Unnecessary Hate: An Explosive Observation

By Raphael Garcia

Now before I get slammed with hate mail because of the title, or get accused of playing the “race card” (which I don’t believe in, but that’s another argument), please hear me out, because this is something I have been thinking about for a long while. I asked this question through my Twitter account after the fights at UFC 135, and received very few responses. So I decided to sit down and write my thoughts, and take the brunt of the response.

The question was and still is as follows:

“Is it just me, or do fight fans seem to find a reason to boo African American fighters?”

Yep, I said it.

Looking at last Saturday’s main event, we had two combatants at different stages in their career. Jon Jones, who just exploded on the scene, and Quinton Jackson, a former champion and experienced mixed martial artist. Both of these individuals are examples of the situation that I see playing out within fans of the sport.

“Arrogant,” “self-righteous,” and “conceited” are just a few of the words that I feel are instinctively used to describe these fighters. While I’m not disputing the fact that professional athletes as a whole are very confident in their abilities, I personally feel like they have to be. And in addition, it seems as if the African American fighters are the ones who tend to get the backlash from carrying themselves in such a fashion.

Rashad Evans was called cocky by Matt Hughes while on The Ultimate Fighter, and has since had that term stick with him throughout his career. Does he celebrate after wins? Sure he does, just like Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz and many other fighters over the years. Yet, they don’t feel the fans’ wrath, and experience the chorus of boos that we hear whenever Evans is shown on the screen.

You can even look at Jon Jones, who in the span of about six months went from a beloved fighter to seriously hated by hardcore fans. Does anyone else remember when he was chasing down purse snatchers before stepping into the cage for a title fight? How many of us would have jumped into action the same way? Even still, a few comments have caused people to turn up their noses and shake their heads at him in disgust.

Other examples include Melvin Guillard, who may be a fan favorite now, but was vehemently booed when he faced the likes of Rich Clementi and Joe Stevenson years ago. My prediction is that he is one interview away from being lumped into the same group. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who was easily the fan favorite at UFC 135, was booed violently when he fought Liddell, Dan Henderson and Lyoto Machida. Even Anderson Silva (yes I know he’s Brazilian, but what does he LOOK like?) has taken heat from the fans, and this was even before he put in those odd performances against Thales Leites and Demian Maia.

As I’ve stated, these fighters are very confident in their skills, and should be, as stepping into the combat world without that confidence could be very dangerous. But why do they face so much anger for displaying it? You can say that they should be “humble” if you want, but in a sport where your job is to establish dominance over another grown man, I don’t see being humble as fitting at all.

I also have to ask: Why isn’t this same anger directed at fighters such as Forrest Griffin, who once made borderline ignorant statements when he fought Hector Ramirez at UFC 72 in Ireland? What about the Diaz brothers, who blatantly disrespect their opponents and are probably more loved for it than anything else?

Of course, another side of this story is the way minority fans of the sport choose who they want to support during competition. Would I be surprised to find out that many black fans cheer for Rampage, Jones, Guillard, or others simply because they are African-American? Not at all. Relating to these fighters is understandable, and this phenomenon happens often in sports. To me, that isn’t as much of a problem as the way that people react to fighters of other racial backgrounds, making blanket statements that often reflect stereotypes.

I do understand that this happens all across sports fandom. In 2008, ESPN the Magazine published a controversial story that covered the perception that sports fans have of the “average” player in the National Basketball Association. Their study found that people formulated negative perceptions of the players in the league, and considering that this is a sport where the majority of the competitors are African-American, one has to wonder where those ideas come from. I believe that negative preconceptions follow minority athletes around no matter what sport they are playing, and this includes the men who step into the cage.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been wondering about this for the past few years now. And while I’m sure that this piece will receive some interesting comments, I stand by my observation.