Hometown Hero?

Everyone has a favorite fighter.  There’s always that one guy who you will always pull for no matter what.  Perhaps it is their colorful personality, their never-say-die attitude, or the way they seamlessly dismantle opponents, something about that fighter just pulls you toward him (or her, for the 0.001% of you).  Rarely, however, does

This past week, I watched my favorite sports team, the San Francisco Giants, win their first World Series championship since 1954.  When Brian Wilson threw that last pitch and struck out Nelson Cruz, I threw what little manliness I have aside and cried.  And I did so with millions of others throughout the Bay Area.  Throughout the playoffs, I watched as the amount of Giants paraphernalia rose exponentially throughout the Bay.  The entire community seemed to be united by the black and orange.

MMA doesn’t have that.

Even amongst hardcore MMA fans, a fighter’s location plays a very small part in their popularity.  Jon Fitch, who lives and trains in the Bay Area, received no special attention from the local community leading up to his title shot against GSP.  Even Cain Velasquez, fresh off his thrashing of some guy named Brock Lesnar, didn’t get any considerable local support.  Rather, the UFC heavily marketed Velasquez’s Mexican heritage, attempting to appeal to the large, but spread-out Latino community.  At UFC 118, which I attended, the native New Englander Marcus Davis gained no extra support from the Bostonian crowd.

There are a few exceptions of course.  BJ Penn gathers considerable support from Hawaii, and GSP is treated like a superstar in Montreal.  Michael Bisping, Dan Hardy, and other UK fighters are more popular in their native land. Australia goes crazy for George Sotiropoulos.  However, none of these fighters live in the mainland United States.

The world of sports is one of the last things left that gathers a community to rally behind a common goal.  It is the reason the NBA, MLB, and NFL are so successful.  Even if the UFC had the exposure the other sports get, they would remain a second-tier sport.