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The Fight Opinion Five: Supporting the Black Man
By Zach Arnold | December 27, 2009
Throughout the past decade, we have looked through our site archives and all of the various notes written during the time period to come up with five of the most interesting and important stories that Zach Arnold and the Fight Opinion team have covered. This is an arbitrary list of themes, but each theme carries historical importance and also emotional importance to not only the fans but also the authors, too. This is not an article series meant to cover everything that happened over the past decade, but rather to highlight what were some of the most fascinating stories to cover.
One of the biggest criticisms leveled against Mixed Martial Arts this past decade involved the issue of race. Was MMA a sport only for white people? Are the people in the business racist? Where are the non-white superstars? Forever and a day, we’ve seen and heard the criticisms about MMA not appealing enough to different racial and ethnic demographics. There were newspaper articles, including one in The Los Angeles Times, talking about the demographic make-up of your typical UFC show in Las Vegas.
The situation with MMA is almost a reverse of what is happening in boxing. The mainstream media laments about boxing looking for the next great white American hero.
So what is the truth about MMA and it’s ability to appeal to those who aren’t white? You have to consider the business as a whole and how each market has played out. In Japan, Mixed Martial Arts is open for both the native Japanese stars and the foreigners. Of course, race has always played a huge role in the country as far as which fighters the fans are willing to look at as drawing cards that they are willing to pay to watch in person. We know about the large connection MMA has with the Brazilian community. (Even the newspaper writers understood that the Gracie family did exist.)
There have been some failures for sure in terms of outreach. In the past decade, we haven’t seen a major drawing card yet for the Hispanic market. Tito Ortiz was supposed to be the guy, but he doesn’t speak Spanish. Roger Huerta could have been the “it” guy but he had his problems with UFC management and sought other opportunities outside of Mixed Martial Arts. What about appealing to African-American fans? In the last 10 years, MMA has seen a shift in terms of creating big-name fighting stars who are Black.
The dilemma? The jury is still out as to whether or not these superstars appeal to minorities who then become fans of the sport or if they play into the stereotypes that White America has about what Black fighters should be? The four biggest African-American stars in MMA that most casual fans think of are Bob Sapp, Quinton Jackson, Kimbo Slice, and Rashad Evans. There have been other Black fighters like Kevin Randleman and King Mo (Lawal), but if you asked the majority of fans who the major stars in this demographic have been over the last 10 years, those are the four names that pop up.
So what about the success of each of these individuals? Did they appeal to minorities or did they play into the stereotypes that other demographics have about what a Black fighter should be?
Bob Sapp was the first huge African-American star in the MMA world, both figuratively and literally, in Mixed Martial Arts. As the saying goes, K-1 promoter Kazuyoshi Ishii proverbially lit a bottle rocket up his ass and gave Sapp the career push of a life time. Sapp came in as a giant monster who got disqualified in his first K-1 fight and then managed fighting in MMA. He had a legendary fight against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at the Dynamite event in August of 2002 at Kokuritsu Stadium. Sapp lost the fight, but became such a big house-hold name in Japan afterwards. Sapp was protected to the point that Ishii, the promoter, worked as a special guest referee fight for his fight against Cyril Abidi. Sapp played into a bunch of stereotypes in Japan. He was the big, black scary guy who then turned around and cuddled a kitty to make you say “awwwww” while hawking a music CD. Then, the next minute he was hyping up a pro-wrestling match against Manabu Nakanishi in the New Japan ring at the Tokyo Dome by going on TV-Asahi cameras and acting like a ape, eating bananas on television in the process. And if that wasn’t enough for you, Sapp would then turn around and go on camera and start acting philosophical and talking as if he was a professor. In other words, Sapp was an entertainer first and foremost but he understood how to play into stereotypes that the Japanese had of him.
Sapp’s career flamed out prematurely because he was doing kickboxing, pro-wrestling, and MMA all at the same time in order to cash in on endorsement deals and other activities outside of the business. He never had any time to really train properly to maximize his potential. Nonetheless, he made a lot of money. During the time he was getting pushed by K-1, he was also wrestling for the K-1/PRIDE combination pro-wrestling league WRESTLE-1 where he fought The Great Muta. In 2002, he beat Ernesto Hoost twice and it set up a horrible wrestling match between the two in January of 2003 at the Tokyo Dome where Hoost got his “revenge” win. The Sapp train took a hit in March of 2003 when Mirko Cro Cop broke his eye socket in a fight at Saitama Super Arena. Sapp would eventually rebound and find himself in one of the highest-rated television matches of all time in Japan, a New Year’s Eve bout against Akebono in a kickboxing match.
2004 was supposed to be a big year for Sapp. However, things didn’t turn out as planned. Sapp had been IWGP champion for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He was given a push by Antonio Inoki because of his appeal as a pro-wrestler and also because he had been doing well in MMA. Sapp would end up fighting on a bizarre K-1 MMA show called Romanex (Romance + Extra) against Kazuyuki Fujita, an Inoki understudy. Fujita beat Sapp at the Romanex event in an MMA fight and Sapp ended up vacating the IWGP belt after the loss. Fujita would end up with the title, which was standard protocol under Inoki’s influence of New Japan (awarding wrestlers who won shoot fights with title runs). After finding himself in legal trouble for corporate tax evasion, Kazuyoshi Ishii and K-1 wanted to book Sapp in a program against Mike Tyson. It got to the point where the two had a stare down at a Las Vegas K-1 event with Ishii in the crowd. The judge who was overseeing Ishii’s court case got furious that the promoter was involved in the promotion still. Because Tyson had a felony rap sheet, the fight couldn’t happen in Japan. There was a lot of talk of the fight happening in Hawaii, but in the end the fight never happened.
