Playing Favourites

“Good morning my guys”

Anybody who follows Wanderlei Silva on twitter knows exactly how it feels to see this come up in their timeline. It’s amazing how down to earth and nice this guy is. So nice in fact that should he be awarded the $5000 “twitter bonus” from Dana White he is going to give it to one lucky fan.

Supporting a fighter like this really does feel good..

As a fight fan I love that feeling when I discover a new favourite fighter, it’s almost as if they are a new friend, as if I know them personally and that my support will mean they will be successful and lately I have found myself respecting and appreciating a few fighters that I didn’t really support before.

I have always liked Wanderlei Silva, ever since the fight with Chuck Liddell and he certainly will always be my favourite fighter, the guy just puts on great fights. I just wanted to mention some things that some people might not know. Wanderlei loves his friends (fans), he will always take a photo, shake your hand or say hello, no matter what. This has to be a strain on him but none the less that’s the kind of guy he is. The fact that he will part ways with $5000 should he win it is amazing on it’s own. Wanderlei is easily the most humble guy in MMA and he can throw down like there is no tomorrow as well. I for one cannot wait to see him enter the cage again and I’ll be cheering loud and proud for my “friend”.

Yes I have mentioned the next two guys in one of my previous blogs but I just want to go into a little more detail on a personal level. Tito Ortiz since day one has been larger than life. That’s just who he is. I always felt a little bit sorry for Ken Shamrock when Tito was “bullying” him and that’s why I never really liked Tito. It’s only recently that I have found that I respect the Huntington Beach Bad Boy, sure he still has an ego but you have to in the fight game, it’s called confidence and if you don’t have it you are sure to be eaten alive. I want Tito to beat Bader, now that is something I NEVER thought I would say. I want Tito back in the title picture, every day he interacts with fans on Twitter it’s kind of inspirational. He’s a pretty nice guy, as long as you aren’t an idiot.

Josh Koscheck is a pretty generous guy. He’s always interacting with fans and giving stuff away. It made me think that he has been dealt a pretty harsh hand by the online MMA community (who aren’t as holy as they may think). Josh, like Tito, has an ego and although he has come off as disrespectful at times he certainly doesn’t mean it. Josh respects the sport, he respects his fans and the fact that he retweeted this little blog right here and got me 75 website hits, $8 in advertisement revenue and 1 new twitter follower all in the span of 15 minutes means he has a fan for life right here, he does the right thing by people and that’s what really counts.

I’m a Brock Lesnar fan, I respect the guy so saying this kind of makes me feel weird. I would have wanted Junior Dos Santos (@junior_cigano) to beat Brock. The latest season of Ultimate Fighter gave me an insight into JDS I never had before. He is a nice guy, hands down, probably one of the nicest. He is fun loving and just wants to help the guys in his team on the show. He really showed he is pure class and if anybody deserved to hold the Heavyweight championship it’s certainly him. He’s brutal inside that cage but the second he’s out of it he is the nicest guy in the world. He made me smile so much throughout the season and even though I can’t understand some of his tweets I followed him on Twitter anyway and the translate tool will just get a workout!

There really is nothing like having fighters that you support, it brings a whole new level to MMA. Once you get past all of the whining posted on the internet and actually look at the fighters yourself you can find that nearly all of them have something admirable to offer.

The Average Joe

It’s Roy Nelson. (@roynelsonmma)

First off let me say that in no way am I saying that Roy is an “average” fighter, he is quite the opposite of that in fact. However he does possess some traits that many average MMA fans would probably have themselves.

If it wasn’t for me having to walk two kilometres a day in my work commute I would probably have a stature similar to Nelson‘s, the way that I treat my body with beer, burgers and what ever else I can get my hands on would blow my stomach out like nobodies business but I certainly would never be able to do what Roy does inside that cage nor look as good as he does when he‘s doing it.

