Which fighters personality is most conducive to the growth of MMA?

Beekeeper has produced a good thread :yikes

Nice 1 son :good

 

Jon Jones.

He will be at the top a lot longer than GSP or any other active fighter listed.

 

btw people from quebec are much more like americans then french people

 

No they don't.

Fedor over the last few years often participated in blatant mismatches, and in the last 3-4 years has basically appeared like an overweight, crude, disinterested brawler. Anyone watching post-2007 Fedor and hearing that he's the GOAT gets disappointed.

And a lot of the time Silva isn't really all that exciting. He's a counterstriker more than an aggressor. He is nothing close to an all-action fighter. And if he "always delivers", how many new MMA or Silva fans do you think he made whose first Silva fight was against Maia or Leites? :yep

Also neither of them sell their fights particularly well at all. After half a decade as a UFC champion, Silva's English is still very poor and he doesn't seem to engage with the non-Brazilian fans. Okay that's fine, not everybody is a Griffin or a Sonnen, but talking is still an important part of getting people into the sport. Look at JDS' willingness to work on his English, overcome his natural quiet demeanour and put himself out there.

And Fedor is even worse in that regard.



:hat

 

Fedor may be a bit of touch now a days but he is still fun to watch even if he is kinda past it and WTF are you smoking if you dont think KOing guys left and right and they barley getting to touch him isnt exciting? I bet you find jon fitch exciting.
Against and Maia that is 2 fights out of 35 fights that he got bored and didnt end it quickly.
I never said they where much on the talkative side

 

We are getting sidetracked anyway because the question was about the fighter's personality.

Silva and Fedor are the #1 and #2 ATGs so their legacies are clearly not in question, but neither of them is the best advertisement for the UFC.

Anderson has essentially no interest in learning to speak English or raising the profile of the sport in English-speaking countries. So that's no good in terms of "personality conductive to the growth of MMA"

He also has been seen more than once to disrespect paying customers by refusing to engage in a fight, in favour of dancing and taunting his opponent. That's not an appealing personality trait that a fan wants to see in too many fighters. :bart

Fedor is more exciting in the ring, but we are not talking about in the ring. And outside the ring, he is even worse in terms of growing the sport. MMA needs stone cold emotionless hitman types like Fedor, same as it needs trash-talking jock bullies like Koscheck and classy gentlemen-athletes like GSP and good-natured bar brawlers like Bonnar and thug-type ghetto fighters like Diaz. We want to see all those types fight each other.

But Fedor types aren't the best to grow the sport in the West. For a start, you need to speak English. For a second, you have to be prepared to put yourself out there and sell yourself, your fights and the sport in general. Fedor is the exact opposite of that. :bart

:hat

 

Well, according to the numbers provided by Thom in this thread: http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352060, I would have to say that Brock Lesnar is clearly the biggest draw. Rampage, Forrest, Liddell, and Ortiz appear to make up the rest of the top 5.

Since Brock's freakish attributes probably make up for most of his drawing power, I guess I'd lean towards Rampage. Rampage has less time in the UFC than Griffin, Liddell, and Ortiz; but he is still every bit the draw those guys are.

 

Just want to expand on this point.

We are not talking about just in the ring.

The fighters who are most conducive to growing the sport are the ones who have likable and engaging personalities outside the ring and an exciting and effective style inside the ring.

The two that come instantly to mind for me in both of those areas are Jon Jones and JDS.

Jon Jones is essentially a 6'4" black version of GSP. As someone has pointed out before (Beekeeper I believe...?) he is always professional, he's humble, respectful, he's always well dressed and well spoken at pressers, interviews and other public appearances, in spite of the hate he gets if people would stop bitching about him for five minutes and actually pay attention to how he conducts himself they'd realise what was up.

In the ring is a different story, he's vicious, exciting and always aims to brutally finish a fight. The guy is a walking highlight reel.

JDS is much the same. He's made a genuine effort to learn to speak English and put himself out there and to endear himself to the western (or at least US) fans. He's probably the most humble fighter I've ever seen and he has a way with words that makes most of his interviews hilarious, whether that's intentional or otherwise.

Again, in the ring he's ****ing vicious, he has a style that most fans can understand and respect, he'll "stand and bang" but without being the ultra sloppy brawler we've been stuck with for the last 10 years, he's actually a legitimately talented boxer with a perfectly adapted style for MMA.

In addition to this, both of these guys absolutely look the part.

 

Doubt it silva has been on top since 2006, i doubt jones can stay on top for that long. Too much talent @ 205 to hold on to the title for that long.

 

It really depends. GSP is a consumate Pro. He treats MMA as a job and doesn't get involved in the trash talking part.

On the other hand, Chael and Nick Diaz for example gets the people interested in either seing them lose or just hearing them talk.

 

It's a proven formula that's for sure, and you need fighters who the public identify as 'bad guys', as well as fighters people identity as 'good guys'. All part of a good mix.

 

A good question that remains to be seen, he already has some impressive names on his resume and has 2 defences, GSP has 6 defenses and Anderson has about 10 with a couple fights and wins at LHW. The thing about Jones is he has already beaten 3 former champs and has almost cleared the division of comp besides 2 or 3 guys at the present.