SB Nation User Blog: dmayeda

If the UFC Wants MMA Recognized as a Sport, "The Ultimate Fighter" Must Change Its Production Strategies

dmayeda — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:25:41 -0000

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

It Took a Japanese National to Turn Josh Koscheck Into a Fan Favorite

dmayeda — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:03:07 -0000

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.

TUF's Controversy Sends Wrong Message About MMA

dmayeda — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:21:27 -0000

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

Perspectives on Media Portrayals and The Ultimate Fighter

dmayeda — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:19:43 -0000

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...

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From Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society (pgs. 219-227)

Something Robert Otani seemed particularly adamant about conveying was that mixed martial artists are a very misunderstood group and that the media did an excellent job in perpetuating this societal misunderstanding:

You gotta do some research before you plaque something, because you see the cage and the way they promote it to the American audience is that’s just what they want, and that’s just entertainment. But when you scratch beneath the surface and look into it, you know these guys…these MMA athletes, a lot of them are great guys, and they’re nice people…. I think it’s just, it’s entertainment. It’s to promote. You see the cage. You see the blood. You see the little gloves and the violence and the brutality of it, but when you look at it, it’s an art, and it’s a sport, and it’s, I really don’t think it’s what it’s cracked up to be as far as that image that’s portrayed by the media.

Like Otani, many of the other men we interviewed felt that the dominant MMA media forces created an inaccurate perception of mixed martial artists. Because the UFC’s reality show The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) was such an instrumental catalyst in sparking MMA’s recent popularity in the United States, we asked interviewees if they felt the reality show was good for the sport. Interviewees generally felt the reality show was great for the sport, because if it was not for TUF, the sport would not have grown as much as it has in the past two years. As Dan Henderson mentioned, "…that’s probably the one biggest thing that has helped the sport the most. You know, obviously there’s been a lot of steady growth along the way, but that pretty much catapulted it into the mainstream." At the same time, a good portion of interviewees had reservations about how the reality show cemented poor images of MMA competitors.

Very quickly, TUF is a UFC-produced reality show in which sixteen aspiring mixed martial artists are divided into two teams, each of which is coached or guided by a premier UFC star. In the first season, the opposing coaches were Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, men who have competed against each other three times in MMA, but hold no animosity towards one another. In some seasons, coaches have been chosen who have personal grudges. In season three, rivals Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz were opposing coaches. In season five, B.J. Penn and Jens Pulver were the two coaches, and in season six, coaches Matt Hughes and Matt Serra opposed one another. In each of these latter three examples, the season culminated with the coaches facing off in an individual MMA match (the Hughes-Serra match is currently pending). In these cases where the two opposing coaches already have a rivalry, drama is clearly constructed into the "reality" show.

TUF takes place each season in Las Vegas. The sixteen participants face off in periodic individual MMA matches, aired weekly on Spike TV. A member of one team faces off against another team member until only two participants remain. Those two finalists face off on a bigger UFC fight card, with the winner earning a lucrative UFC contract. During the competition, all sixteen participants must live in one house. They are not allowed to communicate with their friends or loved ones; neither internet access nor cell phones are allowed. They cannot have reading material other than The Bible. They essentially live MMA day in and day out, only leaving the house to workout at the UFC training facility. We were fortunate to interview Anthony "The Crush" Torres, a participant on season two of TUF. Torres appreciated being on TUF immensely and felt he learned a great deal from it. However, he said the experience also made him appreciate what he had back home, where he said he had more "balance" between training and the other critical facets in his life:

When I was on TUF II, it wasn’t, you know, when you were over there away, cut off from the whole outside world, you realize that, wow we’re over here, we can’t watch TV, we can’t talk to our loved ones, we don’t have our loved ones by us. We’re there for six weeks and when we come home, you appreciate your loved ones. You appreciate everything you have. Your close friends, your family, your training partners. I’ve kept them closer to me since.

