nobody’s making me watch this…”)

By Matt Saccaro

The UFC has come under fire lately for several reasons: Declining numbers, oversaturation, the fading of their stars, launching a digital network with a questionable premise, not hiring Ben Askren and so on. When we fling insults at the UFC, we need to remember a few things about the company in order to put these negative occurrences and circumstances into perspective. Let’s start with the most obvious but frequently-ignored point:

1. The UFC is a business.

The purpose of the UFC is to make its owners money. The UFC does not exist to feed fighters’ families. There’s not much else to say on this front. Companies have to make money to be viable. Yeah, it sucks that some guys get paid an absurdly small amount of money for what they do, and it sucks that the UFC is upping the PPV price.

That’s just something we have to deal with though. If you don’t like it, vote with your dollar. If enough people tune out, Zuffa’s wallet will know and they’ll either change their tune accordingly or lose money.

2. The UFC is an international company.

There’s been talk about the UFC hiring unfit-for-television jobbers lately. It’s true but necessary. The UFC is headed to distant lands where MMA is in its most nascent stages. The talent pool in these places is more like a mud puddle. The UFC has to work with what it’s given in China and Singapore. Deepening foreign talent pools can only happen by growing the sport overseas, and growing the sport overseas can only happen when they have foreign (foreign to us, home grown to them) fighters on the card. And since there aren’t many great foreign fighters, the UFC has to scrape the bottom of a very empty barrel. This results in fighters getting a place in the “Super Bowl of MMA” who shouldn’t even be in the bleachers, let alone on the field.


(Just keep repeating to yourself, “Nobody’s making me watch this…nobody’s making me watch this…nobody’s making me watch this…”)

By Matt Saccaro

The UFC has come under fire lately for several reasons: Declining numbers, oversaturation, the fading of their stars, launching a digital network with a questionable premise, not hiring Ben Askren and so on. When we fling insults at the UFC, we need to remember a few things about the company in order to put these negative occurrences and circumstances into perspective. Let’s start with the most obvious but frequently-ignored point:

1. The UFC is a business.

The purpose of the UFC is to make its owners money. The UFC does not exist to feed fighters’ families. There’s not much else to say on this front. Companies have to make money to be viable. Yeah, it sucks that some guys get paid an absurdly small amount of money for what they do, and it sucks that the UFC is upping the PPV price.

That’s just something we have to deal with though. If you don’t like it, vote with your dollar. If enough people tune out, Zuffa’s wallet will know and they’ll either change their tune accordingly or lose money.

2. The UFC is an international company.

There’s been talk about the UFC hiring unfit-for-television jobbers lately. It’s true but necessary. The UFC is headed to distant lands where MMA is in its most nascent stages. The talent pool in these places is more like a mud puddle. The UFC has to work with what it’s given in China and Singapore. Deepening foreign talent pools can only happen by growing the sport overseas, and growing the sport overseas can only happen when they have foreign (foreign to us, home grown to them) fighters on the card. And since there aren’t many great foreign fighters, the UFC has to scrape the bottom of a very empty barrel. This results in fighters getting a place in the “Super Bowl of MMA” who shouldn’t even be in the bleachers, let alone on the field.

Furthermore, these fighters — guys like Royston Wee — aren’t meant for us North Americans. The fights on the UFC’s digital network aren’t meant for us either. They’re meant for other markets. It’s fun to take potshots at the UFC for the terrible card quality on the digital network, but it’s a wanking contest. It’s like willfully eating someone else’s dinner and then complaining it wasn’t what you ordered. Zuffa knows we don’t give a fuck about low-level fighters in countries with a non-developed MMA ecosystem. That’s why they’re not airing events packed with those fighters in the US (unless you choose to watch them).

3. Nobody is forcing you to buy every PPV or watch every free card.

If you don’t like a PPV card, don’t buy it and check out the post-event GIFs on the UG r/MMA the next morning.

If you don’t like a Fight Night or TUF Finale card, don’t watch it and check out the post-event GIFs on r/MMA the next morning.

There’s no need to complain about card quality if you’re a fan. Dana White isn’t putting a gun to your head and making you slide out the credit card. Subjection to a watered-down, awful PPV is self-inflicted.

“But I want to watch ALL the fights!” Well, that’s your problem. Free MMA is not a right. Besides, I’m sure you’re the kind of person who’ll find another way to watch the PPV that’s of dubious legality. Ironically, you’re probably the kind of person who complains about fighter pay while stealing from fighters…

4. The UFC is sports entertainment.

There exists a sport that’s pure competition with no entertainment-enhancing aspects to it whatsoever. It’s called amateur wrestling and nobody watches it.

The UFC is not amateur wrestling. The UFC is not a sport; it’s sports entertainment.

There’s no competitive architecture (no, the laughable official UFC rankings — a gimmick to keep non-UFC fighters out of Internet arguments — don’t count). Skill is secondary to star power. The UFC has never been about pitting the two best fighters in the world against one another. It’s been about booking the fights that will draw the most money. This is hardly a novel concept yet so many MMA fans are in ridiculous, quite frankly embarrassing, denial of it. They think that if the UFC is sports entertainment then that somehow makes them as bad as a professional wrestling fan — a “loser” who watches a soap opera meant for prepubescent boys.

No amount of insecurity-fueled rejection can counteract the facts. If the UFC wasn’t sports entertainment, they’d have signed Ben Askren. They’d have never let James Toney, Brock Lesnar, or Kimbo Slice (dis)grace the Octagon. They’d have never given Chael Sonnen, Nick Diaz, or Frankie Edgar title shots coming off losses. They’d have let the fights and fighters shine over obnoxious figurehead Vince McMahon Dana White.

And, of course, there’s the manufactured hype in between fights: “We said all the trash talk just to sell the fight.”

We all watch real fighting with fake, pro-wrestling storylines. It’s called the UFC.

5. The UFC is only 20 years old, they’re not supposed to have their shit together yet.

Whenever the UFC is compared to boxing it’s usually cringeworthy—something like saying two Facebook prelim tomato cans are the MMA equivalents of legendary boxers. One aspect that makes sense to compare, however, is longevity.

Boxing has been a popular sport since time immemorial. The UFC has only been around for 20 years. Yes, MMA in the forms of Pankration and Vale Tudo have been around for a while, but the majority of people don’t know about that and don’t care either; Pankration might as well be a liver disease to them. All they know is “UFC” and boxing. The UFC is new and frightening and weird. People roll around on the floor and cut each other with elbows and knees. They bend each other’s arms the wrong way. Boxing is safe and traditional. Fighters only smash brains into shriveled sponges with punches, so it’s acceptable. This is how people think. Children were even banned from a UFC show in Germany! MMA is still outlawed in New York and use of the cage, MMA’s most recognizable symbol, is banned in parts of Australia.

The UFC, at only 20 years old, has tons of ground to cover, and many issues to sort out. Like an angsty college kid, the UFC is still mapping its future. The path will be littered with both successes and failures.