He’s only lost once in the UFC and that was to Junior Dos Santos, who is one hell of a fighter. Roy goes in there and he gives it his all, that’s what won him the tenth season of TUF and that’s what makes people like him so much. I was a little on the fence about him when he fought Junior, I thought, okay, Junior is going to maul this guy just based on how I perceived Roy’s cardio. Roy showed a lot of heart in that fight and I’m sure he won over plenty of casual fans who may have just been waiting to see Anderson Silva defend his belt again.

He is another fighter who takes the time to answer his fans, by way of Twitter, when Roy has the time he is so often seen answering the questions of the fans. It almost seems as if “Big County” is just a regular guy. I know he certainly gained a lot of followers when he was guest tweeting for the UFC account, his comments were down to earth and also hilarious. He’s defiantly another fighter who has welcomed social media in MMA.

Roy embraces the way he looks which makes him all the more impressive, the fact that he can back up his words inside that cage makes him all the more of a fan favourite. It’s going to be a great night on May 28th, with the latest injury of Brock Lesnar who knows what will happen in the Heavyweight division. Should Roy be successful he may even find himself in the number one contenders position.

Roy is an inspiration for the “Average Joe” fan. There’s no six pack abs, there’s no clean cut model-esque good looks, and there certainly isn‘t a stylist helping with his hair for appearances. It’s just the average looking guy doing what he loves and being pretty darn good at it too. Roy is the portrait of what a lot of MMA fans probably see when they look in the mirror and that’s why so many people love him.

I wish Roy the best of luck at the end of the month I think that he will beat Mir, who will be the one big name that Roy needs to his resume to allow him to work his way into the title mix. He’s a “fans” fighter and really shows that if you have the right attitude you can do whatever you put your mind to.

Hell, he might have even convinced me to give MMA training a try.

Home Team

I’m a country boy.

Well kind of anyway. I spent most of my earlier years growing up in towns (that’s right, it’s a town not quite big enough to be a city!) with names like Cudal, Newbridge, Orange and Blayney. I know what it is like to have a home team to cheer for and not to have much else. That’s why having some Australian fighters in the UFC is such a big deal, well for me anyway.

Being abroad at the moment makes it hard to make a connection with some of the bigger fighters sometimes. Sure as I have stated before, I have my favourites but there really is nothing like cheering for one of your own. We once had Elvis Sinosic, who was famous for well, getting beaten up. He got a shot at the Light Heavyweight championship but he lost, he was one of the least successful mainstream fighters our great country produced but we supported him anyway.

The Ultimate Fighter has given us two more fighters to enter the mainstream fight scene of the UFC. We have George Sotiropoulos and Kyle Noke. Having two guys who are successful and damn well good at what they do will really help the fastest growing sport in the world enter more and more Australian homes. Now more then ever there are so many people embracing the sport, on Twitter you can find some Australian celebrities and sports personalities following MMA just like any other average fan, they get excited to see the Aussie boys get into the cage, just like anybody else.

George Sotiropoulos (@georgesots) was perhaps the closest we were going to get to a title shot in a long time, his performance (and the crowd!) at UFC 110 was awesome, having being there myself I know for a fact that he won so many new fans. It was disappointing to see him drop a win to Dennis Siver but that’s MMA, anything can happen. I hope he can get back on the winning track, I know that he could step into that cage and put on one hell of a fight against Edgar or Maynard, unfortunately though needs to prove himself again. It was only one loss in a so far awesome UFC career and I know Georgie will be bouncing back in a big way at UFC 132 when he takes on Rafael dos Anjos.

Three wins in a row. That’s pretty much all you need to know about Kyle Noke http://twitter.com/#!/KyleNoke. He is one hell of an ambassador for the country in the UFC, just looking at his twitter feed makes me homesick as he talks about “footy” and meat pies. It’s great to have another TUF alum under our belt and it’s even better to see him keep on winning. Sure he didn’t win his season of TUF but he has proven that he can hang in the UFC. Unfortunately he is a middleweight and that means at some point if he wants to hold the gold he would have to face Anderson Silva. That’s no easy feat. If you aren’t too familiar with Kyle be sure to catch him on Twitter, he’s down to earth and defiantly a rising star.

