Issue 035
March 2008
Everyone knows at least one ‘superfan’ in any sport, and chances are, so do you. Whether it’s the soccer fan who tattoos his chosen team’s name over his body, the hockey supporter who strips off and paints himself in the team colours, or the guy who can reel off any statistic from the last 50 years of competitive sport without thinking, there are hundreds of these superfans across the world, and MMA has got them too.
But not all superfans are rabid, gurning, frothing-at-the-mouth types (Google the ‘Just Bleed’ guy for evidence of the evil superfan). The real superfans are there at every event they can make. They buy the merchandise, the pay-per-views, the DVDs. They support the sport and as a result, they drive it forward. And most of them look just like you and me.
So what makes a superfan so ‘super’? Every decent fan worth his salt will travel to events, wear the t-shirts, watch the DVDs and so on. There is nothing extraordinary there, is there? No, not really. Because superfans go that extra mile. Sometimes they even go to extraordinary lengths to support their chosen sport. And you’ll meet them later in this article.
First though, let’s take a look at a superfan. You can’t really call them “your average superfan”, because there is rarely anything average about a superfan. They may be average in daily life, but they don’t follow the sport like an average person, so how can they be average?
An Average Joe’s Story
One of these average guys, but a guy who is by no means an average fan, is a relative newcomer to the sport. His name is Francis Tiongson, and he’s 37 years old. “I've only been a fan for a year, but I did a lot of catching up within that short period of time,” said Francis. “I now know more about fighters and the history of the sport than casual fans who have been watching MMA for years.”
Throwing himself into the sport with a passion, New Jersey-resident Francis has really worked hard to get himself up to speed in a relatively short space of time. “I’ve immersed myself in learning about fighting through what I’ve been watching and reading. I scour through local programming on pay-per-view, Showtime, Spike and Versus in order to guarantee that I don't miss a show. I’ve seen almost every UFC event and I’m currently catching up with a lot of Pride events as well as WEC, Elite XC, the IFL, HDNet, King of the Cage, K-1 and Pancrase events. If I'm lucky, I'll even find a few Vale Tudo events here and there.”
Describing himself as “past the point of no return” as a MMA fan for life, Francis was never a sporty person in high school. “I wasn't really into any kind of sports,” he said. “In college, I dabbled in volleyball. I was horrible at it. At the turn of the century I had a good five-year run in paintball, but it eventually got way too expensive to play at the level I wanted to play, as well as it becoming a very demanding sport time-wise.
“With the inspiration of MMA, I have never taken going to the gym as serious as I do now. Even though I'll train, I’ll never take it up as a career and fight in a cage or ring. I'm just inspired by MMA fighters.”
Watching a fight is one thing, but when you experience a little of what fighters put themselves through it gives you a whole new insight as to what goes on in the build-up to a fight, as Francis found out. “I love the dedication, competitive spirit and mental preparation fighters have to possess in order to compete at the highest level. I believe the same principles can be applied to a lot of things we do every day in life. Without the influence of MMA, I'd probably be twice as fat, playing video games and continue expanding my ever-growing collection of action figures.”
Francis’s relatively newfound passion isn’t quite all-consuming, but it does take up a pretty hefty chunk of his life, as he estimates. “Outside of work and family obligations, the other quarter of my daily routine has something or other to do with mixed martial arts. I regularly visit a number of MMA websites, I read MMA magazines on my commute back-and-forth to work, I watch fights via iPod / DVD / TV, I train at the gym and I try to eat right.”
Since he’s been a fan he’s made it to a live event (where he even made it on TV as a face in the crowd), a meet and greet with UFC fighters and a viewing party at Madison Square Garden. A story like Francis’s isn’t uncommon. I’ve met lots of fans who have only gotten into MMA fairly recently, but have been properly ‘bitten by the bug’ and have thrown themselves in at the deep end.
The Old School
On the other hand, there are the long-term supporters of the sport. People like 29-year-old businesswoman and college lecturer Paula Orton from Portsmouth. A one-time boxing fan, she found MMA thanks to her boyfriend’s tapes of very early UFC events. When she was exposed to the sport in a live setting back in 2001, the seeds were sown for her future as a superfan. “I’ve just been hooked!” said Paula. “I’ve been trying to attend as many local shows as I can since then.”
Describing herself as an “old school” boxing fan, Paula confesses to having become jaded with the boxing scene. “Boxing was starting to get a bit stale, there were belts all over the place,” she said. “You didn’t have the big champs. I’m actually a Tyson fan, and all the big heavyweight greats, those were the fights that I liked.” The dynamic nature of the sport appealed to her immediately. “Mixed martial arts, there was just so much more to it. I couldn’t believe how much the combatants had to remember and had to be trained in. I’d never really seen a ground game before, I’d never been into wrestling or anything like that, so it intrigued me that somebody could win a fight without throwing a punch.”
Once hooked, Paula started attending as many shows in the UK as she could. “The first big show was the Brawl in the Hall, UFC 38. That was the first huge show that I went to. The others were fairly local and fairly quiet. Since Cage Rage 8 I’ve tried to make every Cage Rage. The local show in Portsmouth, I’ve been to every one, I actually started to sponsor them, I buy three or four tables per show.”
