Cardio Freak MMA News Report 12.04.08: Don't Get Too Attached

Posted by Jeremy Lambert on 12.04.2008

Cardio Freak is back with a look at supporting fighters vs. supporting sports teams. How come you yell when your team is losing but you sit still when your fighter loses? I have a few reasons why. Plus news on Cro Cop and Eddie Alvarez. All that and the latest news in the MMA world. It's more tearful than Forrest Griffin, it's Cardio Freak on 411.



Welcome back to Cardio Freak everyone. I am your trainer Jeremy ‘Just Killin Time In Between Fights' Lambert.

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Let your emotions out

Someone recently asked me, "If Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture were to fight again, who would you cheer for?" This person knows that Liddell and Couture are my two favorite fighters but they didn't know me in 2006 when they last fought. Without hesitation I said, "Chuck Liddell." Then I thought about it. How upset would I be if Randy Couture won?

There's only one other sport where I cheer for two teams and that's hockey. I'm a fan of the Carolina Hurricanes because I live in North Carolina so I could go to any home game I want if I wasn't so stingy with my money. The other is Colorado Avalanche, who were the first team I saw play. Kind of a lame reason to like a team but I've stuck with them through thick and thin. When the Hurricanes and Avalanche play, I cheer for them. When the Hurricanes and Avalanche play each other, I cheer for the Avalanche.

But it's not like how I would cheer for Liddell but not be upset if Couture won. The Avalanche played the Hurricanes in Carolina last season and I was lucky enough to obtain glass seats for the game. I stuck out like a sore thumb with my Paul Stastny jersey in the middle of red and white. I didn't cheer for Colorado like I would have cheered for Liddell. When Carolina was winning, I yelled four letter words. When Colorado scored, I cheered with the other 15 Avalanche fans in attendance. This wasn't my two favorite teams playing each other. This was my favorite team playing another team.

I normally watch UFC events with Big Brother John. He knows my favorite fighters and knows how I get when my favorite fighter loses. If you ask him, he'll probably tell you that I have a look of disappointed on my face but that's about it. On the flip side, I watch Carolina Panthers games with my parents. If you ask them to describe me during games, they'll tell you that they hate watching games with me because I yell four letter words after every play.

What's the point of all this? Well, aside from the fact that I may have anger issues while watching sports, I feel that there's no emotional investment in MMA.

When I went to UFC 88, I went to see Chuck Liddell knock out Rashad Evans. Instead, Rashad Evans knocked out Chuck Liddell. I wasn't mad though. I just stood there with my jaw dropped and then applauded Evans because anyone who scores a knockout in that fashion deserves to be applauded. When I watch Panthers games, I don't applaud if Ken Lucas gets burned for a 70 yard TD. I probably point out all the things that went wrong on the play and lace my comments with obscene words.

Why is that? Well, I've come up with some ideas as to why we become more emotionally attached to our favorite sports teams more than our favorite fighters.

*There's no, "Well, there's always next game/season." When your favorite team loses, you know the next time they play. When your favorite fighter loses, you never know when they'll fight again. After a tough loss from your favorite football team, you can dissect what went wrong for a couple of hours but chances are you're already thinking about the next game and what the team has to do different to win. Unless you're a Lions fan. You know that your football team will play once a week, your hockey/basketball team will play three-four times a week, and your favorite baseball team will play five-six times a week. There might be 5-10 events before your favorite fighter fights again and you may not even know who he's going to fight.

There's no off-season in MMA. When the season ends and your team doesn't make the playoffs, loses in the playoffs, or wins the championship, you have something to look forward to. You spend countless hours debating your friends on who your team should sign or trade. If your fighter wins or loses, the only thing you have to look forward to is his next fight, whenever that might be.

*When it's over, it's over. Don't confuse that with, "it's not over until it's over" because they have two different meanings. When you see your fighter get dropped and lay motionless in the first round. It's over. When your team gives up a touchdown in the first quarter. It's not over. If a fight goes to the judges, the fighter has no control over the outcome. If your team has the ball in a tie game with two minutes left, they control the outcome. Sports games are over when the clock strikes zero in the fourth quarter, the third period, or when the final out is recorded. A fight can end anywhere between one second and 25 minutes. There are no big moments that can make you hate your fighter one moment and love them the next. Unless you're a fan of Antonio "Rodrigo" Nogueira of course.

