Put a Lid on it: Favoritism from the UFC Broadcasting Booth

This article was written in the days following UFC 100, and was originally published on Nokaut.com

This past Saturday Joe Rogan once again demonstrated both his enthusiasm for mixed martial arts and his bad habit of making hyperbolic, biased declarations.

Joe Rogan is a true asset to the UFC and mixed martial arts generally. He brings a definite, infectious excitement to his broadcasts, and his effortless knowledge of the sport's history, composite disciplines, and fighters is impressive. Yet it is this close, personal relationship he has with the world of MMA that seems to be at the heart of a mounting problem. That is, Rogan's increasingly uninhibited partiality while calling action from the broadcast booth and while conducting post-fight interviews.

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During the UFC 100 broadcast Joe Rogan waxed horrified at the judges' decision ruling Yoshihiro Akiyama the winner over Alan Belcher. As an exhausted Akiyama celebrated, Rogan turned his indignation up to 11 and announced "Alan Belcher knows he got robbed." Such a statement is problematic for several reasons. Most obviously because it assumes that Belcher was, in fact, robbed.

It’s important to be clear. Alan Belcher was not "robbed" in his decision loss. It was a close, competitive, and exciting fight. But before anyone takes Rogan's cue, they should consider: to say Alan Belcher was robbed is to say that in no way, in any reasonable person's mind, should Akiyama have been seen as the victor. To say Belcher was robbed is to claim, essentially, that the fight wasn't even close. Yet, a look at play-by-plays running on three MMA websites proves contrary. Our very own Nokaut.com saw the fight in Belcher's favor, and MMAJunkie and Sherdog.com saw Akiyama as the bout's winner. While this speaks to the extremely narrow margin by which Akiyama won (a fact Akiyama himself seemed to realize given his apparent sense of relief), it also indicates that, as much as the fight could have gone to Belcher, more times than not it would end with Akiyama's hand being raised.

Furthermore, if Rogan was to play back the third round of this fight, he would hear himself commenting that Akiyama, having just taken Belcher down, was scoring points with the judges, and that Belcher needed to get back to his feet, urgently so, in an effort to take the round, if not finish Akiyama in the closing minutes. Why would this even be an issue if Belcher had, to that point, won the fight to such a degree that any conflicting judge's verdict would be called a robbery? In the end, even Rogan's own immediate (and in this way perhaps more honest) assessment of the fight contradicted a subsequent incredulity that, in this light, can only be seen as fueled by favoritism.

Of course, these are easy points to make in retrospect. At the time, on a live broadcast, Rogan couldn't have known what the general consensus was and, once properly contextualized, how little the decision warranted such outrage. However, what he should have realized, as both a long-time fan and someone working within the industry, is the fallibility of his own eyes when evaluating a fight; with this in mind he might have withheld such a definitive, public assertion until he gave himself time to reflect and become better informed. This might seem like a lot to ask of someone so engrossed by the sport as Joe Rogan but, as he is a professional, it's not unwarranted.

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Joe Rogan's vocal yet unfounded disgust following the Akiyama-Belcher decision wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't indicative of a larger trend. As Rogan has become a fixture within the UFC, he has seemed less concerned with providing an apparently unbiased point of view, all the while relying more and more confidently on his gut feelings, his heart, and his personal preferences when qualifying the action inside the Octagon. Long time fans of MMA might claim that they have always detected a tendency towards favoritism in Joe Rogan. To whatever extent this has been true, it has become all the more pronounced in the last nine to twelve months—a fact that is often obscured by his usual perceptiveness and also by partner Mike Goldberg's more persistent towing of the company line. Yet whereas Goldberg can be excused for being occasionally off the mark on account of naiveté and professional obligation (he is paid to push the UFC brand, after all), Rogan, as a student of the game with a wider range of expression, ought to know better.