In short, like all reality shows, TUF is by no means absolute reality. It was and is reality in some ways (e.g., showing some of the laborious and intricate training approaches mixed martial artists utilize). In other ways, it does not depict the men’s realistic lives, as they are separated from the outside world. Moreover, because the participants are separated from others, they are forced to live during the contest in a bachelor society—a constructed "reality" that historically has never yielded positive outcomes. Interviewee Terrance said of his own experience working on a fishing boat with seven other men for six weeks:

I was on a boat for like six weeks, and tensions were so high with the people in close quarters like that. You have no outlet…. tensions on the boat were really high. There were several cases where guys were close to goin’ like this (knocks his fists together).

On the TUF show, not only were contestants expected to knock fists in formal competition, they were also driven to knock heads in isolated, confined quarters. Still, there is no denying the show’s impact on the MMA industry.

Interviewees knew that TUF (just finishing its sixth season) gripped the minds of young men, women, and children across America and vaulted MMA into conventional, middle-class households. TUF IV winner Travis Lutter said to us, "…it’s bringing in the mainstream public to the sport." Talk about mainstream public—Paul Halme mentioned how his mother still has reservations of MMA, but nonetheless became somewhat of a fan as a result of watching Lutter progress on TUF IV: "My mom doesn’t like it, thinks it’s too violent, but she’s a huge fan of Travis’s and watches him, you know, all the time on TV."

Other interviewees also noticed that because of TUF, the most unlikely MMA fans are now surfacing. Chris Onzuka explained how TUF has completely revamped MMA’s demographic fan-base.

…The Ultimate Fighter show is just a perfect example of how huge this can get. [In the past, MMA] was kind of a very clicky thing, where you had to be kind of a freak to get into it, almost a bloodlust kind of thing…. Now you have housewives talking about…all these guys. And people are really getting to know these fighters.

As will be detailed later, the TUF reality show episodes are dripping with drama. This has drawn in a more diverse viewership and fan-base (male and female) that is attracted to drama-driven reality shows in general, along with those fans who are interested in the more athletic dimensions of MMA.

A coach on the first season of TUF, Randy Couture explained to us how the reality show has dispelled some myths of MMA, showcasing for viewers the multifaceted training regiments that one must go through to become a successful mixed martial artist:

I think the TV show, the first season of The Ultimate Fighter really changed the landscape for everybody. A lot of the misconceptions that the general public had about who we are and what we do kind of went out the window when they got to see a reality TV version of what goes into being an ultimate fighter. And in a lot of ways it was the perfect vehicle for getting that message across.

By watching the reality show, viewers witnessed how hard the athletes had to work. Viewers saw the physical and emotional struggles MMA practitioners endured during their training. They learned MMA moves, and simply learned about MMA in general. The show opened up new viewers’ eyes to the rules enforced in MMA, how much power the referee had in ending competitions, and how most competitors displayed gracious sportsmanship before and after competitions. Nolan Hong also felt TUF helped to educate new fans about some of the details involved in MMA. Hong noted that by propelling MMA into America’s sporting mainstream, TUF could help to decrease street violence:

…when (fans) see The Ultimate Fighter, the reality show, and they explain what goes into being a fighter, what goes into the strategy of fighting, what goes into the different training techniques and stuff. Then they can respect it as a sport, and then realize that they…either want to train, and keep it out of the street, or they don’t want to get into altercation in the street because they know how tough it is.

Hence, interviewees felt the TUF show helped immensely in defining MMA as a structured sport, rather than a brutish fight where two unprepared men who despised each other were thrown into a ring or octagon to duke it out. And by further classifying MMA strictly within a sporting context, interviewees hoped TUF would discourage viewers from associating MMA with street violence and other negative social connotations.

However, almost all interviewees who had watched the TUF show had mixed feelings about it. Again, there were overwhelmingly positive feelings about how the show has made MMA so popular and subsequently increased business for MMA gyms. On the other hand, like all reality shows, the TUF show constructed drama and in turn reaffirmed some of the violent stereotypes of mixed martial artists. After asking Jason Miller, "Do you feel that The Ultimate Fighter is good for the sport?", he responded, "Yea, why not? It gives a semi-realistic view of what we gotta go through aside from like the ass grabbin’…" Miller’s viewpoint of the show being "semi-realistic" and cluttered with activities unrelated to MMA training was indicative of other interviewees’ feelings. Michael Frison explained some of the pros and cons that he saw emanating from TUF, which painted an unfair and lopsided picture of most of the participants:

I think pros, it’s definitely opened it up to a whole new audience. There’s a lot more females, a lot more mainstream people. But like any reality show, the cons are they only show the drama…. They do things specifically to capture moments that don’t really display the guys’ real attitude, or real demeanor.

