Why do people like a fighter so much more when they win a lot?

J

JamesFromATL

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If you think about it, it makes no sense.

The only way to explain it is this. When people like a UFC champion, they don't actually like the person, they just like "the champion". When a new champion comes, they forget about the old one and move on to the new one.
 
you're really on a roll with these shitty threads tonight, bud
 
You seem like you'd be a blast to hang out with.
 
See all sports. This world is full of fair weather fans with no loyalty. There's people on here and their favourite fighters list is literally all the champions.
 
When he joined Sherdog Hulk Brogan had an Anderson Silva icon. I wonder what happened to it.
 
Come on James, you're making people from Atlanta look bad.
 
It's a way that people give themselves some second hand confidence/accomplishment/what-have-you by association. This has been proven in social experiments with team sports. People are more likely to associate themselves with a team when it wins (they use language like "we won tonight") and distance themselves from the team when it loses ("they lost by twenty points").
 
I find the opposite actually. I know a lot of people who liked Jon Jones and Anderson and GSP on their way up, but then after a few title defences turned into wanting to see them get beat.
 
People like to live vicariously through others. By picking the winning side, they themselves are "in the winning team". Dominance always brings fans who are trying to bask in the glory of their chosen champion. This is why people like Jon Jones and Ronda have fans. It's not their great personalities or likable character, people just rather celebrate wins, makes them feel just a tiny bit better. And hypetrains need passengers, UFC is great at selling tickets to those trains. Listening to Rogan tonight should serve as an example of how far they will go in hyping their product.
 
If you're really into the sport and you find a fighter you like, you start to give a shit when they succeed, and you get pissed when they don't. If you make this emotional investment in a fighter/sports team, and they consistently bring you the pissed-off feeling because they lose so much, you're going to want to step back and find someone else to support. Someone who's success makes you happy because we're all living through them vicariously.
You wouldn't hang around a friend that was being a bummer all the time, just because they're funny on occasion.
I support guys win or lose, but that's my take on it.
Call me ridiculous, but I give a shit about fighters I like.
 
psychodad said:
People like to live vicariously through others. By picking the winning side, they themselves are "in the winning team". Dominance always brings fans who are trying to bask in the glory of their chosen champion. This is why people like Jon Jones and Ronda have fans. It's not their great personalities or likable character, people just rather celebrate wins, makes them feel just a tiny bit better. And hypetrains need passengers, UFC is great at selling tickets to those trains. Listening to Rogan tonight should serve as an example of how far they will go in hyping their product.
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I agree but I would say Jon Jones is a bad example. Jon Jones has destroyed some of my favorite fighters and I hate him for it but you can't deny his brilliance inside the ring against other equally good opponents.
 
They live vicariously through the fighter. you don't want to vicariously lose you want to win.
 
WhitebeltXL said:
I find the opposite actually. I know a lot of people who liked Jon Jones and Anderson and GSP on their way up, but then after a few title defences turned into wanting to see them get beat.
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Well, they rode the wave of success and glory by association to it's natural end. Jones turned out to be a dick, Anderson a disrespectful, beaten down roider and GSP started point fighting exclusively.

But there are still a lot of people who are going to go down with the ship because it would be too embarrassing to admit their hero doesn't deserve praise (and them by association). That's when they go all TheComebackKid
 
i have no idea. i'm a jets fan.
 
People like good fighters?
 
I'm a fan of title defense streaks..it's great to someone set records for the that. I wasn't a fan of the person, i.e Jones or Silva.. GSP a little tho, but not at first. With Jones I wanted him to lose to certain fighters, but he kept winning, it was whatever. AS kinda grew on me. I rooted for Liddell and Franklin, even after they lost the titles..Franklin as a person more so than any.Seemed humble and a nice guy.
 
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