Note first the fight between Dong Hyun Kim and Matt Brown at UFC 88. Kim was awarded a split-decision victory following a third round in which neither exhausted fighter was able to deliver an emphatic conclusion. Across the 15 minutes of the fight, however, Joe Rogan couldn't help but enthuse over Matt Brown's notorious grit and dubious in-fight effectiveness. His affinity for Brown reached a fever pitch when, during the post fight interviews, Rogan actually came out and told Brown that he felt he’d won the fight. One may appreciate the emotional investment that would lead to such an outpouring, but the fact remains: with Dong Hyun Kim (who, frankly, worked his ass off) and a large attending audience still present, such an assertion was hugely disrespectful to the Korean fighter and his camp.

Kim had the misfortune of fighting another of Rogan's favorites in Karo Parisyan a few months later, at UFC 94. With both fighters on the ground, Kim worked for an ankle lock. Parisyan, in an attempt to escape, haphazardly kicked Kim in the head. The illegal move was caught by the referee, Parisyan was officially warned, and the fight was restarted. Rogan admonished the break in action, however, and feebly contended that what Parisyan leveled at Kim's head was more of a "shove" than a kick. It's troubling that Rogan would debate an issue of fighter safety on the mere basis of semantics, and yet more troubling since it was in the service of a fighter for whom Rogan has had an admitted fondness; since Parisyan's early days in the UFC Rogan has sung his praises. In this case, though, Rogan's hero-worship consequently belittled Kim's own right to a fair fight.

Shots to the back of the head go unremarked. A stalemate on the ground is seen instead as a tactical advantage that must remain uninterrupted (or vice-versa, depending on who's landed on top, figuratively speaking). These episodes are small, but nevertheless threaten to compromise what has, to date, been otherwise admirable commentating.

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Let's keep things in perspective. I only dissect Joe Rogan’s work as an announcer because he is an integral member of the mixed martial arts community. He's worth discussing. What's more, I would never go so far as to say that Rogan's partiality is "bad for the sport." This is a concept that gets tossed around far too much in an attempt to lend moral gravity to some issue that only a lunatic fringe really agonizes over (that drawing of a penis on Brock Lesnar's chest is bad for the sport; Dana White's Hot Topic wardrobe is bad for the sport; Kimbo Slice's asymmetrical chest hair is bad for the sport; photos of a bloated Chuck Liddell with no damn shirt on are bad for the sport). In fact, if anything, Joe Rogan is good for MMA--he's articulate, likable, and is trusted by probably thousands of spectators. This last point, though, is why it's important that he become a little more measured in what he says. There are a great many MMA fans, eagerly looking forward to his next comedy special (something like "Screaming Bearded Man with a Passion for Space-Faring Mammals") that readily hang their opinions about MMA on Joe Rogan's own. So, while the fate of mixed martial arts doesn't necessarily rest in Rogan's wildly gesticulating hands, it might be nice if he were to encourage a more thoughtful, fair-minded audience.

And if Joe Rogan doesn’t address the issue, then at least those watching the UFC must acknowledge that there is a problem. No hateful oaths over the internet are necessary. Just please take what the guy says with a grain of salt.

Virtually Some Tyrant: Dana White Clarifies, Lionizes Reaction to EA Games

This is an unpublished follow-up I wrote to "Virtual Chokehold." Unfortunately, I think it may have been deemed too biased against the UFC.

During the UFC 100 post-fight press conference Dana White was asked to clarify his warning to fighters and managers. To whit, any fighter that sells their likeness for the EA MMA video game would be banned from the UFC.

"Sounds like me. Sounds like something that I would say," admitted White. Referring to his initial negotiations to make a UFC video game, he continued, "I went to EA sports. Know what EA Sports said? 'It's not a sport. This isn't a sport. We would never get involved in something like this.' [Expletive] them." Dana White went on to liken the fighters affected by his resulting policy as "casualties" in a war.

Just so we're all on the same page, Dana White is basically saying that the people at EA Sports said something mean to him, which made the UFC president feel bad. Now fighters around the world are expected to forego a savings account for their family or an extra payment on a home as a show of support for Dana White, the tough guy millionaire with the hurt feelings. To call this childish is an understatement.

