MMA HQ – Mixed Martial Arts News and Analysis

I’ll admit it. I’m really not much of a team sports fan. I’m not sure whether this puts me in the minority amongst MMA enthusiasts or not, but I’ve never really followed anything but individual sports. I have a cursory knowledge of fantasy football obtained through eavesdropping on the conversations of others, and I’ve glanced at basketball games if they happen to be on. Heck, I even deliberately went to a baseball game with my boyfriend once since I’d bought tickets as a present and figured attending was part of the deal. I found the experience somewhat pleasant, but only because of the beer, brats and company.

A former worker hell-bent on psychoanalyzing me once determined that my love of combat sports and stark indifference towards team sports has to do with my short attention span. This is evidenced by my preference of basketball over football, football over baseball, MMA over boxing, etc. I do love the fast-paced action in MMA. But sometimes I think the fan’s need to be entertained is a bit much.

If I decided to train for MMA (a scenario which is ridiculously unlikely), I would be training to win. I’d work on my boxing, kickboxing, grappling, wrestling. I’d get with my coaches, look at my opponent and come up with a good game plan–to win. And since MMA is pretty unpredictable, I’d be very aware that things may not go as planned. Even with all the training in the world.

Obviously, I have no evidence with which to back up my armchair speculation. But bear with me for a second. In all areas in which I’ve faced competition, I’ve tried my best to overcome my weaknesses and leverage my strengths. This is the same strategy many MMA fighters follow. It just makes sense. But it also elicits a lot of boos from the fans at times, because they too have short attention spans and want to be entertained.

MMA *is* entertainment, and obviously if fans don’t enjoy watching it, they won’t. It’s not like team sports which are on TV for free, and where viewing is dependent on who’s winning and how this plays into an ongoing season. But I wonder what would happen to the sport if fighters only tried to be entertainers.

Although MMA viewers have become far more educated in the sport, casual fans (especially drunk ones) seem to get upset whenever there isn’t constant action. Anything other than a five-second knock-out is too slow. And any time the fight hits the ground, many refs are constantly asking fighters to work even when they are working–trying to gain a dominant position or sink in a submission. Unfortunately, when someone is trying to take your head off and you’re trying to take their head off, efforts are often neutralized. To the untrained eye, this might look like stalling even when it’s not.

I’m not saying that fighters shouldn’t train hard to be explosive, to finish fights. I definitely love watching a quick knockout or submission victory. And I enjoy fast-paced, exciting fights as much as anyone. But even with my short attention span, I recognize that fighters need to be smart about their strategy and leverage their strengths, and that this isn’t always the most thrilling thing to watch. I also know that even the most exciting game plan cannot always be excecuted when attempted against an opponent with a game plan of their own. “Boring” fights notwithstanding, MMA is probably the most exciting, fast-paced sport in the world. And I’m not asking that people stop revelling in the quick wins and action-packed bouts. I just wish that people would recognize that fighters are putting hours and hours of training on the line for what basically amounts to unscripted drama, and they are going for victory. That sometimes this might not go the way that they’d envisioned. That sometimes a choice needs to be made between being flashy and being effective. And I, for one, am okay with the latter.