UFC fans have a negative stigma.. But so should all sports fans

[Brandon Taylor]

I think all sports are the same. If your team is having a bad year they get raked over the coals. In MMA the animosity is more focused and comes off more harsh because it's directed at an individual rather than an entity like a team. In team sports it is rare that one person is solely responsible for a loss. When it does happen that person is headline news for a week. But in MMA it is easy to blame just one person, the one in the cage.

 

[Silvaf]

I'd say you should start studying again. 1500 posts in 5 months?

 

[theblackknight]

Important demographic in combat sports TS, the people who want to see you lose, and will often pay for the opportunity. Floyd Mayweather has a plethora of them, and he makes tons of money off it. If you told him he'd get paid 10 million dollars less a fight but all the 'hating' would stop he probably wouldn't be happy.
Personally prefer not to be negative towards any fighter, but I get the feeling some of these clowns who 'hate' are dropping more of their hard earned dough on MMA than I am...

 

[pclanadmin2]

So it made me wonder. Why is critiquing and bashing of UFC fighters so different? Sports fans of all sports do it but with other sports it's considered completely normal. Why is it with the UFC it's magnified?

for the ufc, i think it's cuz there are no time outs, and nothing hiding the competitors (no helmets, etc) -- so we see them as they are literally giving up -- we see their bruises -- we see what their faces look like when their souls have been taken away by their adversary -- we see them not doing what they have been training for many years to do -- etc -- and they can't like call a time out to talk it over and come up with a better gameplan and to relax and catch their breath. so stuff that pisses us off, just keeps piling on, and piling on right in front of us, and the only thing that can stop it is like someone just tapping or getting ko'd or verbally telling the ref i give up or whatever, which pisses us off even more. fuck, it's infuriating.

for other sports, it's i think cuz we're all so pissed off that they're making such huge salaries. like, for the big 4 in this country for example, the minimum yearly salary is how much surgeons make, guys that have gone to college for 10+ years in order to get to their pay rate and save people's lives at hospitals and shit. and a lot of guys make millions of dollars per year. so when they fuck up or do something that pisses us off, it's infuriating, cuz dude you're getting paid as much as i make per year, just for this game, and you still can't do your job right. fuck, it's infuriating.

 

[SnowBlynd]

I'm in South Florida.

I started at the the Armory under Kurt Pellegrino but he moved to New Jersey. A little while later this kickboxer with no mma fights or experience became my coach at the armory and he is Edson Barboza. Since then I have followed him and Moraes to wherever they teach. Right now it's called valor mma.

That's awesome. I remember the armory back in the day. If I recall Hermes franca was exiled from that place as well as palm beach boxing.

 

[Dontevenguess93]

That's awesome. I remember the armory back in the day. If I recall Hermes franca was exiled from that place as well as palm beach boxing.

Yeah he was. He moved to Oregon and got in some kind of trouble up there.

 

[Goodfella86]

I don't know if we are more sensitive but we do understand the struggles this sport has had to overcome. If you are a post TUF era fan you don't get it. Baseball, Football, and Basketball are all endocrinated sports of American culture just like Soccer is internationally. It's just something that is part of the culture.

MMA is a sport that's very existence was threatened by the government. It had political opposition that lead to it being banned. For the longest time there were only 5 or 6 events a year. So fans that watched MMA through that time have a certain respect for it. Especially those that have evolved with the sport and appreciate where it was and what it has become.

it's true. it's been a long road for mma. any time I see a reference to mma/ufc, I feel a bit of pride. the thrill of acknowledgement still hasn't worn off. I see the UFC on tv and wonder if it's reaching someone new every time. it probably does, too. I always wonder if anybody who paid attention to the "human cockfighting" controversy 20 yrs ago has casually flipped through channels and landed on the perfect fight.

congrats on your sherdog promotion. you post frequently, but the posts are rarely lazy and usually insightful. you're no hack gold belt.

 

[chaoticmayhem]

So I've been on here for a few months to kill time during my semester because classes are way too easy and I was bored. I had no exposure to UFC fans outside of a group of maybe 12 of my friends and I who all trained at the same gym for baby years together. We are not pros but we enjoy fighting and I have trained for a few years with a few UFC fighters and have had nothing but respect for them.

I came here and was very surprised at how negative fans are and I had no idea because I had never seen it. My only concept of commentary watching fights came from my friends and I and the pros that we watch fights with. Among them, there is nothing but mutual respect and positivity. In other words you never hear fighter bashing.

Here is a different story. No matter who wins the main event, every event, you (about 90% of you) guys make a million threads on why the loser sucks or was never good to begin with or is overrated, instead of just saying the other fight fought a good fight. Other times you question their heart, chin, intelligence, and toughness. For many months this bothered me because I consider every pro fighter to have heart especially in the UFC.

At the sports bar the other day though, I noticed a bunch of old dudes talking about baseball and basketball, they had you guys beat in negativity. That denounced players, coaches, strategies, all with reckless abandon and no concept of the idea that they probably knew what they were doing.

So it made me wonder. Why is critiquing and bashing of UFC fighters so different? Sports fans of all sports do it but with other sports it's considered completely normal. Why is it with the UFC it's magnified?

It's human nature to criticize because quite frankly, we are a miserable species for the most part.