We love our home grown heroes and I for one can say that the second Kyle Noke’s next fight gets announced the twitterverse will be buzzing with guys like Rove McManus, Mark Geyer and Fox Sports News’ own Adam Curley giving our boy support.

Soon enough MMA will be big enough in Australia for us to have our own Ultimate Fighter series and I am sure some great talent just like George and Kyle will be unearthed. Already there is an expanding MMA scene in Australia, we already have a great up and coming MMA news site (www.allovermma.com) and there are many promotions putting on MMA fights throughout the country.

I for one cannot wait until the sport becomes as mainstream as it has become in America and the first big step is having our boys in the UFC get some gold around their waists.

Getting into the UFC

“Do you wanna be a fighter”?

This is a now famous  phrase that a certain President of the most successful Mixed Martial Arts brand in history used back in 2005. I bet way back then he never thought that the world of MMA would have changed so much. Sure he had passion, he had drive and that’s what has made the UFC so successful, but back then there weren’t a whole lot of creative ways someone could get into the UFC, you had to be found, you basically had to be scouted.

Fast forward to a whole new age and with the exploding popularity of MMA and the bustling schedule of all those involved in the big organisations the “scouting” process had to evolve. I would imagine the UFC fields so many phone calls and letters from aspiring Mixed Martial Artists that it would be at times overwhelming. Partnering with an up and coming employment site (Jobbi.com) was easily the best solution and just made sense.

For those of you who don’t what I am talking about click the link below (but make sure you come back! I haven’t finished yet!)

http://www.ufc.com/becomeafighter

Now see that guy at number 1?

That’s Jeff Smith. @JeffSmithMMA

He’s jumped right into the booming digital collaboration of MMA, the internet and social networking. It’s the best way to make your “brand” known, it’s the best way to get your name at the top of the overwhelming and always expanding list of Mixed Martial Artists around the world.

Jeff has tried other avenues to get himself into the big time, don’t get me wrong. He’s tried out for The Ultimate Fighter twice and got all the way to the final interviews on both occasions, unfortunately he never got a call back from the relevant television officials in both tryouts. However he is hell bent on getting into the UFC, he is hell bent on living his dream.

I asked Jeff whether he thought he would ever be using things like twitter and an internet site to secure his dream and he told me that to be honest, he never even thought he would be a professional fighter let alone be chasing the dream of the UFC. Jeff was just going to compete in the sport of grappling but instead MMA found it’s way into his life.

Jeff has won six straight professional fights and impressively all by way of submission, this guy has a lot of talent and I for one am supporting his quest to get into the UFC. It’s such a different world we live in now, compared to what I am sure Chuck Liddell would have went through to make it to the big time. Everything is at our fingertips which is what a lot of people take for granted. So many people these days are getting famous through the internet , it makes sense for the UFC to try their hand at this because who knows what kind of talent is out there and who knows just how marketable they would be.

Check out the link below for Jeff’s profile, look at his fights and I am sure you will be impressed. Even he says that some of the performances are not his best but I for one would be the first to line up and buy a Jeff Smith UFC shirt the second it comes on sale because this guy, he has what it takes to make it.

http://www.jobbi.com/about_user.php?id=58851849467

When his online campaign has been success and Jeff is in the UFC just remember who featured him in a blog first. It’s only a ten hour bus trip for me from here to Philadelphia, PA. I’ll get out to Harrisburg somehow and shake Jeff’s hand myself because he would certainly deserve it.

Fighters I HATE

There are none.

Now before you roll your eyes and click that little “x” up in the corner let me explain something. I don’t like every fighter, sure like everybody else I have my favourites and there is a time when I see two guys enter the octagon and I think maybe now is the time to go and grab a beer and a toilet break but then I remind myself I am watching MMA and anything can happen.

With a fighters biggest critics always being the ones behind the screen and keyboard there are some fighters that seem to cop a lot of flack, be it for their style, their personality or just “because“.

