The Great Divide: The Difference in Knowledge Between Hardcore Fans and the MMA Media
by Brian Mayes on May 14, 2010 10:06 PM EDT
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PrintHow many times during your day to day life have you seen someone doing their job and said to yourself, "You know, I could do that a whole lot better than they could?"
Such is the life of the hardcore MMA fan.
The criminally underrated Jonathan Snowden takes a look at how in many ways, MMA fans are more knowledgeable than some in the MMA media in his piece The Media Divide: The Knowledge Gap Between MMA Journalists and Fans :
It wasn't that many years ago that following the sport of MMA was arduous and ludicrously difficult. Fights simply weren't available to most people. The UFC wasn't on PPV for most cable subscribers, there was no Youtube for Indy fights, and fights from Japan had to be shipped on VHS from, well, Japan. This resulted in something interesting: the MMA fans that followed the sport closely were hardcore with a capital "H." Ridiculously so. You won't find a more knowledgeable and educated fanbase anywhere in the world. And that, more than anything, explains the frustration and disdain many feel for MMA's professional journalists.
The fact is, the knowledge gap between the fans they serve and many journalists is enormous. How many of the reporters that cover the sport, event after event, really know much about the industry and its history? A handful? Ten? In some ways it's handy to see things from an outsiders point of view. After all, it's easy to miss something significant when you are too close to something to step back and see the big picture. Yet continuing ignorance also allows promoters to spin tales and rewrite history in any way they choose.
Mr. Snowden does a great job here of pointing out something that has been blatantly obvious for quite sometime now- your average hardcore MMA fan is going to know more about the sport than your average MMA journalist.
And there’s a reason for that. A lot of hardcore MMA fans have been following the sport for a long time. Take myself for example. By hardcore standards, I’m still a baby in this sport, and I’ve been following it religiously for 5 years now. That’s 5 years of watching fights every single day, from every organization, dating from 1993 onward. 5 years of reading everything I could on the subject, both online and in print form. 5 years of asking questions of those who have been following the sport a lot longer than me (something I still do to this day, and will never stop doing). 5 years of chatting about the sport online and being put in my place repeatedly when wrong, which was a constant occurrence for the first several years, and still happens quite a bit. But that’s how you learn.
Juxtapose that with your average MMA media member. They probably started off covering another sport, most likely boxing, but a lot of times it’s a stick and ball sport. That’s their forte- that’s what they grew up watching, and that’s what they know. But for one reason or another, they got assigned to cover MMA. In most cases, they have never watched MMA before, or have only seen it in passing. At best, they are a "casual fan"- someone who might watch when a mega fight happens, or might stop on Spike when an episode of Unleashed is airing. But they don’t really know the sport.
And so they end up having to jump in with both feet, and start covering a sport they either know next to nothing about, or only a little about. They are literally learning on the fly. So when a certain MMA media member says something like, "Yushin Okami’s key to victory against Rich Franklin is the Muay Thai clinch" or another media member says that Junior Dos Santos has a great ground game because he submitted Mirko Cro Cop, the hardcore fans throw up the BS flag.
The problem here is two fold. We have fans who have an encyclopedic knowledge about the sport, but don’t have the writing chops to express themselves, and we have professional sports writers who don’t have the MMA knowledge to hold the attention of fans. The solution will come in a few years, when younger MMA fans who grew up with the sport start deciding that covering the sport is a worthwhile job. Someone like Jordan Breen is an excellent example- there is a reason this man is the most knowledgeable person on all things MMA at the moment. It’s due to the fact that he started watching MMA when he was still in grade school, and has followed it closely ever since. Now in his early 20’s, we’re lucky enough that he is sharing his knowledge with us.
In five or ten years, when there are more young people like Jordan Breen joining the MMA media, this discussion will no longer be warranted.
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reading everything I could on the subject, both online and in print form
I did that…and still do.
