These fan-bases you're ashamed of being part of...

I was at an Irish friend's BBQ (old school MMA fan, we started following the sport together around the beginning of PRIDE) yesterday, who went to the UFC McGregor/Mendes event, and of course after a few beers we all started talking about MMA.

He is a big Conor fan, and some of his friends who were there as well (they are MMA fans in general and respect/like Mendes), they had a blast but he told me it was a bit awkward to cheer on him when all the fans presents were so... trashy.

Made me remember when Fedor (one of my 3 fav fighters ever with Shogun and Sakuraba... I'll come back to Shogun later) was undefeated, and some Sherdog posters really embarrassed me (yeah it's not exactly my first account :redface: ) with their not-ironic worshiping - I guess the "McGregor GOAT" stuff is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but there "Fedor is God" posters were dead serious.

"Fedor would beat Tyson in a boxing match"
"Fedor didn't finish Crocop on purpose, he wanted to prove his dominance/make a point by winning a decision"
"Fedor vs Arona wasn't even that close, most of these ignorant haters spreading that rumor don't know how to score a fight"
"Fedor didn't grab the rope against Matt Lindland, why would he need to do that to win that fight in the first place, that myth doesn't even make sense"
(I'm not saying Fedor did it on purpose, that was a reflex, but it did help him get in top position, and yes he most likely would have won the fight anyway but you get my point)

I guess I kind of understand all the Fedor bashing after he lost to Werdum; the bashers probably didn't even dislike him but wanted to shove it in his Sherdog fanatical nuthuggers's asses for all these years of snobbish behavior.

Now about Shogun, it's a different matter... I became a fan during the 2005 PRIDE GP, I was already impressed by his early PRIDE fights and the Rampage beating but the Lil'Nog war was incredible.
And smashing Arona in such a brutal fashion after he demolished poor old Saku, even gouging his cuts when it was totally unnecessary (he had already basically won the fight) + laid-and-prayed Wand in a very frustrating way, it was amazing.

But Mauricio's best weapons were his flying stomps/soccer kicks, so I wasn't that thrilled when he had to go to the UFC... yes he became the champion, beat Lyoto Machida 2 times in a row when he was considered untouchable, but the injuries kept pilling up;

And during his painful decline there was always this loud bunch of delusional sherdog dick-riders who just wouldn't face reality and kept making thread after thread after thread about how Shogun was going to become champ again, how he was still top 3 LHW and
"just wait and see, Shogun will be champ again in 2012... 2013... 2014..."
They finally shut up about it and stopped making tons of threads about how
"Shogun NEVER tapped against Jones, his hand just bumped of the mat!"

(yeah he tapped, how is that shameful? :icon_conf only fat nerds who've never trained a day in their life and live in "kung-fu movies land" think it's a sign of weakness or bullshit like that)

"Shogun got ROBBED against Hendo, he should have won that decision easily!"
(I'm in the "Shogun should have gotten a draw since I counted the last round 10-8, but he didn't win this one")

Before Jones fight:

"Who has Jon Jones beaten? His size advantage doesn't matter, Rua beat Overeem 2x and Cyrille Diabate who was a Muay Thai world champ and was as tall and lanky at Jones didn't pose any problem for Mauricio, he will keep the belt for a long time, mark my words"

After Jones fight:

"It's bullshit, Jones is basically a HW and Shogun is a small LHW who could easily compete at MW, and stop saying he tapped, Shogun-san would never disgrace himself with such shameful display"

______________________

Soooo yeah Fedor and Shogun are 2 of my top 3 favorite fighters in MMA, but co-existing with some of their fans was embarrassing at times.

On a positive note, it was awesome to watch Fedor live against Rogers and Arlovski with fellow fans, I've been to many MMA events but these 2 are still special to me, the Fedor crowd was great, especially at "Affliction II"

So in short, who is you favorite fighter that has many threads made about him by many fellow fans that make you shake your head and think "this is exactly because of this kind of shit that people are bashing him :icon_conf " , or embarrasses you when you watch an event live/watch it in a bar full of "UFC fans"?

RF

 

Conor's. Easy.

 

I'm not ashamed of being a fan of any fighter. I don't care what the other fans are like.

 

What the fuck did i just read

 

Since BJ retired, I'm not longer part of any fan-base.

 

This.

 

It's not about being ashamed of being a fan of a fighter, but being perceived as this or that because you happen to be on a certain bandwagon.

Like, back in the days when I studied in Quebec, a couple of my friends (legit MMA enthusiasts) were huge (educated) BJ Penn fans, but they avoided this topic at the gym because they knew they would be labelled as hysterical GSP haters and delusional people in general.
GSP fans tended to be a tad overzealous during the GSP/Penn II build-up.
But it was different, it was all in good sport, and it was fun to troll Penn fans by saying stuff like "George is going to smash Penn even more easily than the first fight"
(even though we secretly knew their first fight was very close)

It doesn't have to be a huge deal, or a "I don't care what people think of me!", just some facepalm you might have had when you saw threads on Sherdog and though "well that isn't going to help with the stereotype"

I hope I explained it better.

 

I feel ya, 95% of my favorite fighters are retired, and I have trouble getting really enthusiastic about most of the "new guys".
They are just too good in every aspect, well rounded, generic trash-talk, and the new UFC uniforms probably won't help... only a handful have a "unique" style anymore.

Yay for the HW division for the resurgence of some of the guys I started watching at the beginning, being still relevant today.

+ Robbie.