This isn’t football, soccer, ice hockey, baseball or any other team sport that you may happen follow. This is fighting. You aren’t born into a town where from day dot you are conditioned to follow a certain team and be loyal to them through thick and thin.

Fighters change, new fighters emerge and your favourite fighter may retire and then let’s face it there aren’t enough fighters fighting on the big stage for you to hate as many as you probably do right now. Now I am not saying you should love every fighter, you don’t have to go out and buy their t-shirts, follow them on twitter and cheer for them when they fight. There is one thing that all fighters should get and that is respect, because if it wasn’t for people willing to step into that octagon and put on a spectacle, we probably wouldn’t be watching the world fastest growing sport.

There are a few guys that seem to cop a lot of the hate that MMA fans dish out and here are a few reasons why you should at least respect these guys.

Tito Ortiz @titoortiz

1997. That’s the year that Tito started fighting in the UFC. If it wasn’t for guys like Tito we probably wouldn’t see the UFC today. He fought for free in his first fight and he fought twice in one night. Sure his feud with Ken Shamrock was probably a little too professional wrestling for a lot of people but that’s what was helping grow the sport. MMA needed fans and pro wrestling had the perfect fan base to draw from. Tito would tell it like it was, he’s honest and one thing is always guaranteed, he will put on a great fight and fight hard. Sure, he talks a lot but that’s what draws you in. You shouldn’t hate him for “selling” a fight you should respect him for making it a fight you want to watch and sure you may want to see him lose but you still want to see him inside the octagon.

Georges St Pierre @GeorgesStPierre

Even Dana White has said that the reason GSP hasn’t finished his fights is because of the top level of competition he has been fighting against. A lot of MMA fans will argue that “this guy” and “that guy” is hardly top level competition but I think we need to look at a GSP fight in a totally different light. If you approach the fight knowing what you are going to get; A champion dominating his challenger then you will enjoy his fights. Sure there is nothing flashy, no first round knockouts but the thing to admire about GSP is that he goes into a fight knowing where he can win it and he sticks to that game plan. If it wasn’t for GSP the passionate fans in Canada probably wouldn’t even blink at MMA, he has helped the sport grow and expand and needless to say if he wasn’t the draw card he is then MMA would probably still be banned in Ontario.

Josh Koscheck @JoshKoscheck

During his TUF performance against GSP I was on the fence with Josh. I certainly didn’t have a lot of interest in him winning that fight because of the way he came off on television. I wasn’t blood thirsty, I wasn’t going to town with a pitchfork ready for a witch hunt, I just really didn’t want to see the guy win. After the fight with GSP he really surprised me, he did one hell of a job in “selling” that fight. He got people interested that probably wouldn’t have cared as they knew it was just going to be another GSP win. Koscheck was humble after his fight and really impressed me, since then I think he has turned a corner, he knows how to make people want to watch him fight and I think next time around and will give everyone a win to talk about. Josh helped make TUF 1 interesting, again he may have acted a little differently to how some people would have liked but it was entertainment and people just kept watching. He was a key part of that first series and if it wasn’t for him acting like how most younger males do anyway, the UFC probably wouldn’t be here today.

Brock Lesnar @DCBROCKLESNAR

The big one. Literally. A lot of MMA fans look at Brock as a joke, as a “play fighter” because of his professional wrestling experience. What a lot of people know but tend to forget to mention is that Brock was a collegiate wrestler before the WWE, he was one hell of an athlete and still is. Yes his boxing skills need work but let’s face it a lot of rabid MMA fans weren’t even expecting him to stick around for this long let alone win a championship. Brock has done for the UFC what Ken Shamrock did many years ago, he got a cross over of fans from professional wrestling to MMA. New fans means more money, more money means more events and more events means more fights. No matter how much you think his skills leave a lot to be desired you can’t argue that people want to watch him fight.

In one way or another these guys have helped or are helping the sport grow so before you put those fingers to the keyboard and type your hate speech about any fighter stepping into that cage you should think about where this sport would be without them.

