Issue 045

January 2009

This may come as a surprise to you, but fighters are liars. They are, almost without exception, deceptive and dishonest. You must always question the words you hear come from a fighter, and scrutinise their actions in the ring carefully. Fighters are required by the very nature of the sport to spin falsehoods, weave stories and even act in a manner they would otherwise avoid. Even so, that doesn’t mean that they are an untrustworthy breed – far from it, in fact. Fighters are some of the most honourable sportsmen in the world.  

The deception to which I refer comes from having conducted many a pre-fight interview. Have you ever heard a fighter go into a contest bemoaning their substandard training camp, revealing their injury status or sharing their fears and doubts? Of course not. Ask a fighter how things are going and you’ll get the same stock answer: “Great, never better, things are 100%”.  

Even in the ring, fighters cannot be believed. They practise their ability to conceal their nervousness, discomfort and pain. After a fight, they humbly thank sponsors and training partners when all they want to do is jump up and down and shout to everyone in the building, “Look at me! Look at me! I did it!” In defeat, they gracefully thank the opponents who have beaten them, secretly hoping foul calamities will befall their descendants. They lie, although not in a malicious way.  

You could conduct a survey of every MMA fighter in the world as to the reasons why they fight, and you’d probably end up with half a dozen common answers between them. They fight for pride, they fight for acceptance, they fight their way out of the ghetto, they fight to provide a better future for their families, they fight for fun, and of course, they fight for recognition.  

Some fighters may claim to not care what fans think, but it’s easy to see this isn’t always the case. Tim Sylvia, possibly the most vilified and disrespected champion the UFC has ever had, could never capture the fans’ hearts. He tried to brush this off as no big deal, claiming he didn’t need the backing of fans to be the best fighter he could, but behind his words hung an air of bitterness. You can’t help but feel that had he enjoyed the support of the fans, he would be singing an entirely different tune.  

Of course, when you hold a title belt, recognition does take a backseat compared to the strap around your waist. You need little validation from outside sources when you hold a material trophy that affirms your status. The quest for these awards is what drives fighters, though few will admit it openly.  

That’s why it is interesting now that the Fighters Only World Mixed Martial Arts Awards are drawing so much attention from fighters around the world. Without exception, every fighter in the running for the first ever Awards were thrilled when told of their nominations, and the winners were of course overjoyed at being presented their trophies.  

It all comes down to pride, and as humble as they often are, fighters are a proud bunch. The problem is, there are only so many titles to go around, and it’s important that fans are given the opportunity to let the fighters know they’ve got their support. Every major sport and industry has got it’s own annual awards, from the Oscars and Emmys to the FIFA Gala Awards and BBC Sports Personality of the Year, so it was only right that someone (in this case, us) set up a credible system whereby you could honour the fighters and figures that make us this awesome sport.  

For the fighter who enjoys his vocation, i.e. the man who genuinely takes pleasure from his chosen endeavour and is not forced into it via circumstance, recognition is everything. The recognition of one’s peers is one thing, but the approval of the fans is an entirely different matter. For them to know that hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of fans around the world recognise their worth as a fighter can propel their confidence skyward.  

With a nomination and voting system that gives you, the reader, the power to decide who is named the award winners, we’ve hopefully given the fighters another reason to fight.