Longtime AWA champion and pro wrestling legend Nick Bockwinkle was famous for his often contentious relationship with the fans that followed the sport.  He would often quip “I love pro wrestling fans.  I just don’t like the fact that they can vote or reproduce”.  I’m starting to feel the same way about MMA fans that Bockwinkle did about pro wrestling fans.

Before we get started, we need to make a distinction here.  There are essentially two types of MMA fans.  The serious fans of MMA are as intelligent, knowledgable and passionate as those of any professional sport.  They know the fighters, the techniques, and appreciate the multitude of skills on display in mixed martial arts.  The other type of MMA fans are little more than blood thirsty meth addicts who go to live events to get liquored up, wear their Tapout gear they bought at Wal Mart and hope that somebody gets seriously injured.  They also boo everything and everybody  not involved in a toe to toe, blood drenched slugfest.

On Sunday night, the WEC had an event that gave good evidence of this phenomenon.  The WEC is the other promotion owned by UFC parent company Zuffa, LLC and focuses on lighter weight classes. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that the promotion did away with everything above lightweight with most of the top fighters moving to the UFC.  With the possible exception of the Japanese K-1 promotion, the WEC may produce more consistently excellent events than anyone in the world.  I can’t remember the last time there was a *bad* WEC card and more often than not they feature several ‘can’t miss’ fights.

The live crowd last night in Sacramento apparently didn’t get the memo because they booed everything.  It’s not uncommon for MMA crowds–particularly in areas “new” to live MMA events–to boo every time the fights go to the ground and that’s bad enough.  Last night’s crowd at the Arco Arena booed just about everything on the card.  That was somewhat surprising as the WEC has promoted a number of events in Sacramento, and the area has a very lively MMA ‘scene’.  WEC posterboy Urijah Faber is from Sacramento.  Pretty much the only thing that the Sacto crowd *didn’t* boo was Faber and the opening bout where Will Campuzano beat Coty “Ox” Wheeler in a bloodbath.

Everything else got a rousing chorus of boos from the crowd.  All of the preliminary fights after the Campuzano win were booed.  Former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown was booed for no apparent reason.  Dave Jansen vs. Kamal Shalorus was an excellent matchup between two solid wrestlers, but the crowd booed anyway.  They really let Shalorus have it after the fight, apparently because he was born in Iran.  In his postfight interview he expressed some national pride for Iran–a country with a very long tradition of excellent amateur wrestling:

“I’m Iranian, I’m world class wrestler, nobody can take me down.”

The Sacto fans reacted as if he were The Iron Sheik cutting a promo on Sergent Slaughter during the 1980′s.  The crowd did get into hometown boy Urijah Faber’s match, though I’m not sure if it was because of their love for ‘The California Kid’ or if it was because of his entrance music of ‘California Love’ by Tupac Shakur.  It might have been just a bunch of white suburban wanna-be gangstas excited to hear the West Coast rap legend in a venue other than booming from the stereos of their jacked up pick’em up trucks.  Not surprisingly, they booed Faber’s opponent Raphael Assuncao like he’d disrespected Eminem or committed some other egregious offense.

In the main event, one of the more likable fighters in MMA Ben “Smooth” Henderson defeated lightweight champion Jamie Varner to unify the title.  The fans booed throughout the fight, and then booed Henderson some more in his post fight interviews after which they presumably headed home to their trailers to drink some more malt liquor.

Now, I have no problem with fans in any sport booing competitors for a legitimate reason.  If a fighter is dogging it, if he gives the fans a ‘middle finger salute’ or does something else worthy of scorn, let him have it.  On the other hand, booing fights because they go to the ground–which they invariably do in MMA–or heckling guys like Henderson who always show up and fight their asses off is downright pitiful and an embarrassment to the sport.  It almost makes MMA which on balance is a great sport contested by phenomenal athletes painful to watch.  Just because these morons think they’re buying a ticket to the cockfights and are disappointed when an actual sporting event transpires is no excuse for boorish behavior.

Ultimately, the MMA promotions themselves are to blame for marketing to this demographic.  They do little to ‘educate’ fans on the nuances of the sport and its techniques.  Strikeforce at least makes an effort with their widely ridiculed ‘fighting red robots’, but its a half assed effort at best.  And on one level, the companies have an economic incentive to woo the knuckledragger demographic–if they’re buying tickets and t-shirts why not take their money?

The problem is that these toothless hillbillies do significant collateral damage to the image of a sport that is fighting to overcome a lot of misconceptions that already exist.  It also is a real turnoff to serious MMA fans who love, promote and support the sport.  That may already be happening, as last night’s WEC show had one of the weakest turnouts of any previous show in the city with the entire Arco Arena upper deck curtained off.

MMA is a great sport with some of the toughest and most dedicated athletes in the world.  They deserve better than to be judged by the lowest common denominator that is attracted to their events.  At some point the bloodthirsty meth addicts will get tired of MMA and return to monster truck rallies or whatever else passes for entertainment in their world.  The fight promotions need to make sure that when they do, they’ve not alienated serious fans of the sport by marketing it to this demographic.

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