Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.

For those who have not read Danny Acosta’s well researched article on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), or Cannon Jacques’ follow-up commentary, I highly recommend both. At the heart of Acosta’s thesis lies the question, “Since ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ has entrenched itself as an institution, producers must decide what course it takes. Is it a factory for future champions like (Forrest) Griffin, or is it a haven for the kind of drunken, juvenile behavior (Junie) Browning exhibited?” As TUF’s ongoing trajectory illustrates, TUF producers appear to be searching for the latter.

Much has been written about the availability of alcohol on the show and its contributions to excessively immature behavior. As early as TUF’s first installment, we saw alcohol intensify conflicts between Chris Leben and Josh Koscheck & Bobby Southworth. In additional TUF 1 episodes, other participants were shown getting sloppy drunk and engaging in expectable behaviors. Since the TUF 1 experiment, alcohol’s availability has never appeared to diminish, suggesting that athletic development is not one of TUF’s primary objectives.

An institution trying to prove itself as a legitimate sport and deserving of mainstream sporting status would not normally market itself as one that facilitates its athletes in getting drunk, often times dangerously drunk. Not only is TUF a platform for the UFC used to hype future fight cards, but the UFC also heralds TUF as a building block for its athletic pool. True, other professional sports leagues have problems with athletes and alcohol consumption (among other things), but we do not see other accepted professional sports in our society assisting so overtly in athletes' alcohol consumption over healthy lifestyles.

If in fact the UFC wants MMA to be accepted as sport, it would push its future athletes to behave in ways that build athleticism and create an environment conducive to athletic excellence. Instead, the UFC and TUF producers appear to view juvenile behavior, dangerous behavior, and that behavior’s attendant ratings as paramount over the portrayal of MMA as a legitimate sport.

Furthermore, while alcohol’s accessibility is a central and severe problem with TUF, an attendant problem is the way conflict is formally structured into the reality show. Here I am not necessarily referring to the use of two opposing teams whose individual members compete from episode to episode. Those familiar with MMA training know that reliance on supportive teammates is crucial for serious mixed martial artists. Rather, I am referring to the way rivalries are constructed into seasons and the lack of mentorship/guidelines coaches could provide regarding appropriate behavior for an aspiring professional athlete.

Of the eight seasons aired to date, five have had coaches who were slated to subsequently fight each other. Not surprisingly in some of these seasons, the coaches were bitter rivals (Shamrock-Ortiz; Hughes-Serra; Penn-Pulver), and their coaching animosity was vividly evident in multiple episodes. In fact, the coaching conflicts appear to be a bigger focus of the TUF shows than coaches’ guidance in or out of sport. Moreover, with the exception of TUF 4 (The Comeback), a majority of the contestants are not mature men. They are young men, many of whom clearly need guidance beyond simply learning MMA fighting techniques. In turn, viewers witness the ramifications – a hodgepodge of degenerate actions that resemble anything but sport.

Despite TUF’s controversy being hashed out repeatedly over the blogosphere, one cannot help but wonder what lies ahead. In addition to a poor precedent being set with Junie Browning’s behaviors rewarded, Season 9 will have the winner of Dan Henderson versus Rich Franklin coach a U.S. team against Michael Bisping’s team of fighters from the United Kingdom. Thus, on top of having coaches on board who will fight each other (albeit who hold no known animosity), the opposing teams will represent different countries, thereby constructing a nationally-based rivalry. Clearly, Spike TV’s TUF producers are looking for ways to embed more conflict into the series, which compound with alcohol’s accessibility can only result in MMA being depicted at best as a fringe sport with marginal legitimacy. What alcohol laden conflictual arrangement will they think of next?

In the end, the UFC’s trademark outreach tool may entice certain viewers and build the organization’s popularity among a tremendously narrow demographic. However, TUF’s production strategies are more regressive than progressive when it comes to mainstreaming MMA, legitimizing MMA’s sporting status, and capturing a broader fan base that could help the sport thrive during these ominous economic times.

David Mayeda, PhD, is lead author of Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society

Promoted from the FanPosts by Kid Nate.

Although the headline of this blog focuses on a negative dimension of last night’s UFC fight card, I thought overall, the card was really great. With regard to the fights, Swick’s speedy disposal of Goulet and Koscheck’s dramatic knockout of Yoshida were extremely impressive. And despite Brandon Wolff being a local Hawaii fighter, I have to give it up to Ben Saunders – what a spectacular display of the clinch.

Most importantly, I thought the UFC’s production for their cause to fund the development of a research center for traumatic brain injuries was very well done. I’ve never supported the war in Iraq, but one cannot deny the need for research and services that benefit fallen soldiers.