 

It's not so much that, as that I don't feel any common identity with others who are fans of the same fighters. For example, when Anderson got popped you had (and still have) people running in circles around themselves trying to convince everybody and their mother that he was innocent. For my part, it was more a "OK, he took steroids, that's bad for his image, I still like him, let's move on". I do care what others think of me, but I don't feel that what others do reflects on me. I get annoyed when people assume that because I am a fan of fighter W I also think XYZ, but outside of that the "fanbases" are irrelevant to me.

Thanks for the explanation, it makes a better question than what I originally assumed.

 

Exactly this.

 

I hate all fans equally.

 

Not fighters, but the sport of MMA overall.

Honestly, UFC 3 was when I got my introduction to NHB fighting. I estimate roughly 10 of my buddies got it. Our NHB fan group had an ever evolving makeup losing some fans and gaining new ones.

The group I hung with and grew into MMA with peaked around the Chuck-Randy era.
Cro-Cop-Gonzaga is the last event I remember with over 5 fans in our group watching an MMA event. Brock drew four of us.

I am the LAST OF THE MOJICANS! I now have to buy my UFC events by myself for myself to watch by myself.

Talking to the same "buddies" throughout this quarter of a century run as an MMA fans today, have ZERO interest/knowledge or even patience conversing about current MMA. Like I say, of dozens of ex NHB/MMA fighting fans that BOUGHT these events throughout the year, I am the ONLY one that follows MMA in the least.

100% attempting to enter MMA into discussion these days in general gets me a "yeah that was fun when we were kids, You still watch that stuff? Snickers all around.

Of the Corporation that I have worked for for 20 years (7,000 employees at our peak ~ 4,000 today). We had several MMA PRIDE/ UFC fans in Operations. I can honestly say that I have found exactly ZERO co-workers to talk MMA in over 5 years. ZERO!!

What is worse, by co-workers I am met with a sour quizzical look when mentioning MMA.

I guess truth be told, as a true die hard MMA fan, "MMA fans" in general.

Sorry, I DO LOVE SHERDOG, but it does not gain me "status" with my contemporaries unfortunately.

I still can't believe that Chuck and Randy is not mentioned.

That was the biggest "maniac fans" era of my "contemporaries". I am a proud Couture nuthugger to this day and I "infected" some of the group. "Chuck" was the other fighter that had opposing nutthuggers that was SO FUN! Hughes-GSP was the other closely divided intense nuthugging wars of my (ex) groups day.

 

Im ashamed of being on Sherdog.

 

Well thanks for that development, I appreciate it since this thread will most likely die due to lack of responses :icon_sad:
The part I underlined was the kind of stuff I hoped to see here, there are always funny/interesting stories that start like that.

Like when Brock Lesnar made it big in the UFC, if you were a vocal fan you were cataloged "WWE manchild". So, many people liked Brock but only in secret I'd assume.

Nowadays it's mostly the (legit) Ronda & McGregor fans who must facepalm everyday when they read the daily "CONOR GOAT DEAL WITH IT HATERS, ALDO SCARED" and "Ronda would beat [insert random male fighter] no question, but could she do it under 1 min?" thread titles.

I know I did when it was the "Fedor would smash prime Tyson is a boxing match"

farewell, now waiting for the thread to get wastelanded, I must stay on board until the end...

 

Well it is true that when asked about my interests (co-workers, new people I meet, chicks in general, etc), I sometimes "forget" to mention "MMA fan". :icon_neut

I does kinda have a "former WWE fan white trash" stigmata to it.
Oddly, people are always interested when I mention that I (on an amateur level) compete in grappling, boxing and MMA (I quickly explain that's it's a mix of several martial arts and don't expend)

Chicks will give you a weird look if you say you're a "UFC fan" but grappling competitions sound more exotic I guess; and you can explain the basic rules and at parties people will ask you to show them a couple of "cool" submissions to understand the rules

But MMA, yeah... "oh these convicts/felons who fight in a cage with zero rules? I've heard about it, wait this stuff is one of your passions???"

:icon_sad:

 

Anyone who nut-hugs a fighter and constantly defends them annoys me. I keep saying 'you DO NOT KNOW THIS MAN'. He isn't your friend, your training partner, your family member, you've probably never met him. I honestly think a lot of posters feel a part of the 'fighter entourage/camp' by consistently biting on posts against that fighter, or making threads defending them.

I just call a spade a spade. Sure, Im a bigger fan of some fighters than others, much bigger in some cases. But I'll always be rational when posting before and after a fight, unless some clear bullshit happened.

Huge Bisping fan, but when Hendo landed the H-Bomb, I marked out to shit coz it was an INCREDIBLE KO, and I watch fights to be entertained, not to side with certain fighters or get bitter over outcomes.

 

I feel you, my friends' interest in MMA peaked right when I got into it and fell off sharply. On the plus side, my current boss is a big MMA fan and even promoted a few local shows.

 

Nothing interesting comes to mind unfortunately, just a few posters that have assumed that because I like a certain fighter I agree with all the stuff their blind nuthuggers post about them.

 

("Hellsing Abridged" reference, or pure coincidence?)

First part, agreed.

Second part too, when Hendo landed the same H-bomb on Wanderlei (huge fan of him, don't particularly care for Hendo) in their second fight I jumped out of my seat and drunkenly roared.

PRIDE 33 was a bit of a bummer though, with Sokoudjou knocking Lil'Nog out and Hendo H-bombing Wanderlei, my Rogerio/Wand dream match was shattered.

Plus, I am actually friend with a certain guy who was supposed to fight Fujita on this card, but the bout got scraped; then he was supposed to fight Mark Hunt and this match was scraped as well so I ended up not attending it live.

 

I remember hating Hughes. That whole smug country boy thing he had going on got under my skin for some reason. Needless to say GSP/Hughes 2 was a good night. :icon_chee