With sixteen young men confined to one house where there is virtually nothing to do, and with those sixteen men competing against each other in a combat sport for a lucrative contract, one can only expect drama to fly and be captured by the cameras.

We were also fortunate to interview Chris Leben, one of the more unforgettable contestants on season one of TUF. Though he appreciates his TUF experience immensely, Leben stated that the tension which builds in the TUF house is unbelievably high. When mixed martial artists are prepping for competitions, they normally find it useful emotionally to get away from their training environments from time to time. While filming TUF, the contestants cannot do this, and the drama that emits from this tension is utilized to build dramatic storylines that do not always paint the entire picture. Said Leben of the collective tension that builds among the MMA fighters:

There’s no escaping from it. Normally if you got a fight coming up, you know you can hang out watch a movie with your girlfriend or whatever, something to get your mind off it…. if all you can do is sit in a house with a bunch of other guys who think they can kick your ass that you’re gonna have to fight, and that tension’s always there, I mean you can imagine the affect that plays on you after several weeks. It’s just building and building and building. You can’t watch TV. You can’t read a book. You can’t talk to your mom. You can’t call your little sis, or you don’t know how anybody’s doing. You know, you don’t know if the world’s gone to war. I mean you got no clue in that house of what’s going on.

Leben also mentioned that the storyline surrounding him cast him as "being immature and being an asshole to maturing more." Leben further explained, "I’ve always also been loud, I’ve also liked to drink too much, I’ve also always liked to play practical jokes." Still, Leben also noted that the TUF experience did not necessarily mature him: "I’ve always been, believe it or not, a nice guy. I’ve always been a great guy to train with. I’ve always been willing to help people out." Thus if anything, the TUF experience inflated one part of Leben’s personality that was shown on television, while failing to show other sides that existed before the show even began.

Notably, the TUF season that had the least amount of drama and participant conflict was season IV (dubbed "The Comeback"), in which older UFC veterans were selected as participants. Aside from a few verbal quibbles and in-house pranks, there were essentially no major disputes between participants, certainly none that led to intense arguments or fights. In the other seasons, not only did some of the coaches get into heated arguments, but participants fought and/or ridiculed each other in extremely demeaning ways. Tony Fryklund also commented on the TUF production, stating that it encourages conflict and drama by creating an environment that is anything but reality:

They’re showing this crap in the house. That’s not a reality show cause they don’t have a TV…. They’re making it a difficult situation. A reality show is to see, some days my girlfriend might come with me. But on other days, she’s got a lot of other shit she’s doing. But reality is, in a reality show, if you come over to a gym to watch people train, there is a TV. They can go home and do what they want to do.

Instead of portraying realism in the life of mixed martial artists, the TUF show followed the contemporary reality television approach, scripting competitive scenarios that would provoke problems between the show’s competitors—something most, if not all reality television shows attempt (Jagodozinki, 2003). As Guy Mezger noted on the whole reality show craze, "…of course you have to understand reality shows really aren’t reality. It’s just unscripted."

While not training and with nothing to do in the TUF house, show participants frequently got into heated disputes, had food fights, ruined furniture, and verbally and physically demeaned one another. Some participants, in extreme examples of "bravado," attempted to run through walls; others got drunk. Then on season V, two participants got into a heated fight that was clearly far more dangerous than a competition in the ring or octagon. To begin with, both of the men who fought had consumed a fair amount of alcohol just before fighting. Moreover, they were fighting on concrete surfaces. Both participants were kicked off the show by Dana White, along with a third participant who was egging on the fight. Since then, none of those participants have been on UFC cards. White also gave a verbal tongue lashing to the entire cast, stating that their behavior (including the bystanders who did nothing to stop the fight) reaffirmed the negative images of MMA that he has been attempting to dispel for years.

