As with all sports, fans tend to be critical of athletes when it comes to making bad decisions in their personal lives. Most people feel that they are smart in their everyday decisions and for the most part, common sense is the prevailing factor in that thought process. Unfortunately, there are people out there that have made mistakes or bad decisions that led to a snowball effect of unfortunate circumstances. This week proved that mixed martial arts is a sport that will see an increasing number of these personal issues that aren't a part of their fighting career, but their own personal lives outside the sport.
Evan Tanner and Karo Parisyan have both been in the spotlight recently due to their personal problems outside of the sport that have affected them either inside the cage or in some way related to the sport. Evan had problems with bouts of alcoholism that led to some odd stints in his life that were all chronicled on his MySpace blog. His most recent situation involved his strange decision to put all of his fight purse on the line in order to win enough money at the gambling tables to pay debtors off. Not only did this strike fans as another addiction in Evan's life, but it also angered some fans who donated to the Team Tanner fund that he had set up to help sponsor him for UFC events. Jake over at Fightlinker summed up the entire situation and many fans' feelings toward the gambling with this to say:
Evan, all you’ve done is trade one monkey on your back for another. You don’t seriously think your fans are going to be impressed with this, do you? Did they borrow money from their grandmothers so you could go the the MGM Grand and spend it all on energy drinks and blackjack? And to have the balls to fucking say that this was the right thing to do, that you wouldn’t take it back if you had the chance! Evan, I love you buddy, but you can’t keep floating through life in a daze, thinking that you can use the same mentality you have in the Octagon and apply to the complexity of every day life.
Karo also had some problems this week. He tried to explain to fans his personal situation that has directly contributed to his poor performances in the cage. In his most recent performance against Ryo Chonan, he explained in the post-fight interview that personal problems contributed to his lackluster effort. He talked about those problems this week with MMAMania:
Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Well, all professional fighters battle a lot of injuries, making it near impossible to come into a fight at 100 percent.
Karo Parisyan: Exactly. Also, I don’t live by myself. I don’t have an apartment. It’s not like I only worry about Karo Parisyan, you know, I don’t train in the morning and that’s all I do. Bro, Armenians are different people, culturally. I take care of my whole family, bro. I have five, six people in my family, I have a big house. Everything that I do, I work for my family.
I have more pressure than anything, most of the time. So it’s not as easy as people think it is, you know. When I said that I had a personal issue in the last fight, I was meaning that I was buying a house, I couldn’t get my training in, I would run 20 minutes a day and call it a workout, because I could not get my training going to another level.
People have to understand, going into a fight, you should never make excuses — if you choose to go into the cage and fight, whatever happens, it happens, you chose it and that’s the result. But when you look behind that, there is always all kinds of stuff going on in a fighter’s life.
Fighting is your reward. The hard part is training and cutting weight. With all the bull crap before the fight, by the time you step in that cage, you’re drained.
It's obvious that Karo has a huge family to support here in the States, and it definitely could be the reason that he hasn't been much of a finisher in his career. He needs the win to live, and if he has to cruise out a guaranteed decision by simply using his judo to put opponents to the floor and work some ground and pound, he'll obviously go with that over risking a loss and a payday.
Personal problems affect athletes everywhere
MMA fans are now seeing some of the ramifications of these problems in the sport. Poor training, lackluster performances, and problems with money are all situations that are a reality for several fighters. Of course, this sport isn't alone.
As a native of Illinois, I can go into detail as to some of the problems with sports athletes in the region. Chicago Bears' defensive end Alonzo Spellman had personal psychological problems with his bipolar disorder that caused him to enter bouts of bizarre behavior that led to the Chicago Bears releasing him. His performance while he was on prescription drugs apparently affected him, and his physical abilities as a defensive terror dropped off significantly. Coincidentally, Alonzo has now made a move to fight in mixed martial arts.
Recently, St. Louis Cardinals' player Scott Spiezio's problems with alcohol and substance abuse caused him to be dropped from the team after an incident in Irvine, California in which he crashed his vehicle, fled from the scene, and was picked up by the police on six counts related to the crash. In the report, he was involved in drinking heavily during the evening which led to the crash. After fleeing the scene, he assaulted one of his own friends trying to help him back at his condo.
Things like this happen in every sport, but I believe MMA has a unique disadvantage that causes some of the personal problems that fighters have to become a huge burden in their careers as fighters. Smaller salaries coupled with far less opportunities to make money per year due to only having a possible three to four fights per year can cause the money pinch if that fighter isn't in the upper echelon of talent pulling in shares of PPV or high end sponsors. It can lead to situations in which fighters become increasingly burdened over their performance, and would likely lead to fighters not taking risks in the cage. Karo is the perfect example.
Of course, this is only limited to a select few of fighters, and it only revolves around the money issue. Personal problems with addiction affect athletes in much the same manner no matter what sport those athletes are participating in. Arrests, fines, embarrassment, drug programs, and decreases in performance affect the end product, and I'm sure the fans don't want to see a matchup that's lopsided due to these types of problems.
There is a point here...
With all of that said, MMA is just like any other sport. It has its cast of characters, great athletes, and novice students looking to break into the big time just like baseball, football, and basketball. It also has all the baggage that each athlete brings to the sport with them, and these athletes have problems outside of the cage. MMA isn't immune to the outside world. Fans should keep in mind that most of the fighters who are in the sport are making a living from it. The stakes can tend to get high.