Anyone else ever encounter one of these..?

I recently searched my place of an employment for a co-worker I could discuss MMA with. A lot of dudes have heard of it, A lot of dudes have saw it but I could only find one person willing to have lengthy conversations about it.. He's a large bald fellow in his mid-30's.

I wouldn't call him a FANATIC (like myself).. Hes a "fan"... not a hardcore fan, but one of those dudes who wears the skin tight MMA Elite shirts, the TapOut skate shoes & has an arm full of Tim Sylvia tribal tattoo left over from high school.. he watches most of the UFC on FOX's but not any PPV events. He often watches UFC Unleashed re-runs on Spike & thinks hes watching live fights... All his favourite fighters are from 4 or 5 years ago (Rampage, Randy, Tito) & he constantly asks me "When is Chuck Liddell's next fight?". He never heard of Facebook prelims & when I told him Henderson vs Edgar II was the mainevent this weekend he smiled wide & said he "hopes Henderson lands the H-Bomb this time.." ... .....

He is some kind of UFC pseudo-fan.. more focused on projecting the look of an MMA fighter then actually following the sport itself... These people fascinate me & as part of my study I ask you fellow PGers, have you ever run into one of these strange creatures? Did you converse with it? How do you differentiate between a true MMA fan & an everyday Liddell mohawk enthusiast?

Every single person I've talked to about mma other than my buddy Ryan is this person. Tons of people at school and at work.

i DO NOT contact people like this once they are identified. its not like I'm an MMA snob but because i fight, and i talk to many other fighters on a daily basis i choose not to make much conversation with the "TAPOUT" mma fans. i can have great conversations with my fellow fighters and my friends on the PG.

That's too funny Shane.

So I recently was talking to a co-worker who claimed to be a hardcore MMA fan. He was far from it to say the least. I had to give him some credit as he knew a lot of the more relevant fighters. Shortly into our conversation and after showing him my PG page he was like "WOW" you are hardcore and suggest I should become a professional analyst. I replied if you think I'm hardcore these guys put me to shame on this site. So I really can't have conversations with anybody I know about detailed MMA talk. My girlfriend is the closest I have. She does "Pretend fantasy UFC" with me and is getting better. I just make a copy of the fights and have her pick just like we do. Typical girl for you she picks based off looks. She actually beat me on the last event by 3 pts and 1 win. So I refuse to have MMA conversations with people anymore.

That's why there's the PG By far the best MMA website out there by a land slide.

It irks me that people automatically think 'douchebag' when they see TapOut gear. It's no different from wearing surf brands or skate brands.

In New Zealand its a bit different. People are like... "you're into Manual Metal Arc welding? How quaint."
We don't get those douches you are talking about.
We do get them when it comes to boxing though, wearing Everlast.

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Posted by infestructure

It irks me that people automatically think 'douchebag' when they see TapOut gear. It's no different from wearing surf brands or skate brands.

In New Zealand its a bit different. People are like... "you're into Manual Metal Arc welding? How quaint."
We don't get those douches you are talking about.
We do get them when it comes to boxing though, wearing Everlast.

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I wear my tap out shirts proud

Basically everyone I discuss MMA with away from the PG is one of these, I tried chatting with one guy and he fold me he used to train cage fighting, I just zoned out after that, then there is another guy who trains and is about to have his first amatuer fight, he doesn't like watching the smaller guys and he only watches the PPV's as the other cards are all rubbish! I switch off when speaking with these people, I tend to smile and nod!

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Posted by Budgellism

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Posted by infestructure

It irks me that people automatically think 'douchebag' when they see TapOut gear. It's no different from wearing surf brands or skate brands.

In New Zealand its a bit different. People are like... "you're into Manual Metal Arc welding? How quaint."
We don't get those douches you are talking about.
We do get them when it comes to boxing though, wearing Everlast.

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I wear my tap out shirts proud

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Just wondering does that make me a D-bag that I have 4 fighter worn walkout shirts? 2 GSP, 1 Frankie Edgar , and 1 Dustin Poirier. I don't wear them all the time but was gonna support Frankie this Saturday by wearing his walkout shirt. Man those things are expensive. My girlfriend bought me all of them for Father's day. She said they were roughly $35 for the Poirier and Edgar and $45 for the GSP ones.

