The Guardian and MMA

[NHH]

It's somewhat belatedly dawned on me that the Guardian really give a msive shit about MMA, despite MMA and its culture being probably the most unGuardian sport I can think of. So what gives? It is a blatant clickbait thing, seeing a gap to cover something no-one else does? Or just enthusiasms of younger journos drawn from the US as it expands there? Or is their some weird demographic crossover between liberals and MMA which has hitherto escaped my notice?

[Sean of the Shed]

MMA is fucking shit. It's a televised playground scrap.

[elguapo4]

Just found out that horrible fucker Mc Gregor was beaten, my hangover feels a bit better with that news.

[NHH]

I quite agree SotS. It's the Guardian's coverage that grates. They regularly have articles about how various people in the MMA world are associated with Alt-right circles as if there was some fucking surprise about this.Who knew a sport in which tries to remove as few obstacles as possible to beating the shite out of someone for the delectation of a baying crowd of cunts was offside when it came to social democracy?

[Sean of the Shed]

Yeah, I imagine that there is an incredibly high percentage of people who fill the intersection of the MMA/Nascar fans venn diagram. In the US, anyway.

[wingco]

It's a horrible sport. And this comes from a boxing fan. Caught a snatch of the US commentary on Twitter on the McGregor fight. Horrible, capillary-bursting stuff.

[ursus arctos]

Yeah, I imagine that there is an incredibly high percentage of people who fill the intersection of the MMA/Nascar fans venn diagram. In the US, anyway.

Just not true in my experience, with MMA support being infinitely more racially and geographically diverse and much younger than NASCAR

[San Bernardhinault]

My very limited experience is the same as Ursus's. It's a racially and geographically diverse supporter base, but my experience is also that you generally would still not have any interest in having a conversation with any of them and would be wise to give them a wide berth. I'm sure there are exceptions, but as a rule you wouldn't be going far wrong.

[ursus arctos]

McGregor also has a fanatical following among the young, male and shorter term Irish diaspora, which is a particular force here and in Chicago and Boston (my sense is that it has largely been priced out of San Francisco, but Flynnie would know).

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It's because any article about MMA will be their most read and shared article that week usually by a distance. Garcia went to a couple of those mcgregor fights to cover them, because it was such a huge event at the time. I forget the exact ratio, but those articles would be read and shared by a large multiple of the people who would read his football columns in the irish times.

[ursus arctos]

That week he spent in Vegas was some of his best work (though the personal toll was not inconsiderable)

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

He fucking hates Vegas.

[ursus arctos]

There is simply no way he could feel any other way about the place given his experiences (which aren't at all unique, though being there in the midst of McGregor Mania ratcheted everything up to 13)

[diggedy derek]

That sounds an intriguing piece

MMA is just really popular isn't it? Pay per view buys for MMA fights pass a million on a semi regular basis. That's a serious amount of cash.

https://www.tapology.com/search/mma-...w-buys-buyrate

Given its popularity, I guess The Guardian feels it has to have some knowledable and probably young or at least fresh writers on it, and they need to give them some freedom to find their own path. That's a classic journalistic situation with a new(ish) phenomenon.

[Incandenza]

Every younger guy on left Twitter seems to know everything about MMA.

Felix Biederman of Chapo Trap House did a great multi-part YouTube documentary about the history of MMA and its political context.

[jwdd27]

My very limited experience is the same as Ursus's. It's a racially and geographically diverse supporter base, but my experience is also that you generally would still not have any interest in having a conversation with any of them and would be wise to give them a wide berth. I'm sure there are exceptions, but as a rule you wouldn't be going far wrong.

My experience is that colleagues who are fans of MMA tend to not really be fans of much other sport - they tend be gamers and sci-fi fans, and yes, they're not worth it.

[Hot Pepsi]

As far as I can tell from the studies that have been done, MMA is not more dangerous than traditional boxing, though that’s not saying much.

It’s definitely replaced boxing as the most popular blood sport in the US, which is disappointing because I had hoped that the decline of boxing represented actual societal progress. I think it was more to do with all the corruption in boxing and it’s general disorganization.

ESPN seems heavily invested in MMA, which suggests it definitely has a commercial future although I don’t see how it could get any bigger. The sort of people who might be interested in it already are. It seems to mostly be young men who are into metal and video games.

Dana White seems like a real Trumpist piece of shit.

[Flynnie]

McGregor also has a fanatical following among the young, male and shorter term Irish diaspora, which is a particular force here and in Chicago and Boston (my sense is that it has largely been priced out of San Francisco, but Flynnie would know).

There’s still some Sunset District Irish around, but let’s just say they all still live with their parents even if they have decent jobs in the union.

[Flynnie]

Here’s my take about why MMA fans feel different to boxing fans (real hardcore boxing fans don’t like MMA).

I think it’s that MMA fans feel like suburban working class people, while boxing is very much an urban working class fanbase at this point.

[Hot Pepsi]

Boxing doesn’t seem to be a thing at all any more in the US. I can’t recall the last time there was big hype for a title fight. When I was a kid, I didn’t watch it much, but I knew who some of the belt holders were because they did commercial endorsements and were often the cover story on Sports Illustrated.

Maybe there are still some of the classic boxing gyms in the big cities like I’ve seen in the movies, but I think insofar as people in those neighborhoods want to get kids into sports to “keep them off the street,” as the saying goes, they’d be more inclined to put them into basketball or football (either version.)

[ursus arctos]

You must not know many people of Mexican heritage