Issue 040
August 2008
Getting in the cage might seem like a tough decision to make, at least, one that normal people would mull over before agreeing to sign on the dotted line. For others, stepping into the cage is about as exciting as another day in the office, albeit an office where you get severely punched and kicked in the face for getting your work wrong.
The toughest decision isn’t whether you’re going to fight. It isn’t even what shorts you’re going to wear for your big night (this is an easy one: it’s either your lucky pair or those given to you by a sponsor).
By far the hardest decision a fighter will ever have to make is one that will affect their mental state as they get ready to fight; leave a lasting impression (good or bad) on the audience; potentially be forever associated with you as a fighter; actually sway the outcome of the fight.
You guessed it – the hardest choice to make is what entrance music to come out to.
Alright, it’s maybe not quite that serious a decision, but all of the above, and more, is true. Go on any MMA forum and you’ll always find threads devoted to this question. Fans debate what they would come out to should they ever make the walk to the cage. Threads can go on for months, sometimes years, while suggestions are made, choices bandied around and ideas mulled over.
Go to any MMA show and you’ll be sure to hear the usual genres that have somehow formed a bond with the sport. Generic aggressive hip-hop, nu-metal and high-energy dance music seem to be the most popular choices. Occasionally you’ll come across some more offbeat choices of entrance music. I’ve heard fighters come out to everything from opera to O.D.B. and techno to The Rolling Stones.
If you think about it, it’s not as easy as you might think. A good entrance tune can’t take too long to kick in, otherwise you’ll keep everyone hanging on and hold things up as you wait for the good bit to walk out to. It is widely known that music has mood-altering properties, so you’ll want something that will prime you for action. Too fast and heavy and the music might make you over-hyped. Too slow and chilled out and you may end up sluggish and with no energy.
Personally I invested a hell of a lot of thought into what I wanted for my entrance music the times I fought. It took me weeks of going through CDs and MP3s to find that one special track that would herald my walk into the cage. I went through everything from punk to pop and metal to techno before settling on my choices. I got it right, and I got it wrong too. It’s something you never know will work or not until you hear it over the PA as you make that walk from the back room to the centre of the arena.
The time I got it wrong I chose a tinny piece of punk music that could barely be heard over the crowd of a few hundred people. It sounded cool at home and in the gym, but in that hall it sounded flat and meant nothing to me. When I got it right, I chose a swaggering piece of music by Rage Against The Machine that worked just right -– it had plenty of bass and a quiet intro that rose in tempo a few seconds in, to become a pumping riff that I felt right down to my core.
Some fighters have become quite attached to certain entrance tunes. Chuck Liddell has used the same DMX song since 2006, and it’s hard to imagine him coming out to anything else. Matt Hughes famously has his ‘Country boy can survive’ song, and Wanderlei Silva’s signature tune is the pumping trance track ‘Sandstorm.’
A good entrance tune can endear unknown fighters to a crowd, win or lose. I’ve seen anonymous fighters come out to tracks that have blown the roof of the arena, and sometimes this energy is infectious and can actually make the fighter perform better. Similarly, when a top fighter comes out to a non-descript number that leaves the crowd indifferent, it doesn’t do them any good.
I challenge anyone who was there to see Michael Bisping walk out to his fight with Jason Day to admit to not getting pumped to the sounds of ‘Song 2’ by Blur. Almost 16,000 people went nuts to the classic indie rock ditty, showing the power of a good entrance song.
A wise yet unknown person once said, “Music is what feelings sound like”. Get the music right, and the feelings will come.
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