NOOBS ARE PEOPLE, TOO
Posted on | June 4, 2007 | 1 Comment
LOVE THOSE “TUF NOOBS”
Let me start with this: The Ultimate Fighter TV show is the best thing to ever happen to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.
Pause for the sound of fists banging on keyboards and the echoes of thousands of MMA fans screaming heresy at my proclamation.
Please don’t call me a “TUF NOOB,” which is apparently the biggest insult you can give to an MMA fan. I’ve been an MMA fan since the day I saw a guy with one boxing glove on get his ass handed to him in a cage. I loved Pride as much as everyone, but its all about the UFC now. Zuffa owns everything. Pride as we knew it is over. Deal with it. And please don’t look down on fans that got their start after watching The Ultimate Fighter. Maybe they aren’t as knowledgeable as fight geeks like you and me, us types who pour over the net in search of info on obscure fight cards in Middle America and gossip about fighters’ personal lives. Just be happy they are supporting our sport and not letting their precious consumer dollars go to some mainstream bore like Baseball. Forgive them if they have never heard of Fedor Emelianenko or think that the winner of The Ultimate Fighter is really the ultimate fighter. Give them a while to learn. You were probably a noob at some point too. Not everyone can be as nerdy and all knowing as us.
Ok, back to my original point. The Ultimate Fighter is great for our sport. It shows the casual or non fan the intense training and athleticism that is required to be a successful MMA athlete. In addition, it allows the average guy to relate to the athletes and their lives…something increasingly rare in professional sports. Your average Joe can relate to your average hard working, family man MMA fighter a hell lot more than they can relate to the big ticket stars like Derek Jeter or Lebron James. Your average pro MMA fighter here in the US is still refreshingly normal, with young kids, a day job and a mortgage. A few ‘em get to reach the upper echelon of the sport and make a good buck, but most have to grind it out…and with every new “TUF NOOB,” the payday of those average MMA fighters will get a little bit bigger.
This season of TUF has been a great display of MMA in my not so humble opinion. Yes, there has been some goonish behavior on the show, but what sport doesn’t have athletes that misbehave? The public loves it when athletes misbehave and give us a nice circus to point and laugh at. Drama and hooliganism make money. If Spike/Zuffa didn’t want the guys in the house to misbehave a little bit they wouldn’t be supplying them with a stockpile of beer and tequila.
Was I the only TUF fan that was a little excited to finally see a street fight on the show?
You think if they took a dozen up and comer basketball players and made them share a house stocked with a bunch of booze they wouldn’t end up swinging at each other? I’d bet on it.
Yet some people will see the fight on TUF and use it as evidence towards their moronic belief that MMA is nothing but a bunch of street thugs engaged in “human cock fighting.”
Most of the people who make such a point do so out of pure fear. They are typically involved in the sport of boxing somehow—like Lou Dibella, Bob Arum, and Antonio Tarver—and are terrified at the fact that they have some competition on the block. Take pity on them. They are scared, and their comments are pathetic.
Just point to the PPV revenues and yell “scoreboard!”
Talk soon.