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It’s one of the things that’s required to really learn about the sport.There’s only so much you can gleam from watching fights,though that is the most important thing you can do to expand your knowledge base-watch as many fights as possible.But to learn the background stories of fights and about promotional politics and things of that nature,one must do a fair amount of reading.
It’s one of the things that seperates a hardcore fan from a casual fan.Someone such as myself thinks nothing of spending hours reading the various MMA blogs,or studying fight tape (I’ve been watching a lot of older Overeem bouts this week,for example).Contrast that with someone like my father,who will sit down and watch a really big fight (he watched the Lyoto-Shogun rematch with me,and he’s looking forward to Rampage-Rashad and Lesnar-Carwin) or possibly tune in to a rerun of Unleashed if there is nothing else on.But if you tried to get this man to read a book on MMA history or a fighter’s autobiography,he’d laugh in your face-I know,I’ve tried it before.To him,it’s something that entertains him on occasion,and he takes a moderate interest in it.But for him to actually put some effort into it-such as to read a book on the subject-would take all the fun out of it for him.
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by Brian Mayes on May 15, 2010 12:11 AM EDT up reply actions
I feel you
I dunno…anything that fascinates me…I have to know all that I can about it immediately…like when I first started rhyming…the research I put into different rappers and styles and different ways to rhyme was exhausting…but I became one of the better online text battlers/writers relatively quickly. The same has happened with MMA…once I started..I went all out….my dad watches a fair amount of MMA and even reads a couple of blogs to catch up on the daily news from time to time…
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by Kelvin Hunt on May 15, 2010 12:19 AM EDT up reply actions
I’m the same way.It’s all or nothing when it comes to what I’m interested in.When I was a guitar head as a teenager,all I did was practise playing for hours every day,listen to albums,read about guitars and my favorite guitarists,ect.
Now it’s the same thing with MMA.
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Yeah, I've got to agree
Relatively speaking, I’m also pretty “young” in terms of hardcore-ism, and even at that point I’m not THAT knowledgable. With that being said, I always think there’s a problem when someone in “the media”, a broadcast team or even a person professionally involved in the sport doesn’t know as much as me. This isn’t a case of me trying to be elitist about things because I’m an egghead, this is me acknowledging my shortcomings and saying “if I can do better without getting paid for it, you should do better when you’re earning a salary.” Gus Johnson, I’m looking at you.
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by -Neil- on May 15, 2010 4:10 PM EDT reply actions 4 recs
Exactly.I think a lot of fans feel the exact same way.It’s not like we’re trying to come off as “Oh look,we know more than you do”,it’s more like “Come on guy’s-you’re getting paid to do this.Step it up a little bit.”I don’t think it’s asking too much.If I go to a mechanic,I expect them to know more about my car than I do.If I go to an MMA journalist,I don’t think it’s asking too much that he’s at least on equal footing with me in MMA knowledge-or be a good enough writer so that I just don’t care if I know a bit more than he does.
I’m still at a complete loss for how Franklin McNeil gets paid for his garbage.From what I understand,he’s pretty horrible as a boxing writer as well-I’ve got it on good authority from a well respected MMA figure that there was a lot of talk years ago that McNeil was only being employed at the Newark Star Ledger due to affirmative action and nothing else.His boxing coverage was THAT atrocious,and judging from his work in the MMA field,he hasn’t improved much.
And this man gets paid a living wage to put out this garbage,while you have brilliant MMA minds toiling in obscurity on random MMA forums.Most would do McNeil’s job for free,just for the chance to rub shoulder’s with some MMA royalty and the occasional free lunch.
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Brian your post was brought to life last nite on the Strikeforce show.
If Russia attacked Turkey from the rear, Do you think Greece would help?
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this is me acknowledging my shortcomings and saying "if I can do better without getting paid for it, you should do better when you’re earning a salary
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indeed
"Be yourself, don't take anyone's shit, and never let them take you alive." ~ George Way
by RearNakedPoke on May 17, 2010 4:40 AM EDT up reply actions
the history of the sport is the fan's strength
Much like the movie “When We Were Kings” chronicling the build-up of the fight “Rumble in the Jungle” between Ali and Foreman.. the hardcore fan has that in-depth knowledge behind the scenes, a knowledge of the past.
