Narrative Power in the Ultimate Fighting Championship

Strange as it may seem, as we've been going through this class I have realized more and more how myth and narrative impact my day-to-day life in unexpected ways. As is my wont, I have been routinely spending about every other Saturday night kicking back in my suite with my brothers and a few friends to watch the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight nights and pay-per-views. This brutal, near-gladiatorial contest of unadulterated mixed martial arts (MMA) combat may at first blush seem about as far from fairy tales as one can possibly get within the realm of human experience. This violent, ultra-masculine, ultra-embodied form of competition does not typically (to my knowledge) attract poets and novelists, nor really anyone from the more refined spheres, as a fanbase. Hopefully I represent an exception to that rule, but we can bracket my aesthetic/philosophical justifications for my MMA fandom for another day. Of interest at the moment is my realization that myth plays a significant role in the UFC for myself and every other viewer, no matter how low-brow.

The interesting thing is that a good fight can take place between any two opponents. Having a big name in the game doesn't necessarily correlate with more entertaining fights on the purely material level: anyone might have a good day and get a last-minute finish, or a perfect pairing might make for a few solid rounds of diverting trades. But I don't get excited about just any fight. I get excited for the ones that have interesting stories. Light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier moves up a weight class to fight "The Baddest Man on the Planet" heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic for a double-championship; braggadocios superstar Conor McGregor returns to face undefeated phenom Khabib Nurmagomedov; seemingly-invincible wild man Tony Ferguson comes back to fight former champion Anthony Pettis just four months after sustaining a debilitating knee injury... and so on. Not every narrative needs to be quite so dramatic, but each fighter has their own "myth" behind them, propelling them into each bout, comprised of every past win or loss and the relationship they've built with their opponent. The UFC, of course, utilizes this fact in their promotions, with experts like Joe Rogan ramping up the crowd by paining dramatic images of past accomplishments and future possibilities, not entirely unlike the bards of days past in their songs of Achilles and Odysseus. It's the truly mythic fighters we really can't wait to watch: Jon Jones, Max Holloway, Conor McGregor, and so on. And when they fight each other, be it the first time or a much-vaunted rematch... it's literally the clash of legends, with the excitement of a concrete, unambiguous outcome hard-fought in the octagon.

Moreover, fighters play a key role in formulating their own myths, which give them the edge in the competition. The ultimate master of this is McGregor, whose colorful personality, daring stunts, and shocking victories help establish a psychological, i.e. mythical, edge over his opponents which often plays out in his favor when the fists start flying. At any rate, myth has been a part of the warrior tradition since the beginning, and it plays out quite effectively even today in the UFC.

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