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This is the Writer's Roundtable here at MMATorch.com. In this feature our own Matt Pelkey will be providing our questions each week, and then we'll provide the answers from members of our staff here at MMATorch.com. This week, we've got Torch Contributor Frank Hyden, along with Torch Columnist Matt Pelkey, Torch editor Jamie Penick and our special guest Ash Anderson of MMA-Live.com to answer three questions.
1. How much does knowing the outcome of a fight affect your enjoyment of watching it?
2. Kind of a follow up to one of last week's questions; who has the best post-fight victory celebration?
3. Who is the best MMA commentator (play-by-play or color)?
Frank Hyden, MMATorch Contributor:
1. If it's a long fight then it lessens my enjoyment. I really only pay close attention when I know the finish is near. If it's a short fight then it increases the fun of watching it because I make sure to not look away. The exception to this is when I know that a fighter I root for wins. That lessens the nervousness and I can enjoy his victory.
2. I've always been a fan of Anderson Silva's air guitar and martial arts poses after his wins. BJ Penn licking his opponent's blood is a good one. It's a nice little alpha male move so that's cool. Although I do wonder how he would respond if an opponent did that to him. That's about it. Most other guys do the Octagon leap or the primal yell. The backflips are ok, I'm not a big fan.
3. Even though he was new, I have to go with Gus Johnson. Mike Goldberg is fine, but I've never been a big fan of his cliches. Joe Rogan lets his love for BJJ overwhelm his common sense and that leads to him proclaiming that groundfighting is nonstop excitement. It's especially bad when 2 guys are just lying on each other and the ref stands them up and Joe complains for the next few minutes. There's nothing wrong with Todd Harris (besides his voice being a little too used-car salesman-like) but every time I hear him talk I can't help but think of The World's Strongest Man competitions. Too bad Bill Kazmaier doesn't know much about MMA. Frank Mir does a really good job on color but knowing that he's so full of himself totally ruins it for me. I can't help but imagine he's thinking to himself how he's a better athlete than anyone in WEC.
I'm not a fan of Mauro Ranallo. I would say Bas Rutten is my favorite announcer of all-time. The reason I go with Gus Johnson as being the best right now, even though he's pretty inexperienced, is that I love his enthusiasm. He can get me swept up in the emotions like no other announcer. You can tell that he's genuinely excited about his job, and that's infectious. He also showed great strides towards improving from show to show. I've been a fan of Gus Johnson for some time and that extends to his MMA announcing.
Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist:
1. Plain and simple, not knowing the outcome of a fight is what makes it exciting. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of fights out there that I can watch over and over again, but I'm never "on the edge of my seat", per se. There's actually different levels to this for me. Obviously, I'd rather watch a fight I've never seen and know nothing about. Then it goes a fight I know the winner of, but not the details (i.e. round, time, and method). The worst is if I know all the details. Then its just like I'm filling in the blanks while waiting for the inevitable. Like I said, a good fight is a good fight, but there's always something missing if I watch having any previous knowledge of it.
2. I'm a sucker for Anderson Silva's shimmy. I like that he never does it anywhere near his opponent. He's too respectful for that. I'd like to say I'm a fan of GSP's backflip, but he always seems like he's gonna land on his face or blow out his knees on the landing. It just seems like a dumb thing to do right after going to war with another human being. Think of something less physically exerting GSP. I also love a celebration of pure unbridled joy. Jeremy Stephens running full speed, head-first into the cage after knocking Rafael Dos Anjos was hilarious, but I'm fairly certain I would've done the same thing.
3. At the moment, with EliteXC on CBS no more, it has to be Joe Rogan. I know he receives criticism for talking over Mike Goldberg, but SOMEBODY has to call the action. In sports commentating, you have a play-by-play guy and a color guy. In theory, Goldberg is the play-by-play and Rogan is the color. One problem: Mike Goldberg talks incessantly about anything but the action. He's a hype-man ala Flavor Flav; a company shill. Rogan's passion and knowledge get the nod from me, not to mention he has to carry 200lbs. of dead weight every time out. I'd also like to give an honorable mention to Gus Johnson of CBS. He drew the job of play-by-play for EliteXC on Saturday nights, and he *gasp* actually called the action. Obviously he doesn't have a lot of experience calling MMA, but you could tell he had done his homework and sounded more knowledgeable than a guy like Mike Goldberg, who's been calling MMA for years and years. Kudos to Mr. Johnson for being a professional and sounding well-prepared your first time out.
Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief:
1. There are many fights I've watched and re-watched multiple times, and with those I'm watching them for a reason: it was good. So in that respect my enjoyment isn't hampered by knowing what's coming up. However, if it's a fight I haven't seen yet, and I've found out what happened and when, it surely causes me to watch the fight differently. As Matt said, one of the great things that makes MMA exciting is that you don't know the outcome ahead of time. When anything can happen, your eyes are glued to the TV. Not so when you know the outcome.
2. Anderson Silva is always entertaining before, during and after his fights, but his post-fight actions are especially so. As has already been pointed out he pull out the air guitar, different poses, and the shimmy is classic. It's disappointing that there aren't more people outside of the hardcore fanbase getting into him like they could be.
3. For me, it's Rogan. Gus Johnson did a great job with the EliteXC telecasts, but I always enjoy Rogan's on-going commentary throughout UFC shows. Mike Goldberg gets flack from a lot of people, but I highly enjoy his (admittedly limited) play-by-play, but part of that is hometown bias as he used to do the play-by-play for my Minnesota Wild as well. That team of Goldberg and Rogan is just synonymous with the UFC at this point, and I always look forward to their call.
Ash Anderson, MMA-Live.com:
1. I find that if I know the outcome of a fight before I see it the way I watch the fight changes a lot, especially if I know when the win comes. In my mind all I keep thinking is about when the win will come. I will however watch a fight multiple times if it is over the top amazing. I have watched the Forrest Griffin vs. Stephen Bonnar fight well over ten times, by far my favourite.
2. There are many that come to mind. I think based purely on shock and amazement it would have to be when Seth Petruzelli defeated Kimbo Slice and did a few laps round the ring screaming in excitement. Behind that Tito Ortiz has had some good ones, especially his post-fight shirts.
3. Joe Rogan knows a lot about the MMA ground game. He can provide some amazing play-by-play analysis of fights and he even makes fans laugh some with his random comments. I can see Kenny Florian having a good future after his fighting as a commentator of MMA. He did good when he filled in for Rogan at UFC 83 and is gaining in experience on ESPN's MMA Live.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
