Quote of the Day: Jon Fitch
by Nate Wilcox on Jun 2, 2008 8:11 AM EDT
in MMA News
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Print"Part of the whole aspect of who I am and why people don’t know a lot about me is because I’ve made it like that – I haven’t done a lot of interviews and I don’t talk trash. I want this to be a sport. I don’t want it to be masturbated into WWE junior – I don’t want any of that. I want this to be like football and basketball – where the best play each other."
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And of course
This is the same kind of error in logic that I remember from the early 80’s. There was a panel discussion held in New York with a bunch of popular musicians about the future of music. On the topic of music videos, one half of Hall & Oates (was there a difference between them?) said that they were outraged by the idea of a musician – somebody who had dedicated countless hours to that one pursuit – being forced to dance and act and engage in all sorts of silliness. Madonna on the other hand said something to the effect that musicians are performers. They’ve always been performers. And pretending that playing live wasn’t dancing and acting was being disingenuous. Music videos are just another kind of performance that allows musicians to connect with their audience.
In the same way, sports are entertainment. Athletes are entertainers. Pretending that we watch sports for just the spirit of competition or something is silly: we watch to be entertained. His examples of football and basketball: does he not watch TV? Has he never listened to the radio? Those athletes are out there hustling for every opportunity to connect to their fans that they can get, not only to make money, but to build up that relationship that will give them more and more opportunities to keep playing.
Fighters in particular have to take this role on: because it’s a solo event, they can’t rely on anyone else promoting them. And just being a good fighter isn’t enough: Lyoto Machida will never make the kind of money that a Tito, a Wanderlei or a Rampage can make, and he certainly won’t gotten the opportunities to compete in the highest levels of the sport if he can’t find a way to entertain the fans and build up a following – or at least not for long.
Fitch needs to get over himself. I’m glad that he takes the sport seriously – I truly am – and I certainly like his position more than the phony rivalries and shit-talk that goes around from time to time (unless it’s BJ; that guy’s funny). But he needs to recognize what business he’s in if he wants a long career that allows him to fight at the highest levels.
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ.
Dude
I can’t spend all my time hogging the front page! :-P
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ.
you lost me after Hall and Oates….. not because of anything that you wrote, all that stuff was good….I’m just a huge Hall and Oates fan….after you mentioned i had to go dig into my vinyl and find H20 and listen to it…..........uh….. where was I at again?
Then seriously
You should know this: did we actually need both of them? Were they different enough from one another that there had to be two of them? :-P
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ.
c’mon man…somethings just go together….peanut butter and jelly….....laurel and hardy….....HALL AND F’in OATES!!!!! i always dug the visual disparity between the two….hall was like some giant effeminate dude with the blond mane then ya got oates who was a midget with the whiteman afro and… dear god that stache….. to quote snoop dogg…...hall without oates is like Harold melvin with out the blue notes….that bitch ain’t ever going platinum….
jamming to Kiss is on my list as I write this…....... and no i’m not being ironic …... i truly dig Hall and Oates
Well
Since I am CLEARLY not ever going to understand your taste in music, let me flesh out the first paragraph of what I wrote above:
Hall & Oates when on to produce a few uninspired music videos for relatively good songs and withered into obscurity, while Madonna who has the singing voice of an American Idol reject made spectacular music videos that catapulted her to the top of the charts and the highest levels of success in American pop music. So we can see who won that argument. :-)
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ.
If he doesn’t want to dance and hit the tanning salon, that’s cool with me. I’d rather he abstain from that other stuff than do it and not be comfortable with it. Maybe he doesn’t want to be a pop icon. I’m all for making money, but I think our society gets too caught up in that pursuit alone. I’m biased because I see MMA as more of a sport like the WEC event last night. The trash talk between fighters is mostly contrived. Anybody with half a functioning brain can see through it.
sadly...
I’d say the majority of people watching MMA shows don’t have half a functioning brain.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
"The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like hard work." -- Thomas Edison
by Brent Brookhouse on Jun 2, 2008 3:55 PM EDT up reply actions
Sadly....
your highly mistaken and probably don’t get out much….most of these fighters are world class athletes, D1 college wrestlers that choose this sport over training for the Olympics where there is little or no money. To make a comment like that you have to be geek who spends three quarters of your time behind a computer…..
But...
...at least he can read: “people WATCHING MMA shows.”