For better or worse, my shtick tends to be noting social concerns in MMA and providing my attendant political perspectives. The one thing that did bother me about last night’s "Fight for the Troops" was the negative welcoming (i.e., booing) directed towards main event fighter and Japanese national, Yoshiyuki Yoshida.

It is common knowledge among hardcore MMA fans that American Kickboxing Academy welterweight, Josh Koscheck, is not normally a fan favorite. At the weigh-ins for his fight against Thiago Alves, Koscheck was the fighter being booed. Now pitted against a Japanese national at an event that clearly had a backdrop of emphasized American patriotism, all of a sudden Koscheck became the fan favorite.

This is not 1882, during a time when America was ensconced in a discriminatory hysteria of "Yellow Peril." This is not 1941-42, when America decided to incarcerate approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans along the American West Coast out of racist fear that they would sabotage our country. This is not even the 1980s when the America was so threatened by Japan’s auto industry that Asian Americans were targets of the most severe racial discrimination in cities reliant on car production.

Had Koscheck’s sudden support and Yoshida’s booing fallen under those types of contexts, the fans’ behavior, while deplorable, would have at least been understandable – a sign of the times when anti-Asian racism was more overt. However, in this context, there was literally no reason to boo Yoshida. His pre-fight comments could not have been more respectful. At "worst," his comments exemplified confidence, but what professional athlete shouldn’t have confidence going into a competition? Furthermore, our country is not in any type of conflict with Japan.*

This notwithstanding, in this militaristic and patriotic fight context, the Japanese national was still turned into the bad guy to such a degree that Koscheck, a fighter who fans usually love to hate, became the overwhelming fan favorite. As a Japanese American, whose father served in the United States navy, I take exception to this personally. And on a broader social level, it is bothersome to know that simply because an athlete is from anther country, he or she may still be booed in 2008.

Undoubtedly, some readers will get through this post, roll their eyes, and think that I am some hypersensitive liberal, fixated on something completely inconsequential. To this, I have a few comments. The fact that virtually nobody in the MMA media addresses race is astounding (although there are exceptions). Even UFC President, Dana White, readily admits that the UFC fan base is overwhelmingly Caucasian (listen to the tail end of Colin Cowherd’s ESPN radio interview with Dana White from Dec. 9, 2008, the "noon" segment found HERE). Among sports sociologists like myself and mainstream sports media, race is a controversial, but fairly common topic of discussion. But in MMA, for whatever reasons, race is darn near taboo, and that in itself is a problem.

There are bigger problems in our world, and there are probably bigger problems in MMA. However, when an athlete is booed simply because he or she is Japanese (or any other nationality/ethnicity) this cannot be completely dismissed, trivialized, or laughed upon. If it is, what does that say about the mixed martial arts industry and us as a fan base?

David Mayeda, PhD, is lead author of Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society

* This is not to argue that if our country is in conflict with another, that serves as justification to discriminate against a fighter from such and such country. If, for example, Koscheck was taking on a mixed martial artist from Iraq, the Iraqi fighter’s nationality would be no reason to boo him. Under our current global circumstances, it would simply be more understandable, though equally regrettable.

Promoted by Kid Nate.

I was boycotting TUF this season. Prior to last night, the most I'd seen of any TUF 8 episode was one or two of Phillipe Nover's fights. However, after watching Miguel Torres dissect Manny Tapia, I was drawn into watching TUF, intrigued by a commercial showing Junie Browning throw a glass at another contestant.

Based on Nevada's Revised Statutes, Junie Browning's actions warranted an arrest, likely for a misdemeanor assault or at the least for terroristic threatening. Instead of booting Junie from the show, Dana White asked the other contestants if Junie should be expelled or fight Efrain Escudero as a kind of punishment under the presumption that Escudero would win given Browning's insecurities. Honestly, was anybody surprised that the fighters decisively chose to have Browning remain on the show and face his fears by competing?

As we now know, Browning lost. However, his loss did not represent justice by any means. His loss was convenient. The fact that Browning was allowed to fight at all was an injustice to MMA and hypocritical. The UFC and Dana White have done a great deal to legitimize MMA as a sport and disassociate it from street violence. But on episode 12 of TUF 8, MMA was turned into an arbitrating institution for non-sporting violence.

Rather than expel Browning from the show, as Dana White said should have been done three times, sanctioned mixed martial arts competition was used as a means to settle a violent non-sporting conflict. Not only had Browning just committed a violent offense, but he and his opponent (Efrain Escudero) apparently also had a strong disliking for each other. Hence the solution? - Throw 'em in the cage.

