Comments on: Random Rant: How to curtail booing of ground fighting

By: jason hughes

jason hughes — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:27:02 +0000

pride already invented it. it was called the yellow card, moslty issued during boring uneventful ground action.

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klown — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:20:01 +0000

I like the idea of broadcasting live audio of the fight (including ref and corner voices), without commentary. And several large screens are also key.

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FightOpinion.com - Your Global Connection to the Fight Industry. — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:25:19 +0000

[...] Related post from Five Ounces of Pain. [...]

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Adam Morgan — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:20:18 +0000

Sam,

You’re going to think I’m a liar, but I just posted a piece at Fight Opinion regarding this same topic. I had not read your post yet before I wrote it, but we are literally on the same wavelength when it comes to The Ultimate Fighter show. They need to show the coaches teaching a specific technique, the fighters practicing said technique, and then eventually, one of these techniques will probably be used in a fight, either to finish, gain position, defend, etc. and shows your average fan the technique from start to finish. From the technique broken down to each step to its practical use within a fight.

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jazzn — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 01:46:22 +0000

My wife like to laugh at me because each time I’ve got a mma event on tv and she comes by for a look it’s always a guard position. She’s always ribbing me about why I want to watch two guys humping…

Seriously, I’d stand them up faster if there is nothing happening. Some fighters are boring on their feet too.

I watched a WEC event last month and I have to say it was as or more entertaining than any UFC event I’ve ever seen, and I think the reason is that these guys are generally hungrier and fighting more to fight than for a payday. You get these UFC champs making the big bux and all they want to do is keep their title or their win streak going because that keeps the revenue coming in. I probably would too. They have a lot to lose. And it makes fights boring.

The more MMA becomes established and mainstream the more boring the fights are going to get… that’s just the reality of it.

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MoreThanUFC — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:40:55 +0000

I’ve said this a hundered times in regard to the Sac crowd at 73: The reason they were booing is simple. If you watch all the prelim fights and look at how good they were and active the fighters were, then watch the entire televised portion except the last fight ( Florian ) you’ll:
a) see the crowd wasnt booing earlier, b) see they only started booing Herring/Nog after Herring didn’t finish and for awhile were just standing there looking at each other c) booed Sherk/Franca because they weren’t stood up after the BJM OFFICIALLY MANDATED ( lol ) 21 sec requirement d) really didn’t boo much during the Silva/Nate match, though some did ( boo mode was in full swing at that point ).
Two weeks before, the ppl saw an entire card without one single fight going to the judges, saw an actual MMA “Show”, and I believe had high expectations of the “Biggest Show” in the world.
If a fan, say, booed Nick Diaz or Nog or Joe Daddy or any other active ground fighter, then that fan is obviously new and clueless. If they boo Sherk v Franca or any other lay and pray contest, then they have a good point. JMHO.

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Zack — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:09:18 +0000

Garth – I just read an interview with Kos where he openly talks about how his strategy is to wait until the last 30 seconds and then go for the takedown. I’ve seen others following the same strategy (Evans vs Ortiz round 3). Lame.

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spacedog — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:16:12 +0000

Ok I have two things to say on the subject. First I think Zack has it right about Japanese fans, they just don’t boo. I have heard Baseball players comment on this being such a huge thing to adjust to in the states. I don’t think American ‘Ball are less educated then their eastern counterparts but they do boo like hell. Second I was at Arco and the fans really got into a lot of the ground fighting. I was suprised but when there was ACTION on the ground, sub attempts, scrambles, reversals, fans were going nuts. But when Sherk kept taking Franca down and we knew all we had to look forward to was 5 min of looking at the top bar of the octogon we felt riped off. That fight WAS boring to watch. Total dominace but still boring.
If you want fans not to boo you have got to provide exciting fights. Stand fighters up, take points for stalling, and don’t give a point for simply taking someone down. In other words make fighters win the fight, not just the majority of rounds,and no it is not the same thing.

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garth — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:01:12 +0000

new game looks awesome.

the excitement factor goes back to the scoring issue we talked about before, though i haven’t heard much in the way of a new system. when a fighter knows he’s ahead in the fight, and he’s got an edge in say wrestling over a better striker, he’ll lay on him. kongo-marreiro, o’brien-herring, etc. and if he moves around a little or drops an elbow from time to time, he’s ok, and he’s scoring.
there’s gotta be a better way to score a better sport. lame ten-point must system needs to GO!

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GameCritics.com — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:06:54 +0000

I don’t train, but the original UFC game on the Dreamcast really schooled me on the intricacies of the ground positions and counters and gave me a much greater appreciation for it. THQ is putting out a new game in the near future. Let’s hope it does well.

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Zach — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:14:21 +0000

Here’s a two-fold solution: a) Stop papering shows and b) Either limit the sale of alcohol by a certain match or not serve alcohol at a show. The arenas and fans would throw a fit, but the crowd atmosphere would be quite different if there wasn’t so much ‘liquid courage’ being consumed.

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Zack — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:51:34 +0000

I was actually thinking about this last night while re-watching Gomi vs Aurelio 2. It’s not just ground fighting that is boring – that Gomi/Aurelio fight is two guys tap dancing for nearly 15 minutes. The Japanese crowd is dead silent throughout. I seriously doubt they are better educated fight fans – it is most likely cultural that they don’t boo. Compare that with Guida/Tyson, which featured tons of exciting ground fighting. It might have even been the fight of the year.

I think the orgs in the US need to do more to keep ALL fights engaging, including adding the yellow card, heavily increasing the bonuses for KO, TKO, and submissions, and standing fights up when the guy on top is not advancing his position or working for submissions. I train, and love grappling, but an MMA event shouldn’t be freestyle wrestling with the occasional submission.

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salvatorew — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:34:08 +0000

people hate to hear how mma’s fanbase is becoming exactly like Pro wrestling’s in the sense that MMA has smart fans and marks.
The majority (and i stress the word “majority) of american fans are akin to what they call in Pro wrestling “Marks”. The marks are the ones who scream for knockouts and bloodshed. Most of the booing is contributed to the inbred hillbillys known as marks.
i think rambled their somewhere so i apologize

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garth — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:58:56 +0000

I don’t think you’ll get rid of booing…as more people are educated about the sport, you’ll see less, but it’ll still show up. The best thing would be to stand up lay-n-prayers faster. if a guy doesn’t advance his position, stand him up. Pe de pano in that IFL matchup should have been stood up at least 5 different times. that was brutal to watch. Marcio Cruz has some skills, but literally sitting on his butt in the guard throwing weak punches is not a way to sway fans…
normalize the standup rules, make it crisper if someone’s just sitting. killing the clock is boring to watch.

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salvatorew — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:00:24 +0000

easiest way to curtail booing- every event should emanate from japan

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