In telling his story, Dana White seems to think that he will somehow rally a legion of indignant MMA fans and fighters against EA Games. White's self-aggrandizement has reached the point where he believes this petty, spiteful action of his amounts to a righteous act of war. At stake is the honor of our poor, maligned sport. He is the general. The fighters are so many grunts in a trench war; their financial security and the food in their families' mouths become collateral damage, regrettable but wholly acceptable under the possessive gaze of Dana White.

All fighters, from Fedor Emelianenko to Olaf Alfonso, should be outraged. Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg should be outraged. Monte Cox and Ken Pavia should be outraged. Greg Jackson, Ricardo Liborio, John Hackleman, and Pat Miletich should be outraged. Most importantly, any thinking, feeling fan of MMA worth his or her weight in salt should be outraged. There's a virulent strain of Dana White apologists out there, infatuated with his roughneck aesthetic and televised antics, but they need to wise up. Just because a carpenter builds you a house doesn't mean he can walk in and shit wherever he wants. Dana White worked very hard to help usher in this modern era of MMA. It doesn't give him carte blanche to act like some boardroom thug, playing out his adolescent power fantasies on the world of mixed martial arts.

Virtual Chokehold: EA Games, the UFC, and Dana White’s Warning to the World of MMA

To summarize: Dana White has put out the word, which was confirmed in a forum post by MMA agent Ken Pavia, that any fighter who signs on to have their likeness featured in Electronic Arts' upcoming MMA video game (a future competitor to developer THQ' s UFC video game) will be placed on the UFC's blacklist. Appear in the video game, and you will literally never fight in the UFC.

It's hard to speak in any definitive or constructive way on the ethical content of such a mandate. One could argue for days about whether or not this is fair; whether or not fairness (as most people understand it) has any place in this business; to what extent the fighters themselves, in responding to such tactics, would themselves be culpable in their own misery. And of course, the absolute, unconditional nature of White's threat is a little hard to swallow. Should we really believe that if Fedor Emelianenko rang the UFC's doorbell, a signed contract in hand, the day following his debut appearance in EA's video game, that he wouldn't be brought on board? It's doubtful.

What is clear, however, is Dana White's immediate sincerity on the matter. Exceptions aside, the UFC president meant what he said, and it fits with the UFC's emergent modus operandi (formed around such a strong arm as only a boxercise instructor could have). Given this, we have to both admit the threat's significance and examine its potency.

Does Japan want the UFC?

Takanori Gomi is a star. Norifumi Yamamoto is a star. So are Kazushi Sakuraba, Ikuhisa Minowa, and American Jason Miller. None of them needed the UFC to reach the height of popularity, if not rankings, among Japanese MMA fans. Indeed, dating back to the UFC's Ultimate Japan 1 in 1997, it seems that the Ultimate Fighting Championship has always needed Japanese fighters as a means of success overseas more than any fighter from Takada Dojo ever needed the UFC. And while PRIDE is dead and gone, the rise of both DREAM and Sengoku provide for a persistent status quo. It’s hard to imagine that any popular fighter in Japan is particularly shaken at the thought of being banned from fighting in front of a booing American crowd.

Yet, for the best of fighters, being a star won't always be enough. Being the best is the only thing that will do, and in a country like Japan where matchmakers from hell are busy cooking up a fight between a kickboxing champion suffering from gigantism and a retired baseball player, truly testing oneself becomes a dubious proposition. This is where the UFC has an advantage.

