WKR Interviews Fightlinker about Canadian MMA fans

I consider myself a student of MMA, I know a great deal but it will never be enough and there will always be individuals who have something to teach me. That is why I am on the constatnt lookout to discover the answers to my questions.

One academic thorn in my side was never truly knowing or understanding why there are so many Canadian MMA fans (and if any of them look like the model above then why haven't I met them). I resolved myself to finally learn why our neighbors to the north are so passionate about MMA. Luckily I had some help from Ryan of Fightlinker.com. Ryan granted me an interview to talk about Canada, MMA, George St. Pierre, UFC 94, the legal battles of Ontario and New York, Quebeqois as well as the all important question of where do Canadian fans come from?

The first part of the interview is below  

Zak: Let me start by asking you how did you find MMA

Ryan: The local video store where I was growing up got the tapes in, and they stuffed them in with the pro wrestling stuff. Being your average loser teenager, I was pretty into that kind of stuff at the time so it didn't take me long to sneak a few UFC tapes in between Wrestlemania and Royal Rumble rentals

So that was like 1994 and I kept up with it on a pretty casual basis until they got to UFC 10 and started mass-releasing them for 10 bucks a pop at all the music stores

That was when I bought them up and started collecting them and making sure I didn't miss any events as they came out on tape

I was always MONTHS behind everyone else right up until I guess 4 or 5 years ago when torrents allowed people to catch stuff the week after

Zak: Would it be fair to describe you as an early adapter?

Ryan: Well sort of yes, sort of no. Because I always watched it and paid attention, but it was purely from the point of view of wanting to watch the product. I couldn't have given less of a shit about the politics and everything else involved in the fight game. I just consumed the end product and moved on with my life.

I didn't really have anyone to talk it over with and Sherdog people were mean when i wanted to talk about stuff from last year. So I wasn't involved in the scene at all. I don't know what that does to a person's 'cred' ... but at the time it was just something else I watched.

-The rest of the interview is featured after the jump...

Zak: So when did you become actively involved? Was it with TUF?

Ryan: Haha yeah. I was trying to download torrents of the first season of TUF and the program I was using kept saying "This torrent is on a private site that you need to be a member of" ... I found the site, signed up, and boom - there's all the fucking events in one place. It's like going from having to hit up the library and dig through encyclopedias to just having access to Wikipedia. It changed the way I was able to be a fan

Zak: were there any local Canadian fans you met up with?

Ryan: Nope. I'll tell you what, I've always kind of been on my own with this MMA thing, none of my friends liked it and people thought I was weird when I talked about it. So once I was able to follow the events in real time, my only outlet was the internet. I spent a good amount of times on tracker forums discussing fights there and then expanded out and really got into posting on Zach Arnold's FightOpinion site. But until I started Fightlinker, I didn't know ANYONE else who liked MMA. That's why I ended up recruiting Jake ... he didn't know much at the time but he actually enjoyed the sport, and that was as good as it was going to get.

Zak: See I and many U.S. fans feel there is a strong Canadian fan base

is this a fallacy?

Ryan: He got the job as co-owner of Fightlinker by default because he was the only one of my friends who showed any interest, haha. So I roped him in and locked him up.

Ryan: Oh no, not at all. It's just different circles. As you can probably tell from the site, I'm a bit of an oddball so I don't really hang out with the standard MMA crowd. In fact, I get a decent amount of flack for shitting on the whole 'Combat Lifestyle' thing. So there's the connected group that I'm not really a part of (which is a really large number of people) and then there's a lot of normal people who just don't make a big deal about liking it who just kind of do their own things

But statistically there's no doubt that Canada is a huge market for the UFC. Back in the old days, Canada always sold a bunch of the pay per views, and there were a lot of really passionate people up here trying to throw their own events in the mid-90s as well

Zak: Why do you think that MMA and the UFC are so popular in Canada is it the history of hockey and hockey fight?

Ryan: Oh fuck no. I'd actually say hockey kind of keeps MMA in the shadows to a degree. Like take a look at the last time the UFC came to Montreal, it was a huge success and it sold out in minutes but as far as the city and most people were concerned, the only thing going on were the playoffs [the Montreal Canadians were in the NHL playoffs].

There's no definite answer for why we have such a high percentage of fans compared to the US, but if I was only allowed to pick one factor I'd say it probably has to do with pro wrestling. Canadians were retarded about it, then they grew up and grew right into the UFC.

Zak: Right, the Hart brothers.

Ryan: Yeah, plus hey maybe you can equate the low intelligence of Torontonians as to why they enjoyed it so much. But I think in the end it's also a bunch of smaller factors like how our government treated the sport and how medicare exists here. Personally I have no idea how smaller-level MMA exists in the US at all without having full-coverage healthcare

Also the expansion of the internet, which was really good in city centers. Everyone in America was still on dialup when DSL and cable were pretty much old hat in Canada. The internet was a necessity to be a fan a few years back, so it'd make sense that better internet access meant more fans

So there's my several pronged theory for why Canada is a hot spot

Zak: Interesting because we here in the U.S. like to think we are on the cutting edge of technology. I have long contended that Canadians are the best fans in MMA, would you agree with that statement?

Ryan: I don't know, those Irish fans at UFC 93 were cheering like they were watching the second coming of Jesus, and that was a pretty meh card overall. But we're pretty good. Here's how I'd put it: everyone in Canada takes it up one notch further ... so if you have a casual fan in America and one in Canada, the Canadian will know twice as much. Take a hardcore fan from each place, and the Canadian will be fanatical.

