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.
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