In May of 2006, Sapp found himself in major trouble when he backed out of a fight at a K-1 show in Holland. As we detailed on the site in the past, Sapp found himself in the middle of a major power play between PRIDE (Sakakibara) and K-1. Sapp was going to fight Ernesto Hoost, who wanted the bout to be his retirement match. Adding to the mix of chaos was the fact that Kunio Kiyohara, the Fuji TV producer who was close to Sakakibara, was involved in the event because of Fuji TV’s contractual rights to the show. Sapp would leave the building and reportedly be taken to a ‘safe house’ for protection. He later emerged at a press conference with someone named Michael Connette as his attorney. Connette, however, had connections to PRIDE. He was a visible name during the time PRIDE had a legal battle with Royce Gracie when Gracie was going to fight for K-1. In the end, Sapp lost a lot of valuable time and ended up settling back in K-1 but by then, things were starting to flame out. Sapp had made a significant amount of money in the fight game but always left fans wondering “what could have been.”
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was fighting for King of the Cage when he got the call to fight Kazushi Sakuraba at a PRIDE event in Fukuoka at Marine Messe. Jackson was promoted by PRIDE as a man from Memphis, Tennessee who was a “homeless fighter” that lived on a bus, wore a big chain, and talked to pigeons. Jackson was photographed by the press on a bus and playing up the stereotype the promotion had given him. He naturally played up the gimmick since he was a huge pro-wrestling fan and grew up in one of the hottest wrestling territories ever. Jackson fought Sakuraba tough but ultimately lost to the legend. However, the natural charisma was apparently and his howling to the crowd made him a favorite. His tag line soon became, “Support the Black man.” Quinton understood the stereotypes that the Japanese had about him, so much so that he played right along with it and did a lot of crazy things (much of it has been documented on the Internet and can be found on YouTube). Jackson also dabbled in K-1 fights at a time when K-1 and PRIDE weren’t at each other’s throats totally.
His first big splash with American fight fans never really got a lot of attention in the States until years later when it was discussed by Dana White and others in UFC as if everyone in the world had known what had taken place. Jackson faced Chuck Liddell in the PRIDE ring and Dana White made a big bet on the fight (and lost) when Liddell lost. Quinton would go on to lose to Wanderlei Silva for the first time. The second time would prove to be more violent.
Jackson ended up facing Ricardo Arona and powerbombed him during a fight to win by knockout. Arona bounced off the mat and got hit again which resulted in the finish. Around this period of time, there was a Japanese escort web site that had taken photos of Rampage and framed it in such a way to make it look like he had endorsed their company (he was an unwitting victim). The legend of call girls being sent to the Japanese hotel rooms of fighters (both by the fighters themselves and by their opponents trying to cause trouble) were antics few discussed openly. After Jackson beat Arona, he appeared on a radio show to announce that he had become a born-again Christian — a radio show that I produced. It was one of the strangest conversations I can ever recall listening to at the time, including stories about what Rampage saw with his son and why the conversion took place. Soon after the conversion, there was a lot of concern in MMA circles about how it would impact Rampage’s fighting career. He lost violently to Wanderlei in a re-match and then had troubles with Chute Boxe fighters. His trainer, Colin Oyama, berated him, which resulted in a move to Juanito Ibarra. Rampage would later dump Ibarra after losing to Forrest Griffin and having a hit-and-run meltdown in Southern California.
Rampage was set-up to fight Liddell in a re-match in May of 2007. The fight would take place at the end of the month, which would be a couple of weeks after the Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight that caused everyone and their mother in media publications to scream, “Is this the end of boxing?” Rampage would beat Liddell for a second time. After the fight, White would continue to push Liddell significantly more than he pushed Rampage. It was an odd feeling, considering that Jackson was the company’s champion but Liddell was still getting the big treatment. Jackson would go on to beat Dan Henderson in a very tough five-round fight in London. He eventually would become a coach on The Ultimate Fighter (paired opposite of Forrest Griffin), but it didn’t turn out so well. Griffin would beat Jackson by decision and soon things fell apart for Rampage.
Eventually, he got back on track and married (not literally) in a program with Rashad Evans on The Ultimate Fighter. The two men did a wonderful job of hyping up a fight that, to this point, didn’t happen. Jackson was supposed to headline UFC’s Memphis debut but he backed out to film the A-Team re-make. Evans was left on his own to fight at UFC 108. Out of the four major Black stars in MMA this past decade, Rampage exhibited a ton of charisma and appealed to a lot of different demographics. That said, he is a crafty veteran who does play up to certain stereotypes.
Speaking of Rashad Evans, he’s one of the first true stars UFC has created from start to finish. From The Ultimate Fighter to top contender at 205 pounds, Rashad Evans brings you a little bit of everything. He’s a heel who gets booed by everyone. He knocks people out, including Chuck Liddell (that one really pissed off a lot of people). He can talk with the best of them, as we’ve seen on The Ultimate Fighter. And yet, out of the four major Black stars in Mixed Martial Arts, Evans’ appeal seems to be the most limited. He’s honest to a fault and doesn’t play into racial stereotypes. Everything about him as a fighter is commendable and he’s not someone with a highly-troubled past. As a drawing card, he’s respectable but it doesn’t appear that he reaches across a lot of different demographics — just mostly appealing to UFC’s core audience plus a few casual fans.
The pairing of Evans and Jackson on The Ultimate Fighter produced great television and saved what had been an incredibly stagnating format for a reality show. However, The Ultimate Fighter would have never been the success that it was this past season without Kimbo Slice.
Slice appeals to every stereotype and yet has the magical ingredients that will extend his career if he plays his cards right. He understands how to reinvent himself and how to hustle. Kimbo Slice was not created by the UFC marketing machine. He was pushed to the moon by Gary Shaw, who saw that the Big, Black Scary Guy from Youtube as the porn bodyguard would be palatable enough to market on CBS television. Of course, Shaw wasn’t a genius — he just saw Kimbo draw big numbers in Atlantic City against Ray Mercer of all people.
The same Ray Mercer that beat Tim Sylvia.
