Why is it so common in MMA that people talk about fighters' personal life?

NMcCauley

NMcCauley

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I find it quite surprising. People talk non-stop about private stuff of fighters like Jon Jones, Mike Perry and many others. It's kind of normal that fans do it but you see journalists and even other fighters. Look at DC, the guy cannot stop talking about Jon Jones personal life.

You don't see this in other sports. For instance, in soccer players NEVER talk about other players' life. EVER. Even journalists are very careful when doing it. I don't know, I find it weird. And I don't like it to be honest.
 
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NMcCauley said:
I find it quite surprising. People talk non-stop about private stuff of fighters like Jon Jones, Mike Perry and many others. It's kind of normal that fans do it but you see journalists are even other fighters. Look at DC, the guy cannot stop talking about Jon Jones personal life.

You don't see this in other sports. For instance, in soccer players NEVER talk about other players' life. EVER. Even journalists are very careful when doing it. I don't know, I find it weird. And I don't like it to be honest.
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Well to be fair most of these guys have brought it on themselves.

No one really talks about athletes personal lives but they sure did for Dennis Rodman and OJ Simpson. Certain athletes do things that spark interest. However it’s usually because they do something to enable the fascination in my opinion.
 
Because these are people that we only see fight maybe three or four times a year, so there’s a lot of downtime in between fights. We need something to talk about.

Also, fighters are their own brand, so it’s up to them to really market themselves. It becomes more invasive to their personal lives and they are in the spotlight more compared to other athletes who are in team sports.

A lot of these fighters are head cases as well, so it makes for interesting drama.
 
NMcCauley said:
You don't see this in other sports. For instance, in soccer players NEVER talk about other players' life. EVER. Even journalists are very careful when doing it.
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Are you for real?

This is seriously the biggest load of shit anyone's posted here recently. The entire tabloid, yellow press industry is built on gossip about celebrity and athlete personal lives. I don't follow sports and I've still been subjected to information about which basketball players have dated which fashion models and why they broke up. MMA is bush league compared to other sports. At most, you'll hear surface level stuff about 5-10 names, tops.
 
People like those other sports like Soccer, Basketball, Football for the skills and the team.

In MMA, the primary attraction is towards fighters who talk crap and are dirtbags. A lot of MMA fans are crappy human beings, hence being fans of scumbags like Jones and Conor.
 
Tbh I don’t expect cage fighters to be the most put together. They’re the kind of folks I’d avoid at bars (if I went to bars, I’m more of a George Thorogood type).
 
Many people in put a lot of their personal crap out for others to see. Social media + 24/7 "jounalism".
 
NMcCauley said:
I find it quite surprising. People talk non-stop about private stuff of fighters like Jon Jones, Mike Perry and many others. It's kind of normal that fans do it but you see journalists and even other fighters. Look at DC, the guy cannot stop talking about Jon Jones personal life.

You don't see this in other sports. For instance, in soccer players NEVER talk about other players' life. EVER. Even journalists are very careful when doing it. I don't know, I find it weird. And I don't like it to be honest.
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DC see jon jones face when he closes his eyes at night, the man just cant stop speaking his name.
 
I think the biggest reason is that historically, MMA lends itself to big personalities, and they are the ones that attract attention and interest. Imagine if Conor had the same skills but the personality of your typical "I'll fight anyone the UFC wants me to" prospect. Nobody would care about him, no matter how good his left hand was. Of course, there are plenty of dull and boring personalities, but they're not the ones people want to know about when they're not competing.

I see this as both a pro and a con of the sport. On the one hand, I like that high level MMA fighters are almost expected to be crazy. I remember a few years ago some football player got a $50,000 fine because he said something about a guy he tackled in the game. I can't remember exactly what he said, but it was milquetoast by MMA standards. However, it is a detriment to the sport because I think the stories that get put out about these high-profile fighters make it sound like everyone in MMA is a wife-beating, roided-up nutcase.
 
Your premise is flawed from the outset. People talk about the personal lives of celebrities (that includes athletes in every major sport) daily.

This is just thinly and poorly veiled butthurt over people talking about Jon Jones beating up the mother of his children and getting arrested for the 1,000th time.
 
it's emotional

it can get in the head of the other fighter
it sells fights

and last I checked, the UFC and other leagues offer prizes to fight.
 
That's what we wanna hear as real as it gets but sherdog will flag you for stuff like Aspen Lard virgin eyes
 
How about Simone Biles?

The most notorious and popular athletes get talked about quite a lot. It really isn't any different.

While all sports have troublemakers, the percentage is probably much higher of the most popular or known names in the UFC. There are far more well known names in other sports, and those aren't usually the ones making headlines.

You can bet that if Brady gets drunk and bloodies Gissele in a hotel room that would make a lot of headlines, and noses would be poking into their personal lives a lot. The stars in others sports just mostly don't do that sort of thing.

Jones and Conor are probably the UFC's best sellers at this point, what a couple of clowns to lead a sport. Notoriety is one way of selling fights and making more money, so these guys often make their personal lives fall under the microscope in order to gain the WWE-type fans; that is their choice.
 
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