Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

MMA announcer Michael "The Voice" Schiavello of HDNet Fights takes a look at why we like specific fighters for Pro Fighting Fans

To what affect does likeability of an individual fighter influence your viewing habits? If a fighter acts like a dickhead will that affect you watching his fights despite how supremely talented he may be?

Many people will say what the likes of Kazuo Misaki, Quinton Jackson and Badr Hari do and how they act outside of the ring shouldn’t affect your tuning in to watch their fights. They’re athletes, after all, not politicians. Fleeing the scene, throwing a tantrum back stage or reckless driving should not undermine their in-ring aesthetics. If you’re a fan of fight sports then you should appreciate the fight itself and the immense range of skills being performed at an elite level. Right?

But in a day and age where the spotlight follows fighters away from the ring just as much as it does in it, those who choose to drift sideways in their personal lives instead of following the straight and narrow receive as much attention as a Hugh Grant backseat blowjob or a Mel Gibson drunken anti-Jewish rant.

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When a fighter has a persona outside of the ring just as big as in the ring, it can overwhelm our appreciation purely for their fighting prowess.

If that persona is an unpleasant one does it make you think twice about spending your moolah to watch them fight?

Does likeability of a wayward fighter depend on the level of their in-ring ability rather than the action committed outside of the ring?

Do we condemn the less talented fighter and show clemency to those more gifted?

In other words, do we forgive Quinton Jackson’s hit-and-run, felony evasion and reckless driving charges in Costa Mesa but show no leniency for Junie Browning’s Klonopin overdose and assault on hospital staff? Should we feel sorry for Junie Browning and support his fights because, as Sean Tompkins once told MMA Convert: “He’s truly a sweet kid, but he’s a guy with a lot of personal issues. There is a good Junie Browning and I saw that side of him a lot. But he comes from a real bad upbringing and he suffers from severe depression. He’s had an enormously difficult life. There’s a lot to life beyond stepping into a cage and fighting and being on TV and a lot of people who think they know Junie don’t, really.”

Do we sweep under the proverbial carpet Kazuo Misaki’s run-in with a Tokyo police officer because his fights fire our imagination but come down hard on John “War Machine” Koppenhaver and his arrests for battery because, well, he just doesn’t do it for us any more in the ring?

Does the ‘don’t-like’ factor affect your viewing habits at all? And what qualifies the ‘don’t-like’ factor?

You can be as clean cut as fresh bread and still disliked by fans.

Take for example Remy Bonjasky, a true gentleman outside the ring and a true artist inside. For every person who loves Remy, there are just as many who dislike him. When pressed as to why they dislike him, most of the anti-Remy contingent simply shrug and say: “I just don’t care for him.” Others say: “He fights like a coward.” Some say: “He lacks heart.” The man is a triple K-1 Grand Prix Champion. The elite of the elite with arguably the most succulent skill set of any fighter in K-1 history. But there’s no budging those who dislike him.

Michael Schiavello interviews Peter Aerts. Photo courtesy Michael Shiavello

There’s nothing too dislikable about Semmy Schilt outside of the ring. The man’s a Karate devotee who trains diligently, loves his wife and kid, lives a quiet life (when he’s not screaming at trees in the forest during those K-1 promotional videos) and enjoys teaching children. Inside the ring he is a wrecking machine and the most powerful K-1 champion in history. But once again, for every person who likes Schilt there are probably two or three who dislike him. “He’s too big” or “He’s too slow” or “He’s boring.” they say, even though he won the K-1 Grand Prix 2009 in a record time of 5:52.

On the flip side to Bonjasky and Schilt, Jerome LeBanner is a man who is easy to dislike. Having spent several years on the K-1 circuit touring with the Frenchman, I’ve found him moody, arrogant and the least fan-friendly of fighters. But he’s fired the imagination with his explosive knockouts and kill-or-be-killed fight philosophy and is arguably the most popular K-1 fighter of all time. He’s always been money-in-the-bank for K-1 even if he obliges fans and the media only about one-fifth as much as say Bonjasky, Ray Sefo or Peter Aerts.

I’ve lost count of how many people tell me they despise Badr Hari because of the way he acts during and after his fights. He’s the only fighter to be disqualified in a K-1 Grand Prix final (2008 vs Bonjasky); he’s the only fighter to be involved in a genuine brawl at a K-1 press conference (2006 vs Graham); and he tore up the backstage area after controversially losing to Ruslan Karaev in Osaka in 2006.

For every one of these haters however, I haven’t heard anyone say they would NOT watch Hari’s fights. They’re the other side of the Hari coin that watches in droves in the hope of seeing Hari get knocked out. The same side of the coin, you could say, that made Mike Tyson a pay-per-view phenomenon right up until the end of his career.

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On one side of the coin Tyson was a convicted rapist and appendage-biter you wanted to see get floored. On the other side of the coin, he was boxing’s most badass knockout artist you wanted to see scramble another opponent’s brain in devastating fashion.

Heads I win; tails you lose.

There’s a lot not to like about plenty of fighters, but there’s no denying the outstanding skills and the ability to produce knockouts and submissions of highlight reel proportions time and time again. I’m sure every fan who wanted Shinya Aoki strung up after he broke Hirota’s arm on New Year’s Eve and then flipped the Sengoku champion the bird will tune into his next fight on HDNet to see him get beaten or make an opponent tap with another crazy submission.

Do we turn a blind-eye to a fighter’s indiscretions so long as he satisfies our craving for epic action and fulfills our appetite for destruction inside the ring?

By Michael Schiavello
ProFighting-fans.com MMA Guest Writer

Michael Schiavello is the voice of MMA and K-1 on HDNet and a regular correspondent for InsideMMA. He commentated the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and The Contender Asia reality TV series. He can be found online at: www.thevoiceofficial.com and at Twitter "SchiavelloVOICE."