Kimbo’s aura alone blows away the aura of most stars in the history of Mixed Martial Arts. He may not make the kind of money that Bob Sapp or even Rampage has made in the business, but Kimbo Slice will be remembered by a lot more people than Jackson, Evans, and Sapp will ever be. His loss to Seth Petruzelli was crushing for Elite XC and cost the promotion their television deal. You couldn’t make up the fact that the Big Black Scary Youtube guy lost to the Smoothie King if you had written the script at the last minute, given that Ken Shamrock somehow got hurt before the fight happened. Kimbo is by far the biggest television ratings drawing card of any African-American in Mixed Martial Arts — but is that a good thing? He went from Big Black Scary Youtube guy to Trying to Feed My Family and Start Over aspiring MMA fighter on The Ultimate Fighter. It helped that he had someone scared to death of him like Houston Alexander to practically give him a win last December. Yes, there are questions that after losing to Roy Nelson and beating Houston Alexander by decision that the Kimbo train could be derailed at any time. However, the truth is that his star will shine bright for a while. Kimbo may not have the longevity of Rampage or Evans or the ability to get people to pay to see him like Sapp, but his Q-rating is by far the biggest out of all the Black stars in MMA, let alone everyone else in the business, too.
The question you have to ask yourself when you deal with critics of MMA saying that the sport is for white people is this — have the minority stars in the industry appealed to different demographics for who they are or did they attract white fans based on the stereotypes promoted and fed into? We know that Rampage’s personality appeals to a lot of fight fans, but the jury is still out on whether or not he brings large amounts of minority fans to MMA. Rashad Evans doesn’t appear any time soon to be appealing to fans outside of UFC’s core constituency. Bob Sapp largely appealed to the Japanese based on playing a character that appealed to the stereotypes that the public had of him in terms of his size and skin color. And Kimbo Slice may draw the biggest buzz in terms of media attention (with sports writers like Dan Le Batard), but does that really translate in bringing in non-white fans to Mixed Martial Arts? We don’t know the answer to the Kimbo: Reborn experiment yet.
Will there be new African-American stars in the next decade? Absolutely. Will these athletes be able to be themselves or will they have to play up certain racial stereotypes in order to attract attention?
Will we have Hispanic MMA drawing cards in the next decade? Unsure, given the way the promotions have marketed their product so far. Bellator was on ESPN Deportes and did good ratings, but they moved to a new television deal. UFC claimed big numbers for the UFC 100 telecast airing on Televisa in Mexico, but so far no MMA live events have been planned for that country or for other countries with traditionally large fighting fan bases like Puerto Rico.
The biggest question is whether or not Mixed Martial Arts will be able to grow its fan base by appealing to different demographics and if the athletes are pressured into playing up gimmicks or stereotypes to draw attention onto themselves. So far, the jury is still out on answering that question.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 56 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
“Sapp would end up fighting on a bizarre K-1 MMA show called Romanex (Romance + Extra) against Kazuyuki Fujita.”
ROMANCE?! How you came up with that gem?
I think a lot of the talk about the lack of diversity in MMA is directly related to what several members, most notably if I recall Bob Arum, in the boxing community have said. It’s like anything; If somebody says something loud and ridiculous enough where enough people can hear it, regardless of what is being said it will spread like wildfire. A perfect example of this was earlier this year when Dana’s boy gave out a blatantly fictitious summary of what Fedor was offered. It spread to the point where there are people who still base their opinions and arguments on that contract even though it’s been flat-out denied by every reputable source in the sport.
The unfortunate aspect is that race in America is always broken down to white and black, which, for one, isn’t the entire story, and for two, MMA has a large variety of well-promoted black athletes. It’s not entirely fair to condemn or criticize these athletes for not drawing huge numbers in a business that only has, really, at most ten huge draws to begin with. When you look at the overall picture, MMA is actually more diverse in it’s fighters than boxing has ever been. You only have to look at the past year for Zuffa in it’s champions and major contenders to see a very wide variety of races, cultures, and nations represented and promoted. Add in the fact that MMA is a cross-section of the overall martial arts world, something boxing has never, and will never be able to do, and there is far more diversity in the people and groups of people in MMA than boxing.
As for the fans, let’s keep in mind that in the United States, MMA has only been truly mainstream and profitable since 2005. So while it is safe to say the core MMA audience is mostly 18-35 white males, basing the growth of that fanbase racially is a little early to say based only on five years.
It’s also worth nothing that you can never rely on intangibles. Would boxing be as big in the hispanic market if not for specific fighters like Oscar De La Hoya? I doubt it. The UFC is developing several international and varied race talents but how much money they can earn in those demographics they represent is based entirely on;
A. The success of said fighter(s).
B. Whether their personalities capture the imagination of that particular demographic.
As you pointed out, Tito Ortiz is not a huge draw in the hispanic market even though he was immensely successful in his day. These things are never a guarantee.
In closing, I’m honestly hard-pressed to hold MMA’s supposed lack of development in this area considering how short a time the sport has even legitimately existed in the United States, let alone in mainstream culture. The very origins of MMA were to find the best martial art or, on a more singular level, the best martial artist. To date no race, culture, nation, or art has been maliciously excluded because of any of those factors, and since day one in the United States, fighters of various backgrounds, cultures, and color of skin have only been embraced and cherished for their contributions.
Now let’s compare that with boxing which has been home to such wonderful promotional diversity as the sport banning black fighters for competing for the Heavyweight Title for 20 years following Jack Johnson’s title reign. Or Muhammad Ali avidly supporting, meeting, and agreeing with the KKK on segregating blacks and whites into two nations. Or guys like Bob Arum who was once quoted as saying “We will let the Blacks and the Latinos fight in the ring and we will count the money on the outside”. Call me crazy but I don’t think that’s the sort of mentality or approach to diversity that is needed moving into the new decade.
Well, it’s certainly not a sport for the white man since the Brazilian man invented it.
But there’s definitely racist undertones in stances groups of MMA fans take from time to time, specifically against Rampage. Randy doing the same exact thing didn’t get nearly the enraged reaction that I saw tons of (“He should know his place!”) from some people on here (not mentioning any names.) And the defense of the Hoelzer Reich incident where people had NO IDEA why “Reich” with iron crosses and other Nazi-era Germany iconography might be a little offensive.
American MMA could never do something on the level of Bob Sapp eating bananas in an ape cage obviously, but I think Kimbo and Rampage have been respectfully portrayed by the UFC who could have gone the easy “street fighting thug” push route and didn’t. And while Elite did go that route a little, it wasn’t nearly as heavy as Krazy Horse’s portrayal on the first Elite XC pre-game show.
