MMA fans like bad boy antics

koa pomaikai

Orange Belt
@Orange
Joined
Jul 23, 2024
Messages
476
Reaction score
1,301
Bad boy antics seem to make a fighter more popular. Examples of it are clearly when Conor threw that dolly at the bus and even when he punched that old man I’d argue it added to his popularity.

Masvidal’s “two piece and a sofa” assault on Edwards also made him a star. People loved how he mocked and taunted a knocked out Askren as well.

Also, look at Diaz, people loved him for flipping people off and throwing around Stockton and acting like the bad boy.

The biggest stars have all been bad boys. What is it about fighters that people like to see them do bad boy things like assault?

Cormier said it best when people were cheering Jones who hit a pregnant lady, did cocaine, sandblasted hookers, and booed Cormier.



I mean fans are so obsessed with bad boys, we even made the baddest MF belt. Kinda weird TBE.
 
  • Anderson not a bad boy
  • Alex P not a bad boy
  • Diaz bros always demonstrated good sportsmanship post fight, especially after brutal finishes.

Covington and Masvidal has a "schtick" that really did not fill up the seats with the exception of one or two events.

I don't see much correlation of Bad Boys bringing the Bag. Conor is a unicorn and most of his violent and absurd antics were after he had relinquished his belts....
 
I agree, but it doesnt seem to work well with the smaller weight classes
 
Nope. 2 guys that are all class. Yes, acting like an asshole can make you popular, but some fighters let their fighting speak for them.

 
Its grown men climbing into a cage to punch each other in the face for money and us fans enjoy hooting and hollering at the violent bloodlust of these barbarians, stop trying to act fancy and condescending about it cause youre lowest common denominator just like the rest of us
 
Nope. 2 guys that are all class. Yes, acting like an asshole can make you popular, but some fighters let their fighting speak for them.



Fedor is a legend of the sport but he’s not a star. GSP is the pinnacle of making it as a nice guy in mma and even still, he’s widely remembered for that one time he talked smack against Matt Hughes.
 
Fedor is a legend of the sport but he’s not a star. GSP is the pinnacle of making it as a nice guy in mma and even still, he’s widely remembered for that one time he talked smack against Matt Hughes.
You do realize that in the GOAT thread that was pinned on Sherdog that he was the clear #1, right? There have been loads of endless GSP threads on Sherdog, and few of them even mention the Matt Hughes thing. That is WAY far away from that being what he is "widely" remembered for. That would be his GOAT status and long career.

Fedor was a star in other countries, he was only not as well known here because that was the early and less popular (in the US) time for MMA. He would absolutely be a star if he were that dominant today in the UFC.
 
You do realize that in the GOAT thread that was pinned on Sherdog that he was the clear #1, right? There have been loads of endless GSP threads on Sherdog, and few of them even mention the Matt Hughes thing. That is WAY far away from that being what he is "widely" remembered for. That would be his GOAT status and long career.

Fedor was a star in other countries, he was only not as well known here because that was the early and less popular (in the US) time for MMA. He would absolutely be a star if he were that dominant today in the UFC.

Fedor would never break 1 million PPV buys. GSP comes close. They are not on the same level in popularity as the bad boys of MMA, despite being better fighters.
 
  • Anderson not a bad boy
  • Alex P not a bad boy
  • Diaz bros always demonstrated good sportsmanship post fight, especially after brutal finishes.

Covington and Masvidal has a "schtick" that really did not fill up the seats with the exception of one or two events.

I don't see much correlation of Bad Boys bringing the Bag. Conor is a unicorn and most of his violent and absurd antics were after he had relinquished his belts....

We made a bad boy belt though for how much bad boys bring the bag.
 
I wouldnt say its necessarily that people like bad boys, its more that controversy and someone being larger than life gets people invested and attracts attention. Thats not exclusive to MMA either.

MMA fans are mainly the kids that got bullied vicariously living through tough guys. They're also mainly brainrot right wingers who get hard over 'real' men.

MMA fans also seem to hate MMA and other MMA fans.
 
Fedor would never break 1 million PPV buys. GSP comes close. They are not on the same level in popularity as the bad boys of MMA, despite being better fighters.
You couldn't be more wrong. Dana White himself called GSP the top draw many times when he was fighting. Fedor would ABSOLUELY break one million now if he were as dominant as he was back in the day but was in the UFC today.

Anderson is also not really a bad boy.

All told, the four events boasting St-Pierre and Silva combined to sell 3.16 million pay-per-views last year. The rest of the UFC’s 2013 offerings? All nine of them? They combined for 2.92 million.

 
I always hated that kind of shit. Nothing wrong with fighters having bad blood but the constant, flamboyant BS that the leprechauns gobbled up from Conor was so stupid..
 
You couldn't be more wrong. Dana White himself called GSP the top draw many times when he was fighting. Fedor would ABSOLUELY break one million now if he were as dominant as he was back in the day but was in the UFC today.

Anderson is also not really a bad boy.

All told, the four events boasting St-Pierre and Silva combined to sell 3.16 million pay-per-views last year. The rest of the UFC’s 2013 offerings? All nine of them? They combined for 2.92 million.


Still not more popular than Diaz, Masvidal, or Conor. You can get popular by being the best fighter but you can’t get that popular. Silva and GSP aren’t even on Lesnar or Rousey level of popularity.
 
Not sure why it's weird? Can you explain?
 
No, people don't seem to like it. They certainly like to talk about it.
 
Back
Top