Top 5 Follows

So there I was in my basement apartment shadow boxing for what seemed like a good amount of time (it turns out it was only a matter of minutes) and then it occurred to me.

MMA is the best sport in the world.

I don’t think there are many other elite sports where the competitors have such an interest in their fans, I don’t think any other sports superstars have a connection with the people that help pay their wage. Sure your big NFL, NBA and MLB teams do signings but this is different.

This is passion.

MMA fighters love what they do and they appreciate their fans even more, I can only imagine how many UFC stars get stopped in the street and asked for a photo, asked to pose for a stare down, asked what it felt like to get knocked out by Anderson Silva. You name it, someone would have asked it. Every time they smile, they take the photo and they appreciate the attention.

For a long time I refused to join Twitter. I thought the idea of it was ridiculous and then I took a peak, I saw that this was one place I could get my MMA fix from my phone on the go or on my computer in the comfort of my home. I was addicted, there is so much information flying out there and so much I have learnt about the idols I watch inside the octagon.

So I thought to myself who are the top people to follow on Twitter if you are a fan of the UFC, of course there is the obvious like Dana White @danawhite and MMA Junkie @mmajunkie but what about the fighters, if I was to recommend that you follow someone who would it be?
And that’s when I came up with my top 5 follows.

5. Ryan Bader @ryanbader

Loves his gym. Loves his friends and most of all likes his fans, not quite on a Wanderlei Silva level but Ryan appreciates tweets from everybody out there. Ryan won a lot of fans with his gutsy performance against Jon Jones and copped a lot of flack for his loss on the twitter sphere but he has moved on and proves to the world that he is not letting his first career loss get to him. Ryan wants you to follow him, he wants to share his life with you and him just saying so puts him ahead of most of the other professional athletes in any other sport.

4. Matt Mitrione @mattmitrione

The #pushups do it. Matt is down to earth, he’s funny and he’s generous. Lucky followers of Matt even managed to get themselves some free UFC tickets for the sold out Toronto blockbuster by following him on twitter. Matt gives the updates we want to hear, interacts quite well (and often humorously) with other fighters. Follow Matt for some fun and any updates for this newly crowned (unofficial) ambassador for the UFC.

3. Mark Hominick @MarkHominick

To start things off it was a pretty hard choice, I thought about putting in a certain light heavyweight champion who is on the up and up but then I saw Mark in my timeline. This guy has just come off one hell of a fight at the biggest UFC event to date and still has the decency to tweet back to his fans. Mark has a child on the way and still manages to spend time communicating with the MMA community. He’s going to be one hell of a star soon so be sure to follow now before you get lost in the masses.

 

2. Kenny Florian @kennyflorian

Kenny is a two part package deal. Getting up to date on what the TUF 1 competitor is doing with his career is great but the real reason to follow Kenny is because you will no doubt be following Godfrey James @kenfloassistant as well. Their banter is hilarious and his tweets on their own even without a reaction from Kenny will make you chuckle on those boring days when nothing is happening in the twitterverse. Of Course Kenny isn’t for everyone, but hey, he’s on TV (not just for fightin’ either!) So he does have a lot of interesting things to say and whether he is talking back to the haters or falling victim to harassment from Godfrey it’s worth a read no matter what time of the day it is.

1. Wanderlei Silva @wandfc

Wandy loves his fans, or friends as he likes to call them. After spending time in my introduction talking about just how different MMA is to any other sport Wanderlei really hit’s the nail on the head. This guy loves his friends, he loves to use twitter and he will try his damndest to retweet for every single one of his friends. A warning for some before you click “follow” Wanderlei tweets a lot so if you are worried about having a lot of tweets in your timeline he may not be the right person to follow; I on the other hand love it, sometimes I can’t understand it because it’s in Portuguese but most of the time Wanderlei has something exciting or interesting to post. Wanderlei is the epitome of what the sport is about and even if you don’t like to watch him fight you will love to see his tweets, he’s funny, genuine and down to earth and if you aren’t following Wanderlei you aren’t following MMA.