Buying tables to support her local for MMA event is something Paula gladly does, but she’s been fortunate that her expert knowledge of the sport has gotten her free access to more than a couple of events! Paula won a competition run by Cage Rage as was crowned ‘The Cage Rage Guru’ due to her predicting a number of fights correctly. Another prediction competition followed with a different UK event, which Paula also won. The fact a woman was winning these competitions raised a few eyebrows, including that of Cage Rage promoter Dave O’Donnell, who memorably stated “Fuck me, it’s a girl!”
Going to see the fights is only part of Paula’s motivations for attending events. As much as she loves the action, Paula finds the social scene just as interesting. “I’ve been quite lucky in the people that I’ve met,” she explained. “I think the MMA community was quite small back then [when she began attending events]. You got to know lots of people on a one-on-one basis. As well as going to see a show, it was quite a social thing for me. I’d go every couple of months and meet up with people I only saw at shows. That made me want to go even more, so I could catch up with people.
“Lots of guys have been very friendly actually. The nice thing about MMA is that there are no airs and graces, the fighters are very down to earth and friendly and they stop and chat. A group of us would catch up, and because we wouldn’t see each other that often, we’d stay up drinking until about half five in the morning.
“I’m not a stalker like some fans. I like sitting and observing what the fighters do, and watching them at work. If they bump into me and we get chatting then that’s nice. I met Shaun Tompkins last week, he’s a nice guy. And Rude Boy, Troy Mandaloniz, and Kendall Grove. They were nice. It’s nice to meet these guys and maybe see them again and say hello.”
“The first rule about Fight Club…”
One place that fans can meet other fans and sometimes fighters is online, and with dozens of communities on the web in the shape of forums, social networking sites and so on, communication is easy.
Of the various MMA promotions, a few have recognised the importance of building websites specifically for their fans. The first if the UFC’s Fight Club, a paid membership scheme whereby fans can join a thriving online community and receive benefits such as early notification of events, pre-release ticket sales and exclusive goings-on built around main UFC events.
Leo McCluskey, a 24-year-old fan of the UFC joined the Fight Club as a way of keeping abreast of UFC events in the UK, of which he has been to all four in the last 12 months. “I was kind of a casual fan at the start,” says Leo. “My first [live] event was UFC 70, with ‘that’ head kick, and I just thought I’ve got to be at every one that comes to the UK. There’s no way I can miss a show.”
Being a member of the Fight Club means Leo not only gets the benefits of the website and all it’s functions, but also access to exclusive members only Q & A sessions before the weigh-ins. Not only does he get to field questions to various UFC personalities (including Dana White, Joe Rogan and more) but he meets fellow fans too. “That’s something. Meeting people who have been into the sport longer than I have, you definitely meet loads of cool people. The Q & A’s are awesome, Big John’s just retired now, but we got to meet him in Belfast. You don’t get opportunities like that every day.”
One opportunity that came his way as a result of the Fight Club was finding out where one of the UFC’s after parties would be for UFC 72. “We turned up at one of the after parties, me and a mate knew where it was and we went along,” he said. “They were generally really cool. The fighters came in and we got to meet them all, which was really cool. It was surreal. Randy Couture was over in Tyson Griffin’s corner, and I was sat with a pint of Guinness and Randy walked in. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. It was just all these people, getting an insight to what they do afterwards, how they chill out.
“We wouldn’t have got to do it without Fight Club because we found out about it from guys we met through Fight Club. It’s a great network of people. We talk to each other and I’m just one of thousands of people who love it. When everyone gets together we’re all just really enthusiastic about it.”
With a couple of maxed-out credit cards and a whole stack of experiences to look back on, Leo’s enjoying what Fight Club has given him.
One fan who managed to get a similar experience but without the help of Fight Club was Ricky Wright, a 21-year-old care worker from South Wales. A self-described massive fan of the sport, Ricky found himself in a fight fan’s dream when he stumbled into the fighter’s hotel following UFC 75. Unsure of what to do with himself, he hung around the bar until he was approached by none other than Houston Alexander. “He came up to me and told me he liked my shoes,” said Ricky. “I couldn’t believe it! I was like, this is Houston Alexander and he likes my Vans!”
Having broken the ice, Ricky was introduced to some of his favourite fighters, including Mayhem Miller and George St. Pierre, who he was introduced to in French. “All I could think to say to him was, ‘J’Taime! I think you’re awesome!’”
‘For Life’
If you’ve been reading this article and wondering if you’re a superfan, then chances are you’re probably not one. If you’re a superfan, then you’d know it. It’s not something you’d want to consider becoming lightly, either. To be a superfan requires dedication, effort, sacrifice and most of all, an unerring love of the sport.
Once you’ve become a superfan, there is no going back. You’re in it ‘for life’. Mixed martial arts is the kind of sport that elicits strong reactions, and sometimes the strongest come from it’s supporters. We don’t all have to be like the ‘Just Bleed’ guy, but we can each be a fan in our own way, whether it is going to shows, hanging out with fighters or collecting memorabilia. It’s all about supporting the sport we love.
