As always with me, I’m decidedly late on this review because I wanted to soak in at least a few shows before making a final judgment on Iron Ring. If you haven’t seen the show yet, it’s featured on BET on Tuesday nights. The perception from the community is that the show creates a rift in the opinions of many fans. Some fans believe that the rough edges of the show present a platform for mixed martial arts to move into an African American fanbase while others lean toward the view that the show is bad for the sport. I tend to lean toward the latter, but I think both arguments have some merit.

Overview

Iron Ring has one major flaw that I thought would be avoided, but after thinking about the raw nature of the show, makes sense. The show revolves around the concept that celebrity managers will each manage a team of hopefuls against other celebrity managers. The cast of characters features names like Ludacris, Lil’ Jon, T.I., Dipset, Floyd Mayweather AKA Annoying Mayweather, and Crazy Horse Bennett. I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone in the mix, but it’s likely because I stopped caring 5 minutes into the show.

If you thought that this show would erase stereotypes or try to stay away from the typical brawler ways of hardcore “gangstas”, you were wrong when the show was being made. The show is really nothing but a bunch of guys talking a bunch of shit over and over again, and then having their fighters prove themselves in the ring to make their managers happy and move on in the competition. I’m not really sure what the organization is of the competition as I haven’t really seen any ladders or structure as to how these fights are happening, but most of the show revolves around the rappers talking huge smack about how they will “whoop some ass”.

Floyd Mayweather is probably one of the most annoying people to ever grace reality television. You can find Floyd’s persona on nearly any reality show out there, and it never leaves the show till the very end. T.I. is another personality that is flat out ridiculous. The climax for me was when he claimed to call the fight when he was blatantly wrong, then mouthed off to everyone and talked some game to “Krazy Horse” Bennett.

Another big problem I saw was the differences in philosophy between the trainers and managers. Dipset was particularly retarded when it came to picking fighters. He never listened to his coaches when it came down to choosing fighters, and he seemed to be going for the “swollen” guys who looked like they could bench press 600 pounds. As we all know, power doesn’t always translate to wins. My annoyance with this was that we weren’t going to see some great competition in this show because of the shortsightedness of some of the managers, but then again, maybe that was wishful thinking. But hey, Wes Sims is on the show.

Bad for MMA?

Is the show ultimately bad for the sport? It could be to an extent of poisoning newer fans that are getting into the sport due to the supposed “reality” of MMA from the show. MMA isn’t portrayed on this show accurately at all. In fact, the disrespectfulness that is blatantly thrown all over the show’s thirty minute time slot is the exact opposite of what should be portrayed. Disrespect happens in MMA, but this show encourages it through challenging opponents and ultimately defeating them while showing zero respect for them as fighters. Not everyone on this show is of that manner, but the characters and cast in the show clearly don’t help matters.

I will say that Ludacris, Lil’ Jon, and Nelly are at least knowledgeable enough to know that they aren’t knowledgeable in the sport of MMA. They are learning and sitting back to inhale all things that are mixed martial arts. They seem to understand that this is a much different sport than anything they’ve been privy to in the past, and there is much more to it than just brawling.

There seems to be two sides to MMA in the show, but it’s obvious that the hardcore, brutal ways that the show wants us to see are focused on primarily. The chaotic ways that fights are setup and the absolute randomness of any structure are actually a draw for many fans. We never know what the hell is going to happen, and it does make the show intriguing to an extent. That’s only if you can sift through hearing these rappers talk about how they will knock everyone out while standing next to their 10-man posse full of 300+ pound giants.

Overall thoughts

The chaos that ensues in every show is about the only real drawing effect of the show. We never know what’s going to happen, and I’m sure there are odds on when a drive-by shooting will occur. It really seems that some of these guys are going to explode at any time during the series, and nobody knows exactly what will happen in such a volatile environment.

The downside is that the show really doesn’t break any stereotypes. Some of the fighters are able to do that themselves in some of the interviews, but the thuggish ways seem to be encouraged during the times when fighters are all massed together to determine who will fight. Some of the managers believe this is a show to find out who can brawl the best, but in the end, anyone with decent ground skills and the ability to avoid being blasted is going to win this thing. Of course, nobody knows how you win this show.

I’ll continue to watch it purely to see what will happen, but it’s almost unbearable to sift through the personalities that make this show up. Mayweather is unbelievably annoying. If Frank Shamrock and Tito Ortiz were the best fighters in the world, and you lumped Mayweather in a room with both of them, the amount of saliva on the walls after their encounter would be mindboggling. He just doesn’t shut up. T.I. is… I can’t even comment. Tune in on Tuesday nights on BET.