*There's no rebuilding. When you have a bad team, you know you have a bad team. There's no sugarcoating the Lions or the Royals. They're bad. But during the off-season, they give you a hope of rebuilding either through the draft or the free agent market. When your fighter is bad, the best you can hope for is that he trains with a good camp and turns things around. There's no joy of hearing that your team signed the final piece to the puzzle though unless your favorite fighter is someone like Mirko "Cro Cop" and he starts training at Xtreme Couture.

*There's no post-season. With other sports, there are always the playoffs. You go into every season thinking and hoping that your team can make it into the post-season. There's no post-season in MMA. Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva felt like a playoff game in the NFL would have felt or a Game 7 in the NHL playoffs but it didn't have the same meaning. Both guys were coming off two losses, which means if they were in the playoffs, they would have been eliminated. Every fight is a must win fight but they're not must win in the sense that a team must win a Game 7.

*There's no bond with the fans. If you go to a football game, you get your money's worth for the experience. If the game starts at 1 PM, you're tailgating at 10 AM. Inside the stadium, almost everyone around you is wearing the some team colors and you feel like everyone knows everyone. You have no problem high fiving the guy behind you after a touchdown even though you know he just went to the bathroom and probably didn't wash his hands. You don't get that experience at MMA events. There's no real "home cage/ring advantage" except for a couple of special cases. And even then you're at the event to see a night of fights, not just one person. But if you go to Canada for a Georges St. Pierre fight, not everyone in the crowd has a red/white GSP shirt. If you go to a Patriots game, almost everyone in the crowd has a white or blue Brady, Moss, Welker, ect… jersey.

*There's no "we" in MMA. When talking to people about sports, they always refer to their team as, "we." You can only refer to your fighter as "he." I actually tried working "we" into a conversation when talking about Randy Couture and the guy thought I cornered Couture for the fight against Gonzaga. If you want to fool people into believing you know the fighter and train with him, use "we." If you want to be honest though, use "he." I think the "we" factor is underrated when it comes to an attachment with a sports team. No you're not part of the team but putting on your team jersey makes you feel part of it and representing them when you go out in public makes you feel part of it. Sports fans use "we" because we actually believe that the team can hear us when we scream at our television sets. You don't get that same feeling when watching fighting. It's why there's no emotional attachment in any singles sports because there's no "we" in one.

Those are just a few reasons as to why I feel that people don't have the attachment with a MMA fighter that they have a sports team. I'm sure most of you reading this are a fan of a certain sports team and a fan of a fighter. If you don't feel the same attachment let me know why. Or maybe you do feel the same attachment and if you do, I'd love to hear your side of things.

Playing to Your Strengths

UFC released Lightweight Jorge Gurgel and Light Heavyweight Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

Am I the only one more shocked by the release of Gurgel than Sokoudjou? Neither guy has faired too well in the Octagon but fight in and fight out, Gurgel always turns in a Fight of the Night performance. In fact, he's coming the Fight of the Night in what was billed as the biggest show of the year. The notion was always, "losing exciting will keep you around while winning boring won't." I think we need to change that notion to, "losing exciting will keep you around as long as you don't lose too many times." I thought because Gurgel always turns in exciting performances, runs a camp that produces some good fighters, and is the BBF of Rich Franklin that he had a UFC job for life. I guess I was wrong.

As for Sokoudjou, you could almost see this coming. There were hints of his UFC stint coming to an end if he had lost to Kazuhiro Nakamura at UFC 84 but he pulled out an impressive KO and followed that up by calling out "Shogun" Rua. Soko went 1-2 in the UFC and was hyped right out of the gate to be this world-beater. The hype was worthy but Soko wasn't worthy of it. I know he scored two impressive KO's over Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira but there's a theory that you don't know much about a fighter if they keep scoring quick KO's. I subscribe to this theory. A quick KO is an impressive victory but anyone with power and aggressiveness can score a quick KO. You truly know how good a fighter is when they've shown you other aspects of their game. Sokoudjou has a lot of potential. He's still young, he's not a bad fighter, and he trains at a good camp but going 1-2 in the UFC after promising them much more and them paying you more than you're worth is going to get you cut.