But I think the bigotry from fans is largely more nationalistic than racial. Rampage, Evans, Ortiz, Penn, ect. do OK on PPV. But it’s when they’re non-American (and don’t speak English) that it doesn’t matter how great their fighting is, people don’t care. You can probably attribute that to the lack of promo abilities in most of the foreign fighters, but there’s definitely some jingoism there.
Blaming people like Bob Arum for portraying MMA fans as being largely white and quasiracist is hilarious when you consider the abundance of negative African/African-American stereotypes in the sport, the willingness of even its biggest promoters to have ever given a company like Hoezler Reich a platform, and so on.
The problem with reaching the Latino audience is that Mexico hasn’t produced a real star yet in the sport. Hell, East LA barely has. Tito Ortiz makes Oscar De La Hoya look like Julio Cesar Chavez in comparison. We’re talking that sort of fighter being years and years and years away. African Americans in the American inner cities can’t afford BJJ classes and aren’t generally participating in wrestling; there is no connect for them. Kimbo was the closest thing to such a connection, but the problem is that he’s a fraud talentwise (I still believe its unquestionable that he’s the most famous MMA fighter out now).
Blaming people like Bob Arum for portraying MMA fans as being largely white and quasiracist is hilarious when you consider the abundance of negative African/African-American stereotypes in the sport, the willingness of even its biggest promoters to have ever given a company like Hoezler Reich a platform, and so on.
I agree that the majority of the US MMA fanbase would be 18-35 white males, but I don’t see how you could really draw from that the culture or sport is, as you put it, “quasiracist”. Could you provide some examples as to what you’re getting at? Maybe you’re seeing something I’m not, and I’d be interested to see you expand on that.
In regard to negative black stereotypes in MMA, let’s be honest; Negative black stereotypes are everywhere. From MMA to rap music to giant transforming robots at the box office. Have promotions perhaps played that aspect up? Of course. But a lot of the time fighters do that themselves as a way of promoting a gimmick. Ultimately though you’re cutting down to a much deeper cultural issue.
A perfect example of this being a friend of mine, who is black, was raised in a upper-middle class family, and speaks eloquently without an accent or slang, has been told by people that he’s “the whitest black guy I know” or to put it simply that he behaves like a white guy. What does that say about our culture when that type of mentality exists? And this isn’t just white people saying this, I’ve heard other black people say it as well.
So ultimately all I’m saying is that while MMA perhaps does promote that sort of ignorant, racist mentality, it’s not a problem that is within MMA but actually at the very core of our society.
As for the Hoelzer Reich thing, I agree that a brand promoting that level of intolerance is absolutely unacceptable but I have to imagine the fighters and promoters who wore or allowed fighters to wear that clothing did it moreso out of shameless profit than out of any sort of connection to that sort of ideology.
“One of the biggest criticisms leveled against Mixed Martial Arts this past decade involved the issue of race. Was MMA a sport only for white people?”
Besides a cranky boxing promoter who also attacked MMA as being too homosexual with his next argument against it, who is leveling these criticisms? Even more importantly, what white MMA fans are being offended by these accusations?
Everyone knows the MMA fans cheer on ass-kickers, not fighters the same race as them. If that ass-kicking fighter just so happens to be the same race as the audience member, they might cheer a little louder and the buyrates might be a little bigger, but bad fighters get booed and good fighters get cheered. End of story.
I’d rather watch two fighters not the same race as me put on an awesome fight than two fighters the same race as me stink up the octagon with a lousy, uninspiring, plod-fest. I’m sure 99 percent of the MMA audience feels the same way. One of my current favorite fighters is Jon Jones, a man I hope has as much success in the deep end of the light-heavyweight division as he has had in the shallow end.
The big question is why haven’t blacks, Mexicans and other non-whites gotten into MMA? They should, it’s an absolutely thrilling spectacle of combat sports. Do blacks get offended by the ground game (or is just Bernard Hopkins who can’t stomach it)? Are there not enough Mexican fighters for the Mexican audiences liking? Are black and Mexican MMA fans laughed at or yelled at by their peers when they ask them to watch MMA with them? There has to be some reason. I’d really like to know.
The emergence of Rashad Evans over the last couple of years has been a breath of fresh air to the American MMA scene. He’s not just some guy feeding you one liners about “Black On Black Crime”. He has depth to his personality and comes off as a student of the game. The same can be said for up and comers like Tyron Woodley and Mo Lawal. You can listen to these fighters when they are interviewed and you can tell that that they get it.
I always thought that some of the dislike for Rashad Evans, had a lot to do with the fact that he was not a Rampage clone. Not always not always fun loving, not always playing it up for laughs. So his every move is highly scrutinized by some fans, waiting for the opportunity to talk about how he’s a bad ambassador for the sport.
I’m a fan of Rampage Jackson as a fighter. But his gimmick was really starting to wear thin. I think a large part of his appeal, is that his persona was cartoonish and non-threatening, making him easier to root for. Why? Because everyone loves the class clown.
There is nothing wrong with having a wacky persona. But when that’s the only part of your personality you put on display, you strat to come off like a buffon. And that’s what’s happened with Rampage. When you are that “goofy, crazy Black guy that howls” you get a lot less criticism in the world of MMA. But it should really be the other way around.
This is probably why Jackson will be cheered and loved by the crowd when the fight with Evans takes place. Rampage comes off like that “safe nice Black Man”.
Lots of people of all races have a big problem with the ground game. And it’s not just MMA, amateur wrestling is frowned upon by people as being too “gay”. It’s why most MMA superstars are slugfest fighters with little to no ground game.
As for why specific race groups haven’t gotten aboard it could be one of many factors. It could be as Alan pointed out MMA training being untouchable to predominantly poorer minorities (you might be able to afford a boxing training, but can you get wrestling, BJJ, kickboxing all together?) It could be because black and hispanic fighters haven’t been promoted to them properly. It could be because boxing is an institution to black and hispanic people and they’re simply not ready to get behind MMA yet. Who knows? There probably isn’t just one answer, though.