Hey guys, I just turned on the tv, and UFC 134 is live, Silva vs Okami . I think Wanderlei takes this one.

Anyways, it's too bad d-bags wearing Tapout and Affliction shirts ruined it for all of us. Although, paying $60 for any t-shirt is ridiculous. These are the people I imagine, that chant USA, every chance they get, when one of the fighters is foreign. I have a few mma shirts that I wear occasionally, and don't feel stupid about it. I do find it hard to have a deep conversation with friends about mma, specifically the UFC. I have a couple that follow it pretty closely, which is nice, but others I just have to talk about the big name fighters with.

One of my favorite conversations I've ever had, a few years back, with a so called big mma fan, was about the use of knees to the head of a downed opponent. He said more fighters should use them in the UFC, I said it's illegal now, but back in Pride they were done all the time. He swore up and down, that they were legal. We argued for like 10 minutes, and he said he would bet me any amount of money, they could be used in the UFC. It wasn't until my brother stepped in and told his friend he should probably back off, because I knew what I was talking about, and he was wrong.

I own two Tapout shirts and a jacket. Not a huge fan of their clothing designs and thin fabric. Love MMA Elite's winter line but it isn't all I wear.

The thing for me is.. Tapout is now frowned upon by most hardcore fans as mainstream and it ruins the reputation of a clothing company who has supported the UFC since it's dark ages. Not to mention it effects the regular fans who just wear the shirt cause it's a shirt. I'm small as shit and whenever I put on a Tapout shirt it doesn't suddenly make me feel like Anderson Silva.

The last person I met wearing a Tapout shirt had just seen the Barboza head kick KO highlight. Knowing I am a big fan of the sport, he told me he thought Barboza would be be the next champ. I politely replied with "Anything is possible." He then asked me when Barboza would be fighting Jon Jones.

Edit: I should add I own 2 Tapout shirts, 2 One More Round shirts, and a Quicksilver shirt. I do not wear any of them. Thought I would, but no.

I like to make bets with those kinds of people. By some kind of reverse anti-luck i run into somewhat knowledgeable people that i cant take advantage of more often than not.

I own 2 UFC shirts One of them was worn by Team Rampage during TUF 10 season.

When I went to UFC 97, this Tapout shirt wearing kid (5'10 170lbs ish) sitting infront of me and my buddies wanted to start a fight with my friend (6'4 270lbs ish) for the simple reason that he was cheering for Shogun and booing Liddell. When I occasionally go to sports bars, there are those typical tough guys who wear tapout or affliction and talk as if they know everything. Needless to say I've won a couple pints from those guys Basically I will forever view those who wear these shirts as posers.

Luckily I have a few friends I watch almost every UFC event with and have a guy at work I talk to once or twice a week for like 10-15 min during work time about past or upcoming fights and recent news. I used to live with a hardcore fan for 4 years (he basically got me following the sport) so that was awesome. And now I have the PG

one time i overheard that dana carvey was trying to sign oscar de la hoya

I have Tapout shirts, and Osiris shirts, and DC shirts, and Killswitch Engage shirts, and Megadeth shirts, a whole shitload of Rush shirts, Metallica shirts a drawer of Pantera shirts, Slayer shirts, Sinister shirts, Affliction shirts, Burton shirts, UFC shirts

I guess m a noob when it comes to everything....

Just to share a little - My brother always needs my help on the weekends and when I say I can only help him for so long, he would ask why. I would tell him there's a ufc event going on. He would come back and ask - who is fighting? I would grin because I know he knows none of the fighters.

Why do people ask when it's not important to them nor do they care? I don't mind answering the questions but it seems so pointless. And here's another thing I find irritating...Why do people nod their heads or say uh huh when they don't understand or know what you're talking about?

If you question what you don't understand, you are likely to learn something new. I have always been taught to do this and I find no shame in asking for a better explanation. Most people are not certified instructors and they are likely to be complacent and or half-fast when trying to explain something. So the next time you don't understand and need a better explanation, I encourage you to ask. You will come out of that conversation a smarter person.

