UFC 82

RsStanG1987 said:

I think silva was booed because it was columbus ohio and rich franklin is an ohio native.

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On their second meeting, I agree that was most certainly a factor. But on their first meeting where Silva faced and beat Franklin for the title initially, they were in Vegas and the crowd reaction was no different.

dew22 said:

So if Serra were Canadian and GSP were the American they’d still boo him? Yeah, sure,OK, I’m buying it.

Silliness.

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No, probably not....but there's a good chance if GSP were an American, on Canadian soil that carried on with the positive and respectful attitude he has, he wouldn't be met with near the hostility either. Your mistake is that you look at these fighters with their nationality as the main focal point. You have to see them for the kind of champions they are, not the country the represent. I mean, if you want to compare champions based on their Nationality, Rich Franklin was an excellent champion, who really does his country proud. Not only with his skill and dominance as a fighter, but with his positive attitude and humble win/lose demeanor. I was sorry to see him beaten by Silva, but was pleasantly relieved to see that Silva was another fighter who carried that same level of integrity and mutual respect for his opponents......which is I'm sure why Anderson Silva paid homage to him after his fight with Henderson. Then you get a clown like Tito Ortiz that thinks of no one but himself and show’s little to no respect for anyone’s accomplishments or abilities as a fighter. He’s not nearly as good as he thinks he is and still fails to realize he peeked about 3 or 4-years ago and has been going down hill since then. Guys like that are poison to the sport and need to be replaced sooner, than later.

So getting aback to the topic at hand, buy it...don't buy it, but don't try to convince me that Nationality it isn’t a factor from standpoint of the majority of American based fans. Almost every, single non-American fighter that's beaten an American champion has been met with hostility and/or unfounded boo's from the American fans.....Period! Show me some stock footage from any title event that proves otherwise and I’ll consider things from your perspective. Regardless, you certainly don't see the Asian, European or Canadian fans act that way for the most part.

Hating seems too strong a word, but disrespecting or to a greater extent disregarding non-American fighters just seems to be the mind set the majority of US fans seem to be have where MMA is concerned, IMO. They’re almost “Proud to a fault”, I’d say?