It is easy to watch a fight and take it for face value.. but the hardcore fan has the background to see Tito Ortiz beating Bohlander.. then Metzger and flipping off Ken.. then putting 2 + 2 together and seeing the significance of the Frank Shamrock v Tito fight.
The rivalries and the backstory are the backbones of the sport.
Even now.. the team thing and Gracie mystique isn’t what it used to be. There were rivalries back in the 90s unlike the team rivalries of today. The Lutre Livre vs BJJ.. or wrestlers vs GJJ. Hammer House, Lions Den, BHJJ, the Gracie train.
The average journalist gets lost on the technicalities of the moves and holds but they also don’t have the concept of the history and rivalries which brings a greater depth to the sport which is what the true fan relishes.
MMA fans are like the Raider Nation of the sport. They will go to every fight.. back their favorites.. and win or lose they will come back again next week for more.
by Alex Antonowitsch on May 18, 2010 5:11 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
FWIW,“When We Were Kings” relied mostly on jounalists who knew absolutley nothing about boxing-Norman Mailer and George Plimpton.Both men loved Muhammad Ali as a character and political figure,and what he did in the ring meant next to nothing to them.Plimpton knew so little about boxing that when Ali started laying on the ropes against Foreman,he honestly thought the man was taking a dive,and started screaming about it from press row.
Mailer’s man crush on Ali was one of the worst in journalism history.Reading “The Fight” made me convinced that Mailer probably would have given Ali a BJ if he thought Ali was down for it.He was that enamored with the man.And it had absolutley NOTHING to do with his skill as a boxer.Mailer knew nothing about boxing,and watched very little of it.He had seen exactly one of Foreman’s fights leading into the Rumble in The Jungle-that’s how big of a boxing fan he was.He thought Ali was great press,and some sort of political and social figure head,and that’s why he loved him.
Mailer and Plimpton were the equivelent of today’s Iole and McNeil,just more opinionated and much better spoken.To be honest,they probably knew less about boxing (as a sport) than Iole or McNeil know about MMA.Plimpton and Mailer could tell you about how grand Ali was and what a mangy dog Foreman was,but they couldn’t describe in ring action worth a damn,because they couldn’t comprehend it.It was just two guys swinging punches to them.The deepest commentary Mailer could get is “well,Ali was throwing right hand leads”,which he had to ask Ali’s trainer about.He didn’t even know what that was.Every punch Ali threw in that fight was a “right hand lead” according to Mailer.
Those two illustrate perfectly what I was talking about in my peice.They should have stuck to writing what they knew,instead of covering something they didn’t.Or did what Hunter S. Thompson did,and pass out at the hotel swimming pool while the fight was going on.That man knew how to enjoy a fight!
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by Brian Mayes on May 18, 2010 10:13 PM EDT up reply actions
I would say there are hardcore fans and “hardcore fans”. The latter take in all knowledge about the sport they can, but are later comers, the former are guys who not only saw alot of the older MMA events when they were current, and understood the standings of old during the times when they were the present, but alot of them actually train alot as well.
The media, from what I have seen generally are not guys who see events outside the biggest (UFC) and certainly, by no means do those guys actually train. They wouldnt know a guillotine from a peruvian necktie from an anaconda. That is one thing that does irritate me from time to time, the medias real lack of technical knowledge; but than again NC is a state where we have judges who think having someone on top of you in your guard is not really any different than being mounted.
So to be honest, I would prefer the refs and judges were required to train, and often, to maintain their license’s. Media will eventually get there, but alot of the “hardcore” fans dont train either, and are simply regurgitating info in many cases, and when watching certain fights have no idea as to some of the more technical issues (unless Rogan is nice enough to explain the struggle that is going on).
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