Short version: MMA fans/media members are nerds and virgins.
Long version:
Every sport has controversies about referee calls but nothing compares to the hysterical howling about every little perceived ref controversy after most MMA events from both the MMA media and online community. These 'controversies' often completely dominate the narrative.
Usually with most other sports online you will of course get people crying about ref decisions and others arguing with them, but the difference is there is always a significant majority of adults in the media and online that simply say 'get the fuck over it. Ref made the call, team/person A beat team/person B on the night. Deal with it.' It's this latter group that is largely absent in MMA and it's hard to explain why.
My hypothesis, which should be empirically researched, is that it stems from the fact that so much of the fanbase are/were pro wrestling fans and even those that never have been are still influenced by this pro wrestling culture. It's also just a fact that the history of MMA is intrinsically linked with pro wrestling.
In pro wrestling you 'protect' the good guy by making sure he never loses fairly. The Ultimate Warrior only lost to Sgt. Slaughter because the Macho Man hit him with some object. Fans are conditioned not to accept that the 'bad guy' could possibly beat their hero on merit.
Eddie Alvarez didn't lose to Poirier because Poirier is a better striker, he lost because of the evil Marc Goddard interfering. Tim Kennedy didn't lose to Yoel Romero because he got dominated for almost the entirety of the fight, he lost because the evil foreigner cheated the Amrican hero out of his deserved victory. This type of thinking has simply been instilled in the fanbase and it creates a far more retarded level of discourse than you get in other sports.
Does anyone disagree with my theory? And if you disagree, why are you such a racist?
Long version:
Every sport has controversies about referee calls but nothing compares to the hysterical howling about every little perceived ref controversy after most MMA events from both the MMA media and online community. These 'controversies' often completely dominate the narrative.
Usually with most other sports online you will of course get people crying about ref decisions and others arguing with them, but the difference is there is always a significant majority of adults in the media and online that simply say 'get the fuck over it. Ref made the call, team/person A beat team/person B on the night. Deal with it.' It's this latter group that is largely absent in MMA and it's hard to explain why.
My hypothesis, which should be empirically researched, is that it stems from the fact that so much of the fanbase are/were pro wrestling fans and even those that never have been are still influenced by this pro wrestling culture. It's also just a fact that the history of MMA is intrinsically linked with pro wrestling.
In pro wrestling you 'protect' the good guy by making sure he never loses fairly. The Ultimate Warrior only lost to Sgt. Slaughter because the Macho Man hit him with some object. Fans are conditioned not to accept that the 'bad guy' could possibly beat their hero on merit.
Eddie Alvarez didn't lose to Poirier because Poirier is a better striker, he lost because of the evil Marc Goddard interfering. Tim Kennedy didn't lose to Yoel Romero because he got dominated for almost the entirety of the fight, he lost because the evil foreigner cheated the Amrican hero out of his deserved victory. This type of thinking has simply been instilled in the fanbase and it creates a far more retarded level of discourse than you get in other sports.
Does anyone disagree with my theory? And if you disagree, why are you such a racist?