I suppose this makes for good ratings. Heck, the commercial finally got me to watch a full episode of this season of TUF. But what message is the UFC - the world's premier MMA organization - sending about sanctioned mixed martial arts? That one of its functions is to solve street violence?

MMA is evolving; we just witnessed its positive evolution via the great mainstream sports media coverage of UFC 91. Why bring the sport back down by turning it into an institution that manipulates our concept of justice?

David Mayeda, PhD, is lead author of Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

Good morning from the Aloha State (may be afternoon where you are, but not here).  I just read through Luke Thomas' post, "Why Any Mature or Reasonable Person  Doesn't Enjoy "The Ultimate Fighter 8" and its subsequent comments.  Personally, I stopped watching TUF this season precisely because of the in-house antics.  I was on the fence in season 5 after the two contestants got into a legitimate fight by the campfire and the other bystanders either encouraged it or did nothing to stop it. Now, I simply read the TUF blogs across the internet and shake my head when I read about behavior that aired last night.

First off, what follows is long, way too long for a typical internet blog entry, so if you don't want to read the whole thing, I completely understand.  It's a portion from a chapter in my book which addresses media portrayals on MMA fighters with a major focus on TUF.  The contents obviously have my own spin, but are also heavily influenced by my interviews with TUF contestants like Chris Leben, Anthony Torres, Travis Lutter, and coach Randy Couture, as well as interviews with non-TUF MMA fighters (e.g., Guy Mezger, Dan Henderson, Tony Fryklund) and hobbyists about TUF. Bottom line, I argue TUF - the single most important media outreach source for MMA that introduced the sport to the mainstream - simultaneously perpetuates deletereous stereotypes of MMA fighters and in the end stymies the sport's growth. Enjoy or hate...

Continue reading this post »

Fronted by Kid Nate. Flattered to have you posting here Dr. Mayeda!

When I interviewed "Rampage" Jackson back in 2006, he said of boxing and MMA:

I think the boxing community is player hatin’ on us ‘cause you have the athletic commission, it’s often called the boxing commission, and they’re over MMA too. So I think we’re getting player hated on a little bit ‘cause we’re comin’ up and they’re goin’ down. Right now all the heavyweight champions are Russian, except for one, and it’s bad for boxing right now. In America, boxing is going down fast, and mixed martial arts is goin’ up fast. So people can’t just be happy for each other and work together.

"Rampage’s" point regarding the international flavor that now characterizes many of boxing’s top athletes illustrates the separate directions in which the two sports are moving. Like boxing, MMA has an enormous number of mixed martial artists not from the United States. However, American MMA fans have embraced some of those from foreign soil, such as Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, and even Mirco Filipovic not too long ago. On the contrary, how many American fans get behind the likes of Manny Pacquiao or Wladimir Klitshko? More to the point, how many mainstream American sports fan even recognize those latter names?

Historically, boxing’s fan base has been immensely diverse in terms of socio-economic status. Boxing has always had its upper-class fans who reveled in watching minorities of color bash each other into oblivion. But boxers of the past also stood for working- and lower-class communities and symbolically represented those communities’ needs. Over the decades, this influenced urban youth of color prior to the 21st century to identify (often times politically) with Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Oscar De La Hoya. On the contrary, MMA’s development was much more sudden and immediately took on an international identity when Royce Gracie dominated the UFC in the mid- to late-1990s.

Yet when the UFC began attaining mainstream sporting status as a result of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) in 2005, many of the champions who built the organization at that time came from wrestling backgrounds – a sport whose demographics tend to be much more white and middle-class. Just look at the first four coaches on TUF. Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, and Matt Hughes were the UFC poster-boys, all of whom came from strong wrestling backgrounds. Likewise, Rich Franklin was heavily marketed as a proud UFC representative, commonly celebrated as a high school math teacher with a masters degree. None of these heroes who took MMA into the sporting mainstream represented urban America, and certainly not communities of color.

In turn, MMA has had difficulty reaching America’s urban demographic, which boxing captured for decades. In most working-class, urban communities across the United States, it is still easy to find boxing gyms where memberships are not terribly expensive. Locating a pure boxing gym in an upper-middle class American neighborhood is virtually impossible. In comparison, MMA gyms are popping up all across American suburbia, and it is not uncommon for monthly membership costs to exceed $200 if one wants to learn the multiple fighting disciplines that comprise MMA.

