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[Sakara=Excitement]

Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chael Sonnen and the Battle for MMA's Soul - Bloody Elbow

Mixed martial arts exists in a grey area, not quite sport, surely not mere spectacle. If Vince McMahon hadn't already stolen the phrase "sports entertainment" for his WWE wrestling promotion, it would be the perfect description of MMA. In MMA, there are no real top ten lists. Fighters are chosen for title shots at the promoter's whim, suffering the vagaries of fame and popularity, not able to rely on their own excellence to assure their advancement. And the most popular fighters are not always the best fighters, giving a promotion like the UFC the financial incentive to stifle a fighter for years if they don't think his style is entertaining or crowd pleasing.

As savvy fighters catch on to the marketing necessities that come with being a celebrity athlete in 2010, we've seen more and more creative fight promotion by the fighters themselves, independent of the UFC or Strikeforce. Look at Roy Nelson trying to insert himself into WWE storylines or Rashad Evans keeping his name in the headlines in the months between his last fight and his next one. But no one fighter has mastered fight marketing quite as well as Chael Sonnen. His epic build up to UFC 117 was so great, even a professional wrestling legend like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was left in awe of his work, telling Live Audio Wrestling that Sonnen sucked him in like no one had before:

When you look at what Chael Sonnen did going into that Anderson Silva fight, I love to watch Anderson Silva fight and always considered Sonnen such a grinder and great wrestler – he talked me into buying that fight because I wasn’t going to get that fight and that guys promos were just top notch, they couldn’t have been even better. A friend of mine, DDP, came to my house to watch that fight and we watched him kick Silva’s ass for four a half rounds and I kept saying to Dallas 'he's going to catch him with the arm and tap him out' and sure enough after getting throttled for four and a half rounds, he tapped Chael out and I was so emotionally invested in that fight it made me sick. But to go back to your promos, yes I love the way Chael did those promos, a shoot style promo when you’re trying to do business and sell tickets is the best approach.

There's danger in the Sonnen approach. Just like Stone Cold himself ushered in an era of "Stone Cold" anti-hero clones, each copycat leading to diminishing returns, there can only be one effective Chael Sonnen. Fighters need to find their own inner character and unleash him. It's not about being the "next" Chael Sonnen. It's about taking your own personality, amplifying it to ten, and letting loose a little. If a fighter is good enough, being able to let loose in interviews will be the difference between the main event on PPV and a match on the middle of the card on SPIKE television. The UFC will always promote the brand ahead of the fighter. But Chael Sonnen has shown fighters the road - it will be interesting to see how many follow it.


UPDATED: Jon Fitch tells the LA Times he has had a revelation:

[Rumble]

Does that mean Fitch is going to be looking for the finish, or that he's going to start acting like Kos and Chael?

[One-Way]

MMA is not a sport??????
Stone Cold's opinion and perspective have some sort of bearing?????

[JustinVoorhees]

stopped reading after mma not a sport.

[xdevilhawk138x]

Anything with past WWE people on the article thats when I move on to the next thread

[Y2JUBAE]

WHAT! LMAO!

Dayum. Don't even know where to start!

1 - mma is not a sport? But, golf and nascar are? LOL I mean, how in the hell is it not a sport? What is a sport?
2 - DDP? Did they do yoga for men together?

[Dr. MMA]

I was never a fan of this over-marketing, but it's what generates money, attracts not only fans but more fighters to the sport, opens up more schools, generates better trainers and in turn generates better fighters. It's not exactly causal, but there's definitely an association.

Hell maybe Mr. Austin has a good point about fighters needing to find their own inner character and unleashing themselves. Fitch can't be the next Kos or Chael, he just doesn't have that attitude. You know what's the best way to market him by using his inner self? If he said something along the lines of "I don't care how good you are at BJJ, striking, wrestling, karate, judo, tae kwon do...I'll still take you down, suck the life out of you and beat you up for 15 straight minutes. Hell I don't even care about knocking you out or submitting you, I'd rather have the pleasure of knowing that I gave YOU 15 minutes to finish me, and you couldn't. Plus, this way I can maximize my camera time!"

[carbondioxide830]

(didn't read the article)

[YukonJordan]

It's actually worth a read and not bad. I imagine Austin meant it wasn't a sport in the way that it hasn't reached mainstream everyday acceptance like other major sports.

[born2kill]

Correction: the UFCs version of MMA is not a sport or at least not as pure as its been billed as.

When a fighter, an atheletic competitor is criticized for his entertainment value (or lack of) rather his efforts in competing, thats when it crosses the line from sport to theater. It becomes like wrestling, xgames, figure skating; you know the performance "sports" where "winning" is really pleasing the fans taste. And how ever its accomplished is inconsequential.

When Chael was given a rematch, not for having earned it, but rather because the fans want to see anderson get beat, thats an instance when it losses credibility as a sport.