Some will always view The Ultimate Fighter as a shameful spectacle, but this pales in comparison to a fight between a pro-wrestler dressed as a comic book character fighting a 320-pound spokesman for Panasonic televisions. Brock Lesnar aside, contenders in the UFC almost always follow a coherent rise to title contention, and the UFC has never in this modern era put a fight together based solely on the idea of a mismatch. The same cannot be said for the much-missed PRIDE FC, or K-1 Hero's or DREAM. A spot in the open-weight DREAM "Superhulk" tournament (where little guys fight big guys!) or a run at Anderson Silva's middleweight title? For the legacy-minded fighter this is not a hard choice. Yoshihiro Akiyama made this choice when he signed with the UFC. Olympic judoka turned sought-after MMA prospect Satoshi Ishii almost did the same before opting to gain experience in Japan before a stateside jump. Might this be indicative of a larger shift in opinion among the Japanese mixed martial arts community? While one can establish super-stardom in a Japanese promotion like DREAM, has the UFC, due to more consistent and productive matchmaking, become the place to test one's mettle at its peak? Dana White, in making such an unqualified threat, seems to be betting yes, but perhaps too soon.

Consider first that with the buyout and dissolution of PRIDE FC, a line was drawn in the sand. On the one end fell those who chose to migrate to the UFC, either for an extended stay (like Shogun Rua) or an abbreviated sort of investigation (like Akihiro Gono). On the other side were those who decided to stick it out in Japan, either in DREAM or in the fledgling Sengoku. If this latter group, comprised of fighters like Takanori Gomi, Josh Barnett, and Tatsuya Kawajiri, weren't too concerned with signing on with the UFC at the height of their overseas mystique, it's unlikely that they would be particularly concerned about it now. And with fighters like the aforementioned Gono moving back into more familiar territory, it's likely that most of the Japanese mainstays will remain just that.

What's more, it seems like there just might be a place for competition-minded fighters like Akiyama as well. Sengoku representative Takahiro Kokuho, in a May 2009 interview, acknowledged the problematic relationship that Japanese MMA culture has had with spectacle-driven events. "For us, Sengoku is a competition. We want it to be a real sport. We want to find out who really is the strongest...." Kokuho went on to say, "We won't be doing things like Bob Sapp-Kinniku Mantaro." If Sengoku's surprisingly sober, competitive tournaments are any indication, then fighters like Akiyama might not have to look to the UFC for more consistent matchmaking.

In the end, Dana White's harsh words may be landing on deaf ears across the Pacific.

Do North American fighters need the UFC?

Basically no. Or at least not for long. While it's true that the UFC currently has a stranglehold on mainstream popularity, key events in the past nine months point toward a change in the MMA landscape. Most significantly, the growth of Strikeforce.

Under staid management Strikeforce has seen steady growth to the point of landing a deal with television network CBS. It's home to MMA stars Gina Carano and Cung Le, and highly esteemed fighters like Jake Shields and Renato Sobral. A healthy collaboration with the money-burning promotion Affliction has managed to keep Strikeforce's growing roster in competitive fights, and its less-stringent contractual policies have seen international stars like Kazuo Misaki pop in to lend some gravitas to their fight cards.

Bearing all this in mind, one might envision a time when an eminent talent might opt out of playing hardball with Dana White in favor of a deal with EA Games and a spot on a CBS-broadcast Strikeforce event. And while Strikeforce could go belly-up before any of this comes to pass, the promotion's sensible rate of expansion and spending definitely separates it from burnouts like the WFA in 2006, the IFL in 2008, and perhaps Affliction in the coming year.

If Strikeforce's momentum continues, it could be little more than a year or two before fighter's can tune-out Dana White's unconditional demands.

Is Dana White pissing in the wind?

The efficacy of Dana White's threats to all UFC hopefuls, now and forever, depends largely on the fighters and their managers. Certainly the near future will see upcoming fighters for whom the UFC still holds a special aura, yet the MMA world seems to be changing—for every TUF hopeful there is a Robbie Lawler making it work outside of the trademarked Octagon.

If fighters recognize Strikeforce or Sengoku’s increasing significance they might, provided the fighter is able and willing to put time into a still-developing promotion, forego dignifying Dana White's strong-arm tactics. Only a couple years ago this would have been unthinkable, but with the growth of Strikeforce, Sengoku, and DREAM, combined with the increasingly vocal dissatisfaction of fighters and managers alike, Dana White may finally be overestimating his hold on the world of MMA.

This article was originally published by Nokaut.com on July 6, 2009