Diaz-Noon post-fight brawl exposes..
Published by on June 19th, 2008 in Current Events

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By Zach Arnold

With the explosive growth of Mixed Martial Arts over the last decade, an influx of professional wrestling fans and writers have adopted the sport as their new passion. For many hardcore MMA fans who are purists and not pro-wrestling supporters, professional wrestling is the bane of their existence. To see this divide in action, look no further than the response from various MMA media writers to the post-fight brawl last Saturday in Hawaii at Elite XC’s event between the Noons and Diaz family clans.

If you ever want to see an MMA version of a Rorschach test, this incident provides a pretty good example of where the divides lie amongst the various media personalities covering the business.

Amongst the hardcore MMA writers and fans online who are generally not pro-wrestling supporters, there was angst and disgust with the post-fight antics by Nick Diaz (which included giving the middle finger to the fans) & Nate Diaz (who was flashing gang signs to KJ Noons).

Houston Chronicle writer Jared Barnes called the brawl a WWE-style stunt. MMA on Tap writer John Chandler claimed that the incident tarnished the Hawaiian MMA show by saying that it was “a bad night for Elite XC and MMA.”

However last night’s stunt was a disgrace and both of them should be ashamed, no matter how “real” both believe they are being with their actions. I’m not sure if Dana White intends on punishing Nate for his ignorance, but I’d at least like to see him think about it, considering he’s now put two of MMA’s biggest shows in a bad light.

So if I come off as a little too sensitive when it comes to controversial happenings in our sport, so be it. In my honest opinion, these days where MMA is finally making good ground in terms of gaining mainstream acceptance are extremely important for the future. I’d rather have the sport continue to flourish instead of taking a step or two backwards because of the dumb decisions made by certain people.

Ken Pishna at MMA Weekly wrote a report with the following headline, “Noons win marred by Diaz antics.”

If EliteXC wanted to hype up Diaz’ bad boy image to play the foil to Noons’ good guy persona, well… they likely got everything they could hope for.

The always colorful Steve Cofield, the Las Vegas-based Fox Sports radio host, said that Diaz embarrassed himself with his post-fight antics. Mr. Cofield has been consistent in his criticism of fighters he perceives to be as thugs in MMA, as demonstrated by his public criticism of UFC fighter “War Machine” Jon Koppenhaver. Koppenhaver drew press coverage for recently going to court on charges that he assaulted a man by choking him unconscious and hitting him in the face. Ironically, Mr. Koppenhaver’s name resurfaced recently after the Noons/Diaz brawl, as Koppenhaver made some controversial statements on his MySpace blog. Mr. Koppenhaver recently discussed his thoughts on society in general right here.

While the criticism of both Diaz and Noons has been heavy-handed from one side of the MMA media circle, there’s another side that loved every second of what happened in the post-fight situation in Hawaii. Coincidentally (or not), these writers also have backgrounds in regards to supporting or writing about pro-wrestling.

A few days ago, Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio was adamant about the ‘angle’ being successful in terms of driving up interest for a re-match between Noons and Diaz. (Noons won their first encounter in 2007 in Corpus Christi, Texas.) Meltzer said that the altercation had the drama and unpredictability of a pro-wrestling angle that TNA and WWE simply aren’t delivering in today’s marketplace. Mr. Meltzer further went on to say that the angle would produce good business, which is critical because Elite XC has lost a lot of money. On the same radio show, co-host Bryan Alvarez pointed out that if casual MMA fans wanted a pure MMA product with good sportsmanship, then leagues like the IFL wouldn’t have failed as catastrophically as they did with their goofy team concept gimmicks.

A day later after his initial comments, Dave Meltzer stated that he was bothered that ‘almost nobody got it’ in MMA circles in terms of the angle being good. Mr. Meltzer stated that he knew most people in the business would be negative on it, but he thought that the reaction would be 30% positive and 70% negative. Instead, he estimated that the reaction was 5% positive and 95% negative, with Jared Shaw of Elite XC even showing timidity about what took place in Hawaii. Meltzer asked, “Do people just not understand?” He noted that what was created out of Nick Diaz’s stupidity was tremendous because you couldn’t script it. If it was scripted, it would have been screwed up somehow. “It was so spontaneous and so great.”

On Tuesday, pro-wrestling writer Bryan Alvarez summarized his thoughts on the Diaz/Noons situation in the general context of MMA’s appeal to casual fans:

As much as some people won’t want to hear this, the best things about the CBS special and the reason it did the numbers it did (which in turn opens the door to future specials and turns the media and other networks on to MMA as a valid source of programming) were the pro-wrestling elements.

Mr. Meltzer and Mr. Alvarez are not the only pro-wrestling writers who loved the brawl. Jonathan Snowden of Total MMA is now calling Nick Diaz ‘The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived’.

So, of course, the MMA media hated it. Diaz interrupted one of those shows of mutual respect hardcore fans find so loveable and regular fans turn the channel on. It just kind of underscores an ever pertinent point: if MMA writers ran MMA companies, MMA companies would be run out of business. Heated feuds draw money. Scary and seemingly invincible champions draw money. It looks like Gary Shaw is serious about drawing money.

Mike Rome of Bloody Elbow also showed support for what Elite XC is trying to accomplish.

Elite XC is never going to to beat the UFC at its own game. If it is going to be successful, it needs to do something different, which is what it did in May with Gina Carano and Kimbo Slice. I hate to break it to people, but 5 million people didn’t tune in to see technical ground battles, they tuned in to see stars fight.

As the sport of MMA continues to grow in popularity worldwide, it is interesting to note some of the trends that are being established amongst those who spend a lot of their time covering the business. The KJ Noons/Nick Diaz incident did not just expose a difference of opinions or philosophy between those in MMA media circles who support pro-wrestling and those who don’t. What it has exposed is a growing antipathy that the two ‘camps’ have for each other. One camp views MMA as a serious sport and the other camp views it as a mix of sports & entertainment. Unfortunately, the battle lines only seem to be hardening and there is clearly a growing amount of disdain being formed by both camps towards each other. You need look no further than to the thoughts of pro-wrestling writers who continue to crack on MMA purists, saying statements like “The Internet MMA fans just don’t get it” and that those same people would bankrupt an MMA company if they were in charge of it.

The civil war between the two media camps is not going to end any time soon.