Am I the only one who noticed that Anderson Silva was not a part of this conversation?
Or does Anderson not count since he is African-Brazilian rather than African-American?
Silva is more viewed as a foreign fighter lumped in with the other Brazilians. I’d say his lackluster numbers are far more due to not speaking English than being Afro-Brazilian. Although he does get a bunch of “KNOW YOUR PLACE~!” Rampage-heat these days now that I think about it.
I’ve never seen MMA as a primarily white sport. True, it doesn’t have a high level of black athletes… But it is so multi-cultural that white’s are hardly the entire sport like hockey or NASCAR.
Japanese MMA on the other hand…. There is some distinct racism going on with the way they promote guys like Kevin Randleman and others.
If aything, boxing is so filled with latino and black athletes that it has lost many of it’s white fans…. But that is for a completely different topic… And not one I’m saying is correct to be happening…
Kimbo has definitely crossed over to true minority audiences. I’m a high school teacher at an inner-city school in San Francisco, and well after EliteXC had imploded you’d see kids pulling up the Kimbo-Thompson fight on the internet with the attitude of “check this out, I think Kimbo’s about to knock this MF’er out.” These are kids who have no concept of Kimbo’s stature in the context of the overall heavyweight division, and probably wouldn’t care too much if they did. I see Rampage and the WWE crew of Lesnar and Lashley as having some following as well, but nowhere near at the level of Kimbo. Kimbo has instantly obvious, undeniable street credibility, and that is pretty much the holy grail when it comes to entertainers appealing to minority audiences.
That being said, the major problem the UFC has with appealing to minorities is a simple matter of access. I see a lot of minorities who are somewhat aware of big fights from watching Spike or whatever, but they never see them, and often never even find out the results until much later. The way most fans are able to view big-time MMA events– PPV’s, bars that are showing the events, internet– are often not available either culturally or economically to many minorities. In this way, Strikeforce has a huge edge by being able to put their biggest events on CBS, they just need to have fighters that will appeal to what the average person is looking for. Crazy Russian who knocks people the fuck out? Yes! King Mo & Bobby Lashley? Yes! Jake Shields and his technically-sound submission wrestling? [sound of channels changing]
The thing I believe we’re all struggling with are stereotypes in general. Given that MMA has been one of the most divers sports on the planet (next to soccer), saying that it’s just a “white” sport is as absurd as claiming that the iron cross (which long predates the third reich) is a racist Nazi symbol. The unfortunate thing is that stereotypes can and have been used to unfairly used to belittle and attack others, such as MMA. (Remember “human cock-fighting”)
Getting back to the banning of Hoelzer Reich, people unfairly flipped out because they associate iron crosses and pointy helmets with Nazism. If you visit the Hoelzer Reich website you’ll find out that the company celebrates their German heritage, and those symbols have been used in German culture for centuries. The Nazis just happened to be German and used those common cultural symbols just as pervious German regimes before them. If you are offended by the “Lumberjack Empire”, then you should had been horribly offended that the UFC held a show in Germany, since Nazis came from there.
People use stereotypes to help digest what we have little knowledge about, or to give a general understanding of what something is all about. As already noted, fighters, wrestlers, etc often times use common cultural stereotypes to get themselves over. You find a ton of this the next time you watch WWE TV.
I encourage others not to choke on this red-herring. There’s no need to fear that MMA haven’t made their racial quota. Blacks and hispanics have been slowly filling the ranks for over the past couple of years. The UFC will also continue to target and market to hispanics and blacks. (They bought an entire promotion just to get Rampage’s contract, and cash out on him.) Keep in mind, money is still money no matter who it’s from. And as Mattio properly noted, people love ass-kickers. Kimbo is a good example. WEC has a ton of Mexican and hispanic fights who put on great fights. It’s just a matter of time before we see MMA’s Oscar De La Hoya break out. In the meantime, have patience and stop being so damn defensive.
You really don’t watch boxing do you? If anything, there are more prominent white boxers (namely in the heavyweight division) than since the 70s. And when hasn’t there been a majority of black and hispanic fighters? Why would that drive fans away now? It’s like suddenly noticing there aren’t many white NBA players.
Not enough black Zachary’s either IMO.
🙂
“We know that Rampage’s personality appeals to a lot of fight fans, but the jury is still out on whether or not he brings large amounts of minority fans to MMA.”
My black friends who have ever watched MMA at all still think Kimbo can beat anybody.
I dont think he’s pulling a bunch of black viewers in. His and jacksons “appeal” seems most popular with white kids. But he and guys with similar appeal seem to usually be limit of their familiarity.
In fact humorously (to me at least) if I recall correctly, back when they used to do all the horrible celeb spotting with Kerry Casem, they asked Michael Clarke Duncan who would win the ortiz/couture fight and he looked right in the camera and chose ortiz.
Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY knew that wasn’t happening.
I honestly think he just couldn’t admit either to himself or to his community, support for such a stereotypical whiteman as “Captain America”. Even a Mexican trumped that.
Sometimes I suspect that people might be racist. But its not just MMA fans or white people.
Am I the only one who noticed that Anderson Silva was not a part of this conversation?
Anderson isn’t part of the conversation because he’s not American. He doesn’t speak english. Its like wondering why Ronaldinho doesn’t inspire kids in Memphis housing projects to play soccer.
BJJ training is incredibly expensive compared to boxing and most gyms are located nearer to suburbs than the inner cities as a result. There’s also higher equipment costs. Its a no brainer why Mexico doesn’t have a ton of blue and brown belts tearing up local shows: There are few local shows and if you’re a black belt, you want to train in the US where you can charge a kings ransom for your services. Until we have more BJJ black belts than there are students willing to train and guys willing to go to South Bronx/Detroit/East St. Louis/Compton/etc, you’re not going to see African Americans training. Forget authentic Mexicans training for years and years and years.
Here’s another issue too: Why aren’t these big name Mexican/Puerto Rican fighters on Sabado Gigante every other week, or doing guest spots on a telenovela? I mean, besides the obvious fact that almost none of them speak Spanish. Why aren’t guys like Rampage doing more appearances on BET, TV One, or interviews with XXL and Vibe? I don’t think the people involved with MMA know entirely how to connect with those audiences either, and I seriously doubt they care.
