http://www.mmarising.com/news/2009/12/06/critic…
Following another lackluster and disappointing event, the
Ultimate Fighting Championship and its president, Dana White, have
once again come under heavy scrutiny among fans online, as a recent
trend of negative sentiment and controversy continues to surround
the promotion.
With a largely disastrous bout between Kevin “Kimbo Slice”
Ferguson and Houston “The Assassin” Alexander from last night’s
TUF 10 Finale receiving the brunt of the
criticism, an announcement regarding the eleventh season of the
reality show also has fans frustrated.
Citing overwhelming demand from UFC fans,
White announced that former UFC Light
Heavyweight Champions Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell and “The
Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz would serve as opposing
coaches for next year’s airing of TUF 11.
The announcement was met with a noticeable smattering of boos
and near-complete indifference from the live Las Vegas crowd, but
has since been a hot topic among fans online, who have almost
exclusively panned the bout as a waste of time.
White, who seemed visibly unsure of himself as he made the
announcement, had to be reminded of the weight class that the
TUF 11 contestants would be competing at and
appeared to be taken aback by the negative response from the
crowd.
The announcement appeared to make little sense, with Liddell
having lost four of his last five fights and Ortiz winless in his
four most recent trips to the Octagon.
What was perhaps more troubling was White’s assertions that it
was fan demand that led to the Liddell-Ortiz pairing – which will
presumably lead to a third fight between the two in mid-2010 – when
backlash in the past 18 hours suggests otherwise.
It is not the first time that White has recently made claims
that have been exaggerated or completely untrue, but his recent
tendency to stretch the truth on frequent occasion has upset even
his biggest supporters.
Fans, who feel that they are being lied to and treated as fools,
have expressed anger or frustration with many of White’s comments,
not the least of which being his frequent attacks on WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko, who
competes for the rival Strikeforce promotion.
While White has done great things for the sport in the past, his
brash personality is beginning to catch up with him and dozens of
recent comments have mocked White when he has been forced to
hastily scramble to replace main events due to injury.
Karma does seem to have a way of rearing its head and some feel
that White is merely facing the consequences for spending
significant amounts of time insulting the competition while his own
promotion struggles.
Mixed martial arts fans tend to become overdramatic when
expressing their displeasure with events in the sport, which has
led to dozens if not hundreds of recent forum posts suggesting that
the UFC is fixing fights or that MMA is imminently dying.
While the idea of fight fixing is incredibly unlikely, the very
insinuation that the sport is being tampered with, as some have
claimed after the bizarre Slice vs Alexander bout last night, is
extremely bad for the sport’s credibility.
It did not help matters that a Spike TV-backed promo for Total
Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling, featuring the well-known Terry
“Hulk Hogan” Bollea, was showcased between fights.
This only added fuel to the fire of arguments from critics who
feel that the sport is becoming too closely related to professional
wrestling.
However, the primary source of discontent appears to centre
around the perceived oversaturation of recent events, as both the
UFC and Strikeforce have significantly
increased the frequency of their cards.
With both promotions planning to run 20 or more shows in 2010,
each would be wise to look closely at the past five months of
MMA history to see the adverse effect that
ill-timed injuries and “quantity over quality” cards can have.
While each UFC event since the historic
UFC 100 card in July has featured at least
two exciting and compelling matchups, including last night’s
TUF 10 Finale, there is a growing argument
that the UFC peaked at the UFC
100 event and has been on a downward slide since.
As with the issue of perceived fight tampering, whether or not
the promotion is, in fact, on a downward slide is less relevant
than the fact that such a stance is being taken in the first
place.
UFC 100 was designed to further
springboard the promotion into the mainstream of sports, and it did
just that in many ways, but a poor economy, numerous injuries to
top stars and a lack of compelling and meaningful fights –
especially main events – has prevented the success from
continuing.
Not to be neglected is the ongoing and very real issue of
scoring and officiating problems, which has plagued a number of
recent fights, including a UFC Light
Heavyweight Championship bout between Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida
and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 104.
However, in the wake of the tremendous backlash and outcry of
support for Rua, who was arguably robbed of a rightful title
victory (MMARising.com scored the bout 49-46 for Rua), some fans
turned their attention and frustrations in the wrong direction.
While UFC President Dana White does an
excellent job of attracting negative attention with unprofessional
conduct and constant (and often immature) attacks on promotional
competitors, he has nothing to do with the appointment of referees
or judges.
For that, the ire of the sport’s fans must be directed to
athletic commissions, which, especially in the case of the
embattled California State Athletic Commission, have been called
into question in the past.
Despite Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director
Keith Kizer’s comments that downplay the ongoing problem with
uneducated judges and inefficient referees, the evidence is plain
as day on the screen as fans tune into their favourite MMA events.
Last night’s bout between rising light heavyweight star Jon
“Bones” Jones and Matt “The Hammer” Hamill, wherein Jones was
disqualified for illegal elbow strikes that did not appear to be
the reason for Hamill’s inability to continue, further highlighted
the need for rule changes.
For the first time, instant replay was used to determine the
outcome of the bout, and much-maligned referee Steve Mazzagatti did
make the only call that he could under the circumstances, but he
was merely following a ruling the doesn’t make sense.
In the end, part of the reason why progress is often stifled is
because discussions among fans online often dissolve into arguments
between “casual fans” who may be new to the sport and long-time
supporters of MMA.
Rather than working together to continue to grow the sport, the
two (often vastly differing) fanbases tend to clash, which results
in endless discussions of hypothetical fight scenarios and
unnecessary insults towards the fighters who are stepping into the
ring or cage for our entertainment.
When fans are becoming so frustrated with the direction of the
UFC that they are turning to other promotions
instead, or, even worse, turning to other sports (such as boxing)
altogether, there are clearly problems in MMA
that do need to be addressed.
Until promotions begin to truly listen to their fans rather than
showcasing fights or events solely for their own personal
interests, and until athletic commissions begin to accept the
serious nature of the problems with the scoring/officiating system
that is currently in place, we are merely making it easier for
MMA’s detractors to try to tear down the
sport.
As most fans would attest, mixed martial arts is the greatest
sport in the world and it is about time that supporters of
MMA have their voices heard before the
ongoing controversy ruins what the last five years have
accomplished.