Still, the TUF show in itself generates the broad notion that mixed martial artists are at best immature and at worst, impulsive hot-heads, who if they do not fight physically on the street, are prone to instigate verbal wars in a heartbeat and intimidate others with their physical capabilities. Said Yoji Matuso in a laconic tone of the TUF reality show, "…watching the show, like The Ultimate Fighter, they present the fighters as somebody who’s immature. You know I think it kind of reinforces that stereotype that I think people have about MMA as a sport." Guy Mezger was able to reconcile the positive and negative outcomes of the TUF show, summarizing the mainstreamed attention it has brought about for the MMA industry, but wishing the presentation of MMA athletes was very different:

They did a really good job to spark the big wave of mixed martial arts, but the problem with it is it showed these guys, a lot of immature guys, a lot of ridiculous stuff… And so I was a little disappointed in that because I think if you look at these guys, you think these guys are a bunch of malcontents, and there’s a part of us that sympathizes and thinks it’s funny. You know what I mean? It’s sort of like the show, Jackass. There’s a part of us that can’t help but laugh at Jackass, but you wouldn’t want to invite any of those guys to your house…. that’s kind of what The Ultimate Fighter did, is it brought a tremendous amount of focus on it, but it didn’t really portray the guys for the most part as that great of guys, or that bright of guys.

In short, the foremost media force that served as an outreach instrument for MMA ended up being a double-edged sword for the MMA industry as a whole. The UFC has worked and continues to work vigorously to define MMA as a sport in which its athletes are professionals who act professionally. TUF created literally millions of new MMA fans (including myself). This massive increase in the fan-base enabled the MMA industry as a whole to grow. New MMA organizations came forward and old ones became more popular. Gyms were able to jump on the bang wagon, increasing their membership by teaching different disciplines within MMA and full fledged MMA classes. And MMA athletes were able to make a little more money for their competitions.

Unfortunately, as demonstrated in Chapter Seven, violence is what sells in American households. Truth be told, violence sells globally, but in the United States there appears to be an especially strong hunger. The TUF show capitalized off this cultural desire by constructing an environment in which young men would compete verbally for the spotlight and physically, for a contract with little else to occupy their time. Given these conditions, the behaviors displayed on TUF cannot be too surprising. Not all participants behaved in ways that perpetuated stereotypes. In fact, two of the men we interviewed who were part of the TUF series, Travis Lutter and Anthony Torres, were two of the calmest and mature participants in any of the series (as shown on camera). Lutter did have one verbal altercation with another participant, but relative to other occurrences on the show, it was extremely mild and never escalated.

Torres talked with us about his mild demeanor on the show, mentioning that some of his friends said he should have made more waves and gotten more attention to help push his MMA career. However, Torres felt it was more important to take the TUF experience as an opportunity to see how he measured up against other nationally-based talent, learn, and grow as a competitor. Regrettably, even though Lutter won TUF IV, he and Torres are two of the least memorable TUF participants. For example, Darin Goo was disappointed with Lutter’s lack of air time on TUF IV:

I remember Travis Lutter won season IV, and I was disappointed cause you never got to see him! I mean the guy was submitting or dominating all his opponents…all three matches, and he’d get a few words here and there. But you really don’t get to know him because he wasn’t causing trouble. It’s kind of unfortunate.

Instead, Goo said the primary view audience’s saw of mixed martial artists was of "belligerent crazy people." Thus, what interviewees were most concerned with was that the most memorable parts of TUF were not just the athletes who ended up becoming successful mixed martial artists, but also those moments that made audiences shake their heads and laugh, but ultimately think what Guy Mezger stated: "…you wouldn’t want to invite any of those guys to your house."

Why MMA and Boxing Struggle to Have Similar Fans and Fighters

dmayeda — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:38:48 -0000

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

MMA 808: Inside Hawaii's Fight Game (Documentary)

dmayeda — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:01:19 -0000

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:

MMA 808: Inside Hawaii's Fight Game (Documentary)

dmayeda — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:18:07 -0000

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.