Said MMA veteran fighter Antonio McKee, who owns and operates The Body Shop Fitness in Lakewood, California in a personal interview, "There are very few African Americans who own their own gyms and who reach out to kids from the inner city. We’re gonna see more African Americans and fighters of African descent dominating in MMA, like "Rampage," Anderson Silva, and Yves Edwards, but because the gyms aren’t bringing in the kids from ghetto, it’s gonna take longer for MMA to have a big urban fan base."

The real key to building a truly diverse fan base and assemblage of fighters over time lies at the grass roots levels through the gyms. Tiger Woods has not built an extensive African American fan base for golf because golf is still an inaccessible sport for most African American communities, or working-class communities irrespective of race. Let’s face it, golf’s general demographics have not changed to the degree people thought they would after Tiger stormed onto the golf scene back in the late 1990s. The same is true for tennis – Venus and Serina Williams and James Blake have not stimulated an enthusiastic wave of young African American athletes who now try to break into tennis.

The National Basketball Association is popular among multiple socio-economic and ethnically diverse communities not only because it is an exciting sport, but also because youth from numerous demographics play basketball and remain fans into adulthood. As Antonio McKee suggests, if MMA gyms do not begin increasing their outreach efforts to urban communities and make MMA training programs affordable to all families, MMA will remain a sport whose fan base and fighters are disproportionately Caucasian and upper class.

David Mayeda, PhD is author of the book, Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

MMA 808: INSIDE HAWAII'S FIGHT GAME (Documentary)

URL to see the documentary in its entirety - http://pacificnetwork.tv/mma-808.asp

Aloha members of Bloody Elbow,

For the past six months, I have been working with PacificNetwork.tv to create a documentary on MMA in Hawaii.  Titled "MMA 808: Inside Hawaii's Fight Game," our one hour documentary takes a behind the scenes look at Hawaii's mixed martial arts industry. 

"MMA 808" tracks amateur MMA fighter, Steven Saito, into his first full MMA match, mentored by Chris Leben and Travis Ewing.  It follows the 42 year old Egan Inoue and his family through Inoue's come-back match with Hans Marerro, a competitor 20 years Inoue's junior.  And it showcases the story of B.J. Penn and his family as they built their family gym in Hilo, Hawaii. 

In addition, "MMA 808" pays significant attention to women in the sport, youth in MMA, the pros and cons of regulation, MMA's influence on street/internet violence, and civic responsibility.  Also included are exclusive interviews with UFC President, Dana White, and ESPN's Jon Anik of MMA Live.  It was a lot to pack into one hour! 

We hope this documentary pushes the MMA industry in some positive directions, not only in Hawaii, but internationally.  Feel free to write me here for questions and comments (feedback is greatly appreciated).  Thanks to Luke Thomas, BloodyElbow.com Editor in Chief, for your help and support.  Also of note, this documentary preempted the entire broadcast of the CBS 10:00pm news across the entire state of Hawaii this past Saturday night.  Yes, we canceled the news!  Kind of crazy...

David T. Mayeda, PhD

URL to see the documentary in its entirety - http://pacificnetwork.tv/mma-808.asp

YouTube Preview:

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOD SPORT OR MISUNDERSTOOD?

MMA 808 - Inside Hawaii’s Fight Game

Mixed martial arts… MMA.  The fastest growing sport in the world and Hawaii is home to some of its most elite players: BJ Penn, Chris Leben, Egan Inoue and Kendall Grove.

In a one-hour televised special, award-winning filmmaker and Executive Producer, Edgy Lee, in collaboration with co-writer, David Mayeda, PhD, author of “Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society,” and co-director Johann Bouit, present…"MMA 808 - Inside Hawaii's Fight Game", a behind-the-scenes look at MMA featuring rare interviews with BJ Penn, Chris Leben, Egan Inoue; actor, Jason Scott Lee, ESPN’s Jon Anik, President of the UFC, Dana White, and many more.

Clearly, MMA’s evolution in Hawaii is complex and sparks high emotions of support and resistance.  This program asks us to examine our tolerance for violence as entertainment.

If mixed martial arts is the fastest growing sport in the world and clearly a potential revenue pathway for west coast and Asian fans, who will step up?  Government? Promoters? Coaches? Players?  Fans? Who will step up and take responsibility for MMA’s impact on this and the next generation?

MMA 808, Inside Hawaii’s Fight Game addresses these provocative issues.

MMA 808 Broadcast information:

KGMB 9 Hawaii, Saturday October 4th @ 10pm (immediately following CBS’ EliteXC MMA event)  and PacificNetwork.tv  (global platform) October 5th through 2008.