You’re clearly viewing that through hindsight. Ortiz was heavily favored in that fight and Randy was the betting underdog. Ortiz in 2003 was still in the running with Liddell and Wanderlei for #1 LHW in the world and lots of people totally wrote off Randy’s win against Chuck as Liddell taking him too lightly and getting caught than the 40-year old Randy having a career resurgance. Of course it seems silly that anybody would pick Tito over Randy now, but in 2003 it was widely believed Tito’s speed, strength and youth would win out.
Not sure how Liddell and Wanderlei could have been running for #1 when Randy had just whipped the smith out of Liddell.
I do see your explanation, and it might sound kinda familiar, but I dont remember that being the consensus.
The way I seem to recall it Tito pussy footed and had to be coerced a bit more before finally agreeing to take the couture fight. Not exactly the kind of behavior that wpuld inspire favorable betting odds I would think.
But I’m not a gambler so I dont remember the spread.
I think I seem to recall that almost everyone on the forums sans the most irrational “tito-maniacs” was mostly in agreement that it was pretty much over now either via the cage or being stripped.
But that was a long time ago. I couldn’t prove it without scouring old forums in the wayback machine which I dont plan on doing.
So only take that for what it is, “how I remember it, if I’m not mistaken”.
In fact after thinking about it MCD might have actually said that about tito/liddell. But you could swap lidell for couture and my impression at the time was still the same. Thats the only part that I do remember clearly.
But maybe he was just a big tito fan. Apparently they did, and to a lesser degree still do exist.
“…and I seriously doubt they care.”
It seems to me UFC may be making a concerted effort in that particular direction.
There was a few black fighters, including kimbo and 2 black coaches on the last tuf. There is also a few other black fighters on the roster (there always has been), including the new Davis guy they just signed.
Hiring Kimbo, despite the fact that he’s Kimbo seems to speak for itself IMO.
And how about the lovely Chandella Powell?
Although personally I dont see why it should be such a big deal to go out of your way and crawl through glass to beg everybody to love you.
If black people or latinos or koreans want to watch or get into MMA they can. If they dont they dont have to.
I’d prefer that MMA stand on its own merits just as a sport than for some sort of racial coercion.
Although I guess in the end that is just unrealistic in multi-racial and capitalist society.
The best prospect out there for a hispanic star is Henry Cejudo, but he is too small. If he wins a second olympic gold and then went into MMA he could potentially be a very big deal, but I think he’d fight at 135, and nobody at 135 in MMA can be a star right now. Cejudo himself is talking about boxing instead of MMA because he can’t make any money in it, which is a shame.
As far as African-Americans go…I think there’s some movement. Jon Jones, Tyron Woodley, King Mo, and Daniel Cormier are all potential stars.
“BJJ training is incredibly expensive compared to boxing and most gyms are located nearer to suburbs than the inner cities as a result.”
I’m involved in a small way in attempting to bring some BJJ to the children in a poor hispanic community. We aren’t going to succeed, I’m sure. However, we’ll be able to get them into a small boxing program. The difference is the price associated with each. The BJJ guys just cannot go as low in pricing, I guess.
^ The boxing will be very, very close to free, though. Have to add that in.
Which is ridiculous. I understand BJJ is sort of this cool, new thing, but still.
Fluyid, it is very cool what you are doing.
Randy’s win got shockingly little respect from a lot of people (not everybody but the majority kind of laughed it off.) Now it’s a given he’s Captain America, ageless, blah blah blah. But Randy being put in was a desperation move since they had nobody else really worthy of the status but yet Couture was looking completely washed up. Chuck was insanely beloved back then so people just refused to accept washed up Randy beat him and the belief was it was a fluke, Chuck had been concentrating on a strategy against Ortiz for so long and just didn’t take Randy seriously, ect. So no, prior to the good showing against Tito he was not in the running with Wanderlei, Liddell and Tito for the real #1 LHW. And like him or not, Tito technically never lost his championship so he certainly shouldn’t have been taken off the list for a contract dispute.
He didn’t pussyfoot into fighting Couture. He was pissed off at the Interim championship idea, was not-so-secretly relieved he didn’t have to fight Liddell and assumed he could beat 40 year old Randy so almost immediately took the fight after he ironed out issues with UFC. Then since he lost to Couture really had no choice but to take a Liddell fight without too many shenanigans.
I’m not saying nobody believed Randy was going to win, lots did say his superior grappling would win the fight (which it did), but fans were the majority in believing Tito would win and the betting odds were in his favor everywhere.
I think Alex Sean said most everything that needed to be said right at the start.
The UFC has been big only for a few years. When you consider the fact that the UFC has only been heavily multiracial for two or so years (at the start of the UFC’s rise, their big names were all white: Couture, Liddell, Hughes, Franklin, Griffin), and the importance of word of mouth in spreading the popularity of MMA, its no surprise that large black and hispanic fanbases have not yet developed. I would expect that trend to shift over the next few years.
Another factor to consider is that grappling and ground fighting is much more a cultural presence among white people (amateur wrestling) than it is among black people or hispanics. I’m sure that difference has had some impact on the differential increase in the sport’s popularity.
“I would expect that trend to shift over the next few years.”
Maybe not.
Not when a title holder usually has to have some kind of jiu jitsu or bottom mount game to last longer than a defense or 2. Blacks appear to be perfectly capable wrestlers, but how many only good wrestlers have held on to a belt for very long.
Maybe before hockey and golf become “heavily multiracial”, but not a hell of a lot sooner than that when there are so many other sports that they are much more attached to.
Success of a single African American does not necessarily mean the sport will be “integrated”. Tiger Woods success did not lead to 40% of the PGA being black. The issue wasn’t access for existing talent as it was the NBA, NFL, MLB, and boxing, but getting fighters on the ground floor. Until BJJ blackbelts can offer services at a rate comparable to local boxing or even kung fu/karate gyms, forget it.