When you choose to pretend you understand, you will have an unpleasant conversation and you'll be looking for ways to end the conversation. It puts you in a bad situation. It is much easier on your health if you simply ask.

Yeah nobody I talk to outside the PG knows anything about mma. They ask if I am refering to ultimate fighting when I get jacked up for certain events. I wish I had a friend that understood me

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Posted by KungFuMaster

Just to share a little - My brother always needs my help on the weekends and when I say I can only help him for so long, he would ask why. I would tell him there's a ufc event going on. He would come back and ask - who is fighting? I would grin because I know he knows none of the fighters.

Why do people ask when it's not important to them nor do they care? I don't mind answering the questions but it seems so pointless. And here's another thing I find irritating...Why do people nod their heads or say uh huh when they don't understand or know what you're talking about?

If you question what you don't understand, you are likely to learn something new. I have always been taught to do this and I find no shame in asking for a better explanation. Most people are not certified instructors and they are likely to be complacent and or half-fast when trying to explain something. So the next time you don't understand and need a better explanation, I encourage you to ask. You will come out of that conversation a smarter person.

When you choose to pretend you understand, you will have an unpleasant conversation and you'll be looking for ways to end the conversation. It puts you in a bad situation. It is much easier on your health if you simply ask.

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I just want to clarify something here because I know there a few anal posters who will try to find contradictions in someone's post.

There is a difference between asking questions about things you don't care for and asking questions about things you do not understand. I just want to make that distinction to avoid any potential flame wars. I hope I covered all my bases here.

it's kind of annoying with me, sometimes ill invite some mates over to watch the bigger ppv's but they seem to get annoyed as soon as it goes to the ground or if the two fighters arent brawling.

i actually get annoyed because they can't appreciate a good ground battle or jockey for position...recently been preferring to watch the fights by myself which some of you may find odd, but in australia live fights usually start around 10 am on a sunday morning when they are hung over and in bed anyway.

Im at the opposite end of the scale, most of the fights start around midnight with the main card starting at 3am, I also watch the cards by myself, cant be arsed explaining whats going on during the fights.

I do think there is a difference though when you have the the guy who knows nothing about nothing (MMA, UFC ,etc..) and lifts weights and walks around with a Tapout shirt on to look tough. Like the steroids weren't enough already. Doesn't know weight divisions, champions, events etc..

Then you have someone who is knowledgeable on every aspect and wants to support his or her appreciation towards their favorite fighter/s and wears a fighter worn shirt as a fan of that fighter or sport.

The problem is, is you can't decipher the difference until you have that 2 min conversation with them. Which I avoid because 95% or better are the guys that want to look tough. That % was totally made up by the way. You see the point?

I used to go to BW3 after the cards in Europe and find that guy then offer bets with him. Clearly I knew who actually won already, I would lose one or 2 then get him on the main event. Usually get my tab paid for the night. Gotta love the guy in the tapout shirt who knows everything there is to know. I don't do it anymore because there a bit of an incedent once when someone told the dude he had been had.

There are guys at my work place that follow the UFC. And they can actually have an intelligent conversation about it UNTIL Pride comes up. like a fighters career before UFC. I of course know all that stuff already but I dont blame them for not knowing. I feel lucky I atleast have a couple of guys that almost sort of kind of know what their talking about when it comes to MMA

I've run into so many people who have knowledge of MMA and really seem like they are fans, but they know so little about the sport.

My father is a prime example.
He often doesn't know who is fighting or when, but he always watches if he sees an ad on TV, or if I tell him about the fights. He only has a slight grasp on fighters names, records, styles, etc... He loves to watch UFC Unleashed.
Last time I went to visit him, he was excited to see "Machado" fight. Turns out, he was excited to see Machida.

Part of this is likely the fact that if one does not go out of their way to find information online then another source, the TV, will provide very little information about MMA.

My father has no tribal tattoos, or TapOut clothes, but I have seen/spoken to plenty of these people as well. MMA is a way of seeming edgy for some.
I just nod politely and interject with some knowledge when I find an opening to try and educate them. I think these folks are fans who just need to right information. I try not to ignore them because I want MMA to have as many well-infromed fans as possible and I can help people be more knowledgeable. Just like all of you helped (and continue to help) make me more knowledgeable.