Studying Tape



Let the hype begin.

Underwater Ice Bath

Strikeforce signed Lightweight Jorge Gurgel

This was sort of shocking as well. I thought at the very least UFC would have sent Gurgel down to the WEC since he seems like a guy who would fit in well there.

At any rate, he's with Strikeforce now and there are a lot of potential fights for Gurgel. Josh Thomson, Duane Ludwig, Gilbert Melendez, and Yves Edwards are just a few guys on the list that Gurgel can bang it out with and find a way to lose. If Gurgel actually uses his black belt level jiu-jitsu, he has the potential to win fights. Instead his strategy consists of standing in front of a guy with his hands down and getting punched and kicked in the head. That doesn't win you fights. It makes you fun to watch. But it doesn't win you fights. I really hope Gurgel stops subscribing to the "lose exciting" theory and starts subscribing to the "win relatively exciting" theory. I wish the best for Gurgel because he's a really nice guy if you meet him and I hope he ends up back in the UFC. But knowing him, he'll find a way to screw that up.

Taking Time Off

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the boring relatives, the dry turkey, and the lifeless football games. BRING ON CHRISTMAS!

Overseas Training

Eddie Alvarez will fight Shinya Aoki at the New Years Eve DREAM/K-1 show

It's the Lightweight GP Finals that never happened. Chances are the winner of this will fight the winner of JZ Cavalcante and Joachim Hansen. I would still rather have seen Hansen vs. Alvarez but I'm not booking DREAM. Rest assured that if I were, I wouldn't have to partner with K-1 because I'd be making money hand over fist in Japan.

This is a striker vs. grappler fight at it's finest. Alvarez' biggest strength are his hands while Aoki's biggest strength are his legs. Aoki's stand up is almost non-existent but he's so good at getting inside and either getting a takedown or pulling guard that he doesn't need great stand up. Alvarez' wrestling should be enough to stifle any type of shot from Aoki but if he gets inside it's going to be tough for Alvarez to prevent Aoki from trying to get it to the ground. Alvarez can hold his own on the ground against most guys but Aoki is world class when it hits the mat. The biggest fault with Aoki is that he doesn't like getting hit and Alvarez is going to hit him and hit him hard. I really like Alvarez in this fight and I hope Hansen beats JZ because the MMA world deserves Hansen vs. Alvarez 2.

Mirko "Cro Cop" has pulled out of his scheduled fight with Alistair Overeem on New Years Eve

Raise your hand if you didn't see this coming. Ok, now put your hand down on your mouse, scroll to the X, and click out of the column because I thought my readers were smarter than that. The moment "Cro Cop" announced he was taking this fight with a knee that needed surgery, you knew this was going to be bad news. I'm actually happy Mirko pulled out of the fight because I wasn't interested in seeing an even more broken down "Cro Cop" fight Overeem, likely lose, and then have the excuse of a knee injury.

The best part about this whole thing is that after he pulled out of the fight and Overeem called him scared, "Cro Cop" said he would fight Overeem in his basement. So I guess fighting in a ring in front of a large crowd with rules isn't good enough for "Cro Cop" he would just rather fight in his basement. This reminds me so match of the "Hart Dungeon Match" between Owen Hart and Ken Shamrock in WWF where they just decided to fight in Stu Hart's basement to settle their feud. I think that's how we should settle feuds in MMA from now on. If you've got a legit beef with someone, there's no need to sign a fight agreement and train for two months. Just head over to a basement and fight it out right there. Is anyone with me on this?

AND IT'S ALL OVER~!

That does if for me folks. I'll be back next week with something new. Check out the Cardio Freak Blog. Take care everyone.

Cardio Freak Sources: Dave Meltzer and the Wrestling Observer, Bryan Alvarez and Figure Four Weekly, MMAWeekly, and MMAMania