Here’s an interesting piece that ties together cases of mixed martial arts fighters who’ve been involved in, er – extracurricular violence. I’m not sure if they’re suggestive of a trend. Where a sport is dominated by strong young men there’s always going to be a few with less sense than others and the bulk of them would have been just as unpleasant if they’d been quarterbacks, point guards or garbage collecters. There could be a trend, o’ course, but I’d have to see more and better data to be convinced. The more interesting point is that amateurs may pick up tricks, from bits of training or just what they’ve copied from the tele, and use them on hapless combatants in bar brawls and street fights. That drunken punch-ups are typically inconsequential is down to what rotten brawlers yer average meatheads will be. If they could strap on a chokehold they’d be more dangerous prospects. I see that as being true of thoughtless, spontaneous tussles, though. The thugs and thieves who plot their violence can endanger lives without the slightest training and, indeed, whatever shape they’re in. It only takes a pocket knife.
September 15, 2011
September 15, 2011 at 9:33 am
I think you’re right to be sceptical of any serious link between MMA and violent crime, but there’s clearly going to be a public perception issue, and I think that’s partly a problem of MMA’s own making. By “MMA”, in this case, I pretty much mean “The UFC.”
Briefly, the ZUFFA has done an astonishingly successful job of marketing MMA over the past eight, but it’s whole campaign has relied pretty heavily on making it about personality – presenting fighters as players, talking up personal rivalries, etc. etc. You see this sort of thing really clearly in The Ultimate Fighter. Being an engaging character – which for these purposes often means being the sort of loud, irritating sociopath who’s likely to get drunk and set his house-mate’s hair on fire – seems to count for at least as much as actual technical skills.
You can’t really blame them for this – the working model for reality TV seems to be something like bear-baiting, but with arseholes instead of bears. But given that TUF was the UFC’s break-out moment – the thing that really got MMA into the public’s mind – I don’t think they can credibly look surprised when the general public starts to associate training in MMA with childish sociopaths. Whether this means that more childish sociopaths hear about MMA and think “Found my sport” is an open question, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
Slight retraction: This is not to say that only arseholes make it onto TUF. In fact I’d like to plug the fact that Paul McVeigh wil be on this season’s TUF,is a good fighter and a spectacularly amusing guy. If he was somehow ordained as the public face of MMA, we wouldn’t have a public perception problem (or perhaps we’d have a very different one).
September 15, 2011 at 9:38 am
Also, I’m not really blameless here. I’m a massive fan of Nick Diaz – who has achieved a level of MA arseholery that most others can only aspire to – and a little bit of that is because he is so obviously an actual sociopath.
Same for Shinya Aoki.
September 15, 2011 at 11:27 am
Yeah, it gets ridiculous when guys like Josh Kosheck admit to “playing the bad guy”. To some extent I think soap opera-esque stylings are an inevitable – and, at times, fun – part of combat sports – I guess Ali/Frasier is the best example – but if that’s emphasised too much you get people who don’t just express their personality but manufacture one from whole cloth. And that’s quite unhealthy (and, indeed, irritating – when I want made-up stuff I watch pro wrestling gawdamnit.)
I like Diaz too. (More so since I found his YouTube channel and found that it was stuffed with Radiohead videos.) I don’t know the extent to which his anti-social antics are a put on but if they are they’ve lost him a lot of money.
It’s a fair concern. Things like jiu-jitsu and karate have been accompanied by notions of respect and honour. (Heck, I remember being ten and thinking that the latter sounded dull because you weren’t allowed to use it in real life.) I imagine MMA is past the point where they could start philosophising to their audience.
September 15, 2011 at 12:30 pm
I found his YouTube channel and found that it was stuffed with Radiohead videos
That is the most awesome thing I have heard all day.
I imagine MMA is past the point where they could start philosophising to their audience.
Possibly not, but I wonder if it might not help a little if ZUFFA had less of a monopoly on the public perception of MMA. I think it’s fair to say that they came into the sport with a very good idea of what their target demographic was – essentially young guys who thought that 300 was the Most Awesome Film Ever – and built a business around that. You can’t really fault them for this – it’s clearly worked – but it means they’ve made a lot of choices in order to pander to that audience (hyping fights in a certain way, rules that favour wrestlers over submission artists, very luke-warm on women’s MMA, etc.) that have affected the sport as a whole. It’s made MMA bigger, but in some ways more of a monoculture.
September 15, 2011 at 12:44 pm
That is the most awesome thing I have heard all day.
Srsly, the guy has taste. (That’s not the mark of a good fighter, perhaps. Wouldn’t like to see Thom Yorke in the octagon.)
Possibly not, but I wonder if it might not help a little if ZUFFA had less of a monopoly on the public perception of MMA.
Very true. I doubt its popularity can be sustained without more competition. Pro wrestling only flourished like it did because WWE, WCW and ECW were bouncing off eachother.