Thanks PG for all the wisdom .

I work with a guy who actually amuses me with our conversations. 3rd shift stocking in a grocery store can get tedious, and he knows about the top guys thru tv commercials, but thats about it. i am slowly but surely transforming him, I stayed on him hard about watching Fox 4, to my suprise he actually did !! He came in to work the next day and came looking for me to declare that his new fav is Mike Swick. I can talk to him and try to educate him, because he doesnt claim to be a tough guy or know it all. Unfortunately, he is also a huge WWE fan, and has this preconceived notion that wrestlers can beat up anyone from mma, as he says. This is the point where our conversation starts going downhill. He asked me do I think anyone of these "smaller" mma guys could take out Triple H. He was in comlete denial when I told him yes, just about any professional fighter from any weight div. would walk thru just about any pro wrestler, no matter the size difference.
On the flip side, I have my two mma buddies who I watch just about every card with and they know their stuff. My friend Adam who is one of them is the one who got me into mma about 4 years ago. Other than those two, no one I run into really knows anything in depth about mma.

I had no idea wearing a TapOut shirt meant that you were an amateur fan.

Not that I own any TapOut gear, but I'd say I'm still learning when it comes to MMA. I won't compare my knowledge to some of the guys I know, but when it comes to my girlfriends, I definitely sound like an elite expert. lol

None of my girlfriends watch it, except for one girl who got excited when I mentioned it and claimed that she was a major fan and thought that "that bald guy with the french-canadian accent is sooooo hawt"...

Yeah, not a huge knowledge base among the girls I know, other than the top-billed 'hot' guys.

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Posted by State_Champ

I've run into so many people who have knowledge of MMA and really seem like they are fans, but they know so little about the sport.

My father is a prime example.
He often doesn't know who is fighting or when, but he always watches if he sees an ad on TV, or if I tell him about the fights. He only has a slight grasp on fighters names, records, styles, etc... He loves to watch UFC Unleashed.
Last time I went to visit him, he was excited to see "Machado" fight. Turns out, he was excited to see Machida.

Part of this is likely the fact that if one does not go out of their way to find information online then another source, the TV, will provide very little information about MMA.

My father has no tribal tattoos, or TapOut clothes, but I have seen/spoken to plenty of these people as well. MMA is a way of seeming edgy for some.
I just nod politely and interject with some knowledge when I find an opening to try and educate them. I think these folks are fans who just need to right information. I try not to ignore them because I want MMA to have as many well-infromed fans as possible and I can help people be more knowledgeable. Just like all of you helped (and continue to help) make me more knowledgeable.

Thanks PG for all the wisdom .

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I talk to my dad about it too, he doesn't follow it much or know too many of the fighters but if I remind him it's on he'll watch. Contrary to most casual fans, he likes the smaller guys the most. His rationale is the same for boxing: they do more and lean on each other panting heavily less.
As far as this thread goes, Tapout is the most trendy clothing line, so it will inherently have the most dbags associated with it, just by proportion. However, it is probably the easiest brand to purchase to state that "you're a fan (or think you are)" just because it has been around the longest and is pretty clear what it implies, hence why it attracts dbags easily. Personally I really like Dethrone, I think their shirts are pretty cool, they fit perfect, and the mantra of bringing down the top echelon of royalty is one that I can subscribe to in a sense.

I dont think any of the hardcore fans that I know personally own mma clothing.

The fact that so many people find MMA clothing (TapOut, Silver Star, Affliction etc...) off-putting is not unsurprising considering the appearance of much of this clothing.
However, the fact the "hardcore fans" are turned off by the very clothing which is purported to be a part of MMA culture is very interesting to me.


To all you PG members who dislike MMA clothing, can I ask: why?
Is it the appearance, or what?

Note: I do not have any "MMA clothes" mostly due to the prices, but also because I find the clothing is often really ugly to my tastes.

I wear MMA T shirts and I have 1 hoody, the only reason I dont have more is money.