BTW: I wonder if boxing will ever become “heavily multiracial”?
The only white guys I’ve seen in pro boxing are those Russian brothers and like 2 british dudes.
“Tiger Woods success did not lead to 40% of the PGA being black.”
That would have been magical. And so affirming.
Although luckily it did lead to “Who’s you caddy”.
🙂
Good looking, highly successful, and very rich athletes should not be getting married during their prime athletic years. It’s as simple as that.
But I do think the media plays favorites on who they want to protect and who they don’t.
Barry Bonds, Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, and Tiger Woods have been wrecked by the media at certain points during their career.
Guys like Derek Jeter, Michael Jordan, Shaq, and others have been absolutely protected.
BTW: I wonder if boxing will ever become “heavily multiracial”?
The only white guys I’ve seen in pro boxing are those Russian brothers and like 2 british dudes.
LOL, this is the deadest meme in the world, along with “no white guys play in the NBA”.
Another nice write up Zach! This is why I enjoy visiting your blog. You’re not afraid to focus on insightful issues that are taboo on various MMA websites.
Yes, MMA caters to a white male, Euro-Centric audience. From the UFC’s marketing campaigns to their overall business structure, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Zuffa has capitalized on a lucrative white audience to make a viable profit. And whether we like it or not, in the fight game race will always be an issue. History has proven this to be the case.
In every industry, there are demographics that need to be exploited or harnessed. Zuffa has taken advantage of a lucrative segment that’s been virtually ignored by boxing the past 25 years (18-34, White Male demographic).
Like every smart business, the UFC will continue to push an abundance of “White American” hopes or fighters as a reflection of their main audience. After all, Couture & Lidell are fading away so pushing a new generation of young, white American fighters as future stars makes will keep their audience intact. This is what makes the so-called NASCAR effect so appealing and successful. NASCAR knows their core audience and will continue to provide a product that will cater to their interests. The same is happening with the UFC.
But will the UFC still maintain the same popularity once the upper echelon of their fight roster is dominated by Minorities? Like Boxing, this reality is getting closer as it’s already happening with division being dominated with shades of brown and black! But will Zuffa let it continue??? We’ll see soon enough.
“LOL, this is the deadest meme in the world, along with “no white guys play in the NBA”.”
Your probably right. I dont know much about boxing or its memes. I’ve seen it before but I dont watch it.
But I do find it hard to imagine that its any deader or more draining that the “UFC doesn’t care about black people” meme.
“…the UFC will continue to push an abundance of “White American” hopes or fighters as a reflection of their main audience.”
Are you implying that UFC scouts for white fighters first and then good fighters second?
Sounds a little far fetched but I enjoy a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy.
In fact you might be right.
They do seem to be making a concerted effort to sign blacks now. And they made transparent efforts to sign brits and filipinos and mexicans before.
Why not white guys too?
Although I wonder if that would even require a particularly concentrated effort. Just as you pointed out that we’re the main audience around here, we’re probably also the bulk of the local talent too.
BTW: Have you noticed that the (american) blackman doesn’t have one belt in the UFC?!
We’ve got one giant White, who hasn’t even defended and will probably lose it pretty soon one way or the other. Two Brazilians (one black brazilian), a French Canadian and an Asian Hawaiian.
We need some more multi-culti all up in here IMO!
“Yes, MMA caters to a white male, Euro-Centric audience. From the UFC’s marketing campaigns to their overall business structure, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Zuffa has capitalized on a lucrative white audience to make a viable profit. And whether we like it or not, in the fight game race will always be an issue. History has proven this to be the case.”
I wouldn’t say the UFC is catering to white people. The UFC is pushing plenty of non-white fighters. In fact, the UFC wants their non-white fighters to become bigger draws so they can expand into the other demographics. Look no further than what they are doing with Cain Velasquez and had tried to do with Huerta before that.
Since the discussion is centered on black fighters, let’s take a look at Rashad. They’re trying to make him a large star, but like Zach says, “As a drawing card, he’s respectable but it doesn’t appear that he reaches across a lot of different demographics — just mostly appealing to UFC’s core audience plus a few casual fans.” But that’s not due to a lack of effort by the UFC. Counting his bout with Thiago, Rashad will have headlined 5 straight numbered UFC events and also spent a season coaching TUF. That’s as big of a push as you can possibly give a fighter.
Also, for your perusal, here’s a look at recent and upcoming UFC main events bouts:
UFN 20 – Latin American vs Caucasian American
108 – African American vs Brazilian
107 – Latin American vs Half-asian Hawaiian (he supports Hawaiian sovereignty, so he’d prefer this label instead of American)
TUF 10 finale – African American vs Caucasian American
106 – Half Latin American vs Caucasian American
105 – Half Filipino American vs Caucasian American
104 – Brazilian vs Brazilian
103 – Caucasian American vs Brazilian
UFN 19 – Latin American vs African American
102 – Caucasian American vs Brazilian
etc.
I wouldn’t call that catering to white people. It just so happens that it’s mostly white people who watch it.
In the past 10 years in the heavyweight division alone there have been 7 white Heavyweight champions from the big 4 orgs (Vitali Klitschko,.Wladimir Klitschko, Nikolay Valuev, Ruslan Chagaev, Sultan Ibragimov, Oleg Maskaev, and Sergei Liakhovich.) UFC has had 4 black champions combined in all of their divisions in 16 years (Kevin Randleman, Anderson Silva, Rampage and Rashad Evans.)
Nobody believes this is intentional, they’re just pointing out that it is more “black people don’t care about MMA” and how this could change. I agree with Alan’s belief that they’re not targeting the right publicity areas, personally.
Right now, there are a ton of very well known caucasian fighters: 1/2 the Super Six are white guys from Europe. Kelly Pavlik, Lucian Bute, Marco Huck, Danny Green, Enzo Maccaranelli, Vic Darchinyan, Robert Stieglitz, etc. 6 of the top 10 heavyweights in the world are white guys. Ever since the Iron Curtain went down, so did that argument.
