The Duality of Talking Shit - In Defense of Michael Bisping...

So everybody hates Michael Bisping all of a sudden...truth be told, I've never been a fan. I thought he was a dick on the Ultimate Fighter, and generally find him an annoying presence. Regardless of opponent I was always rooting for whoever wasn't Michael Bisping. That is, until he was set to fight Jorge Rivera at the recent UFC 127.

For anyone unfamiliar, Rivera (a B-level fighter at best) was granted a fight well above his ability due largely in part to the shit-talking campaign he went on, calling Bisping out in particular and going out of his way to ridicule the Brit.  Trash talking is a time honored tradition of MMA (and sport in general), and the public has not only a tolerance, but a thirst for such pre-fight vitriol.  Some fighters take such trash talk a notch (or several) above what is typical (if you were under a rock for Chael Sonnen's pre fight interviews leading up to his fight with middleweight champion Anderson Silva, stop reading and get on YouTube immediately).  Jorge Rivera stepped the seemingly real (and somewhat puzzling) trash talk up leading up to UFC 127, posting a series of videos on YouTube in which him and his team make fun on Bisping on numerous levels.  

Fast forward to the fight. Bisping did what Bisping does. He dominated a fighter he should have dominated, ending the fight with a TKO, and shutting Jorge Rivera up. It's what occurred next that is my area of interest. In the adrenaline of just having beaten the piss out of someone who had offended you on multiple levels, Bisping did what many other fighters considered inappropriate when he spit at Rivera's corner, and told his defeated opponent to 'go home loser'.  Everyone from Dana White, to Nate Marquart, to Chael Sonnen (of all people) have openly criticized Bisping, stating that he needs to apologize and that they want to 'hit him in the face' (Marquart).

I think a little perspective is in order here. Is it necessary to spit at someone or otherwise act as Bisping did in the aftermath of his TKO? Of course not.  However, why was there almost no discussion of the role Rivera had in creating the situation which led to Bisping's behavior? Even Bisping himself came out and apologized!  I disagree with this entirely for a simple reason: it creates a double standard. Why is inappropriate trash talk, which crosses personal, cultural, and professional boundaries in its manifestations acceptable, so long as it's before the fight? Yet, someone having a normal response to being ridiculed, mistreated, disrespected, and otherwise made fun of is unacceptable because the reaction comes after the fight. It defies logic, and sets a dangerous double standards. Trash talk and ridiculous behavior is either acceptable, or it is not.  The timing of such behavior should not dictate its perception. Perhaps we are spoiled at seeing grown men beat the hell out of each other for 15 minutes then embrace like long lost brothers. That's all well and good, and sportsmanship is nice to see in all events, however we cannot laud pre-fight shit talking as 'hyping up the fight', yet post fight shit talking as inappropriate and punishable.  So, in defense of a fighter I don't like at all, leave Michael Bisping alone! Rivera was a dick and got the reaction he deserved, along with the ass kicking!

Why I Love Fighting

"People see a lot of times fighting as an ugly thing, as a thing that denigrates the human body...in reality you see fighting in everything...everything's fighting, it doesn't matter what it is...to wake up in the morning, to get out of bed is a fight...fighting is actually the best thing a man can have in his soul."
---Renzo Gracie, as a guest on 60 Minutes

It's the name of the blog as well as the first post, so I suppose I should explain exactly why it is that I love fighting. It's a complex and slightly misleading question in that it warrants some semantic clarification. I don't love street fighting, or general violence, or people getting hurt without purpose or structure, nor is any of the aforementioned the focus of this or any other blog post.  What I mean is that I love martial arts in all of the various incarnations it may manifest in. Both of my parents were lifelong martial artists, and as you can imagine I grew up in a household that fostered the ideals that go along with such endeavors. My father was a more active martial artist, having attained a black belt in Shotokan karate, and several other high level belts in disciplines such as wing chun, kung-fu, and others.  It's in the blood. My father died before Mixed Martial Arts gained the status it now occupies, and we never got to have so much as a discussion about what is now the only sport that I watch, the best sport that there is.  It will always be a regret.

Nevertheless, I've been a politician thus far and have danced around the original question. So why do I love fighting? Fighting is, as Renzo Gracie stated, in everything that I do, every day of the week. As a concept it dictates my consciousness when I don't feel strong enough to deal with something. In fact, I find myself able to handle difficult obstacles when I think of them as fights. For whatever reason the idea of a challenge is quite unmotivating, but the idea of a fight gets my blood pumping. Applying that paradigm to the difficulties of life gets me ready, it gets me motivated, it gets me in the frame of mind I need to move forward.

As a sport, MMA is the only sport that matters, the only complete sport insomuch as a sport is, at heart, a competitive endeavor.  That is not to step on other sports (not so explicitly anyhow), but a man who can get a fastball past the bat of another man is simply better at a given skill, one that doesn't matter in any context outside of a baseball game.  Fighting is different. Fighting is something that we all do, whether in the philosophical context mentioned above, or in the literal sense, we are all fighters. Even the baseball player struggling through his game is a fighter. Fighting is the state of mind that allows victory in all other sports, and the physical manifestation of that spirit represents the domination of one human being over another.  To simplify, you can run faster than me, or hit a better jump shot than me, who the fuck cares? If you can't stop me from taking you off your feet and holding you life in my hands, than nothing else matters. Now in a professional sense this is seen in what former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin has called "human chess", beautiful violence when it's done correctly.

So this is another MMA blog, one of countless others, but one I hope will hold a little distinction in that it's not about stats, it's not about saying outrageous things, but it's about the sport and the business of MMA, a sport in which I find true beauty, and the only sport that matters to me.

More to come....