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ.
But....
douche bag – I can read and have an ivy league degree AND am a CEO of a company….oh, and have a College wrestling background….
Very Common
Please, please, please tell me the name of your company so that I can make sure I sell whatever stocks I might own of theirs.
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ. -- TangleBones
Yeah, I always used to feel guilt about resenting the hype. After all, some guys like it and who the heck am I to pee in their cheerios? Just enjoy the sport aspect and let them enjoy the “pageantry” or prancing strippers (which are good but only in a different context), I thought.
But recently I’ve seen the light. Going down the hype road does hurt the sport and my enjoyment of it, as we see with EXC choosing popularity over sport. I won’t even bring up what it does to the fan base that people then associate as “MMA Fan” = stupid douchebag. It’s early yet, but we now have a great chance to start fresh with these new organizations! How rare that is… (the XFL sure proved that to me). I’m glad fighters like Jon are willing to do the right thing, and I hope fans support those like him. WEC shows there can be a very bright future, despite the so far mostly benign UFC dominating today. Actually, EXC was a lot like the XFL (ranked #3 worst TV show ever by AP) now that I think about it.
by swarmofkillermonkeys on Jun 2, 2008 6:06 PM EDT up reply actions
How about this
Don’t think of it in terms of just money, or even just building his legacy: Fitch, if he promotes himself, can not just help himself, he can help the charities he likes. The more famous he gets, the more of a bully-pulpit he builds for himself to confront and work to rectify whatever ills of society he doesn’t like. Michael Jordan sure didn’t mind self-promotion, and his charitable work was great. Is John against the idea of having a “John Fitch Battered Women’s Shelter” or something? How will that happen if he isn’t out there hustling to get himself known?
Promoting yourself doesn’t have to mean acting like Phil Baroni – there are cool ways to handle this stuff. Have you guys seen the videos of Rampage at signings and leading MMA demonstrations? That’s a guy who self-promotes. And it’s working!
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ.
And the good points just keep coming today. I tend to like how guys like Fitch handle themselves by staying out of the spotlight, but I never looked at it the way you put it. A guy like Fitch who doesn’t want to be a Baroni type could still develop his “star” enough to help others.
Yeah
I forgot to take my “jackass” pill today. Tomorrow though…. tomorrow Luke will ban me!
But you know, there are lots of stars who aren’t celebrities. What do you know about Robert Redford’s family? When was the last time Johnny Depp got into a fight with his wife? Stars can choose to stay out of the limelight if they want. I don’t mean to say that what Fitch is doing is wrong, just that it’s not morally superior to what folks like Rampage are doing.
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ. -- TangleBones
Rampage is a great self-promoter, and I get a kick out of him. The same can be said about BJ Penn. To what degree Fitch is promoting, or not promoting himself, is hard to determine from this quote. He can probably do a lot of worthwhile things based on his popularity from MMA without really hustling.
I sort of think we’re talking about different things. I understand your point. Michael Jordan was a star because he was, in my mind, the best basketball player to ever walk on the court. Baroni’s popular more because he’s a spectacle. That’s fine. It just doesn’t do anything to improve the MMA experience for me. Maybe there should be a “Phil Baroni Battered Women’s Shelter.” In that case, I’d like to see the spectacle that would be the opening ceremony for that facility.
by Cannon Jacques on Jun 2, 2008 8:37 PM EDT up reply actions
GSP training with Nova Uniao in Brazil
Paqueta, a legend from Jiu-Jitsu’s past, who arrived to pay his respects and present him with a dvd from his vast collection, containing all his upcoming opponent John Fitch’s fights.
Jon is just that kind of guy. He is not in this sport for all the fame and fortune. If he was you would have heard bitching from him long before now, I mean he’s 8 and 0. He is in it for himself and to test himself- it just happens to be a sport that is televised and is starting to gain more fame in the eyes of the sports lovers. He is a very humble guy and isn’t in it to be recognized. He is just saying he wants the sport to be considered the best against the best! Where are you going with the music comparison???? Performers are not the same as atheletes- -that is a ridiculous compairison! The only compairision that can be made is that they are both in the public eye sometimes, regardless if they want to be or not. Jon would fight in front of 200 people or 20,000 people. He has stated that in numerous interviews! Again, he loves the sport andis a class act, and that in itself creates intrest for true mma fans!
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