I don’t think Lester Grimes is totally off base, at least to start with. Clearly, the UFC *did* appeal to a base of fans that boxing has ignored for long periods of time (18-34 year old white males with only basic cable) and with it came an entire lifestyle that was sold with it of Affliction t-shirts and bad tattoos. I don’t think the UFC necessarily wants to be stuck only marketing to white guys, though I’m not entirely sure that they understand how to market the sport of MMA to hispanics or African Americans. And as was said earlier, it doesn’t really matter so much to create new fighters until the cost of training is appreciably lessened.
One thing that should be mentioned in the debate about how to increase participation; The inclusion of FILA style grappling into high school sports to go along with folkstyle would be huge. However, I’m not sure that high schools and colleges are necessarily jazzed to become the new feeder system for MMA talent.
Most of the inner city schools near me all have wrestling program and they typically don’t even fill up 75% of their weight classes. And some of the ones that are filled up are with absolute scrubs. There is a certain stigma in “urban” areas about putting on tights and grappling with other men. Andthat peer pressure will also making grappling arts less popular to those cities….
There is nothing the UFC can do to change the entire culture.
If amateur wrestling led to a professional league worth millions even at the low ends, I guarantee you that the attitude towards it would change appreciably. It doesn’t, though.
There are many sports that lead to millions of dollars that are either losing black athletes or cannot attract them.
Baseball is a perfect example. HBO Real Sports even had a segment on how the number of black MLB players is down from previous years.
I think you over estimate the money factor.
Alan is exactly right, the best you can hope for out of amateur wrestling is staying amateur to try out for the Olympic team and very few American athletes really care about Olympic competition. It’s all about making millions playing a ball sport as the motivation for playing sports. So really only compete for a college scholarship.
You can’t even be guaranteed to make it as a pro wrestling with an amateur wrestling background since most amateur wrestlers are far under 6’2″ 240 pound WWE size minimum, or look like Rulon Gardner which the WWE doesn’t want either. I doubt WWE would have signed Randy Couture and would have ignored Dan Severn without his UFC career, but they would have loved roid monsters like Mark Coleman and especially Mark Kerr. And of course you-know-who. Allegedly.
I think that’s probably more due to opening up the international talent pool more than ever. There are Caribbean and Japanese players who smoke any upcoming American player so why wouldn’t you sign them. Especially when most of them have proven records in their home country leagues. Plus baseball hasn’t been seen as cool in ages. It’s an old man’s sport slightly hipper than golf these days. How many cool black players are there compared to cool NBA players and NFL players to see as role models?
I think there are certainly similarities as to why baseball and wrestling are not major inner city sports; cost of access and facility being primary among these. But baseball does have the backing of various MLB funded programs to try and rebuild these ties. USA Wrestling has no such thing, and certainly MMA has no such rung on the ladder. Nor is there any expectation that the UFC, Strikeforce, et al. will task themselves with the development of such things. There’s a reason why UFC Gyms are glorified malldojos in suburban areas and not large, legitimate training facilities in major urban areas, and its not about building the next generation of fighter.
Alan said:
“I think there are certainly similarities as to why baseball and wrestling are not major inner city sports; cost of access and facility being primary among these.”
You would have a point on baseball if they didn’t get most of their best talent from countries like the Dominician Republic where they play ball in the streets with no real baseball field around.
Baseball takes a rubber ball and a stick to get good at. It’s not until the high school level that you really need equipment. And most of the inner city schools field baseball teams.
Once again, you completely overestimate money into this equation. Baseball is very much like basketball in that it is cheap to play if you really want to do so.
Mark said:
“Plus baseball hasn’t been seen as cool in ages. It’s an old man’s sport slightly hipper than golf these days. How many cool black players are there compared to cool NBA players and NFL players to see as role models?”
Do you even follow the sport. Anybody who follows it would know that attendance is at an all time high. Go to a Yankees or Red Sox game, and there are a lot of kids there. If anything, there are more families then anything else at these games…
You’re assuming the kids wanted to go. I used to get dragged to baseball games all of the time because my dad was a fan I had zero interest in it because I thought it was incredibly boring. But baseball is the cheapest night out in all of professional sports, especially compared to NFL and NHL ticket prices. The real proof is in the cherished young male demos, which they can’t match with football either professional or collegiate and haven’t since the 1980s. And I know NCAA basketball gets a higher percentage of young viewers, not sure about the NBA though.
Herschel Walker~! will get every African-American youngster into the sport
You would have a point on baseball if they didn’t get most of their best talent from countries like the Dominician Republic where they play ball in the streets with no real baseball field around.
There’s an intermediary of stickball and the MLB farm system; its Dominican semipro & pro baseball. In the case of baseball in the US, there is no intermediary there. Players are selected by teams through a draft of high school talent. No high school baseball = no pro baseball.
And basically all inner city and poor communities have a baseball team in America. Any kid in America…. In any city…. can find a team to play on if he wants to. Money isn’t the factor. Access isn’t the factor…
They might have little league teams in their area, but large numbers of inner city schools lack baseball squads. Same problem as wrestling. You can’t expect MLB to draft out of Little League.
“Ever since the Iron Curtain went down, so did that argument.”
How about white americans? Why dont we get to be in boxing?
As far as a lack of access to sports or MMA, UFC or MMA does not control the size or demographics of ghettos. And I’m not sure what ghetto is so large these days that you couldn’t get to a normal city within an hour long bus ride at most.
Plus the fact that you dont have to come from some precious sophisticated division 1 wrestling background to get involved.
jackson may have “wrestled” in high school and “junior college” but all it took was for him to find out that he can “beat up white people and not go to jail” and the next thing you know he was in KOTC and Pride without much more than his street fighting ability.
And the rest shall we say has been history.
As far as advertising in XXL and on BET, lets not.
There’s already way too much fickel pop crowd being brought in and watering down the sport for easier consumption through MTV and its ilk. A black version of the MTV crowd is not what I had in mind for growth of the sport.
I already saw Iron Ring.
MMA is out there now.
And it has been for awhile for those of us who looked for it.
Black people can see it almost anywhere if they want to. Any black person who owns a TV, rents DVD’s or goes on the internet (and I’m assuming that they do) can become aware of it quite easily.