Kind of like how America has Dave Meltzer and Canada has Jordan Breen,

Breen just takes it waaaaaaaay too far.

Zak: Part of it though is Canadian fans are great at cheering for a takedown or a transition, which is really satisfying compared to some U.S. crowds.

Ryan: Well, how many Canadians with really devastating KOs are there out there? We came into this sport with Gary Goodridge and that fat dude with the mullet, but for the most part our bigger fighting exports were technical fighters like Carlos Newton. So if you want to cheer for the home guy, you have to understand at least a little of what he's up to.

Zak: Good point.

Ryan: There's no Canadian Chuck Liddell and even our wrecking machine GSP got cold cocked by Matt Serra. We enjoy slugging as much as Americans, but it's not where our fighters are going to win their fights

Zak: Speaking of GSP, do you think he will handle B.J. Penn?

Ryan: I personally think he will ... I have no doubt in my mind. But I still recognize that anything can happen in a fight and the first 10 minutes will be very dangerous and exciting. The UFC isn't pumping BJ Penn up enough for the fight. He has the best chance of anyone at 170 to beat GSP, so he deserves to be represented as such. That being said, it's still not very much of a chance.

Zak:: For Americans who aren't familiar with French Canadians, care to give a quick recap?

Ryan: French Canadians are what happens when you mix Native Americans with prostitutes and criminals from France. Half of them are über rednecks, the other half are very European, they're all hot and they're all crazy.

Zak: That is a comment that would probably get flagged

Ryan: I'm a filthy English kid, my parents are Irish and Australian so I just kind of sit back and laugh at the whole culture thing that goes on in Canada. Everyone else here is happy being Canadian, but French Canadians want to be 'Quebeqois'. It's silly. Like taking pride in being from New Jersey.

Zak: Well the US has their regionalism, Texas and South Carolina anyone?

Ryan: Yeah true and you go to Ohio and everyone is proud to be from there. I find it silly all around. Let's cheer that we don't live in Somalia or Chechnya but past that who cares? Well, I can't say that too much since I'm always injecting politics into my MMA posts, but you know what I mean. One of the things I like about MMA is it goes past "Home Team" and "Away Team." Just because Anderson Silva isn't from where you are doesn't mean you can't love him, you know? And I think that creates a very different vibe for MMA that's somewhat missing from other team sports

Zak: Interesting that you bring up the team aspect as a connection to regional fighters, because we constantly see the UFC pack cards with regional fighters.

Ryan: Yep, and I personally think it's a mistake to a degree. I mean, sure ... if you're from Montreal and we're in Montreal, then it's a no-brainer for you to fight on the card. But this shit where the UFC is drafting total tits into the league or keeping certain guys around so they have some regional flavor? It's pretty horrific. I don't think it's necessary.

But then again, the UFC has done a good job with Michael Bisping, so perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps the natural tendency for us as a society is to root for the home guy, so when you can exploit that, it'll make everything that much more popular.

Zak: Any other differences you see between Canadian and U.S. MMA fans?

Ryan: I'd say we're more similar than we are different. The big differences are between American and Canadian non-fans. Americans really seem to take it upon themselves to set MMA in a certain place ... I think somewhere down there with porn and cheap horror movies. Maybe Canadians do the same thing, but in my experience they're more likely to keep their disdain to themselves.

I mean the fact that this one guy in Ontario is effectively blocking the legalization of the sport is pretty amazing. But in the states you'll find people in every state looking to sink it and prevent it from happening, you know?

Zak: Yeah. Any thoughts about the current legislative battle in New York?

Ryan: Yep, I have very little faith in those in power. The more I read, the more it seems like the UFC did a good job of buying some key people with lobbyists but those people are all ready to fold like lawn chairs the second it looks like they might get negative press over backing the UFC. As I said, this is down there with porn right, so voting that in....

Zak: There is a Winston Churchill quote that I think fits this mood and I shared it with Jacob [of fightlinker.com] when we were talking about Obama. Churchill said "You can always count on America to do the right thing after they've tried everything else"

Ryan: Well in this case it's just chickenshit governing. No one wants to make a potentially unpopular choice, even if there's a whole bunch of reasons to make that choice like I don't know, freedom to do what you want to do, an opportunity to bring big bucks into the state, and so on and so forth

Zak: Any other thoughts about Canada and MMA?

Ryan: Yep - if you live in Ontario, you owe it to your sport to get educated about the bullshit going on in Ontario that's stopping MMA from being legal there. People talk about New York being important, but in my mind Toronto is a massive market and the UFC could sell out a stadium there easily ... if they were allowed. I think if we all get informed and work to do something about it, we could make changes. Otherwise, the US will probably start to supersede Canada as a market.

Zak: One last question, UFC 97 is Montreal, excited or disappointed?

Ryan: Both! I mean, excited that I'm probably going to witness two insane knockouts care of Chuck and Anderson. But I'd rather see them facing challenges, you know?

Zak: Exactly, I live in Columbus and about died when the Jardine Rampage fight was announced

Ryan: Well the good news is I'll be in Columbus for the show via the CrashMMA.com bus so after Jardine beats Quinton somehow we can cry into our beers together.

Zak: Thanks for your time