How much do fighter's personalities matter in your enjoyment of matchups/cards?

Is there a cap on how much you can enjoy the fight, if you really don't give a **** about whether either of the men involved succeed or fail?

Most fights are not incredibly dramatic or technical masterclasses. Most fights are more or less standard fights, with skill levels a good deal lower than the real top-level matchups.

So when I'm watching a standard, not particularly exciting or dramatic fight with two fighters who I don't know anything about, I don't get so invested. :conf

Anyone find the same? A fighter might have a style that you don't generally go for, but you like the way he puts himself across and so you find yourself cheering him on?

And do you enjoy the fight more if the guy who is getting his ass kicked has been irritating you for the last weeks/months/years with his dickish personality?

:hat

 

I find myself intensely conflicted whenever Matt Hughes fights. I hate the guy, but I respect his abilities, his achievements in his life, and his status as an ATG dominant champion. There's a type of person that you can aspire to be, and that type of person, the redneck farmer/wrestler/Christian bully alpha male, Matt Hughes is the apex, the ultimate form.

So I cheer for him in most of his fights, because I want his losses to be very rare and special events, things to be cherished almost.

:hat