For those of you who don't diligently follow Sherdog's Beatdown Radio program, you might or might not have heard about UFC lightweight champion Sean Sherk's recent comments about autograph signing.
In case you didn't, Sherk responded to a question about autograph signings by saying, "No, I'm not signing autographs for you, I was booed, either cheer me or no autographs."
These comments have led to Sean Sherk being compared to former UFC heavyweight champion, who has been routinely booed in his recent fights (a rash of unimpressive decisions), but, in defense of Sylvia, he doesn't bitch and moan about getting booed. Neither did Andrei Arlovski when he was booed after his lackluster decision win over Fabricio Werdum.
The following is a message to Sean Sherk:
Man, if you're going to fight, fight. You've always said that you want to be a fighter, but fighters don't just lie on top of their opponents until a group of old men with the approval of the Nevada State Athletic Commission declare them the winner. Fighters go out and fight, they try to win every second of every fight.
This isn't boxing, you aren't going to get cheered just because your hand is in the air. If you have a crappy performance, expect to be treated as such. I'm sick of calling you an upper echelon fighter when you don't even fight.
You were once touted as having one of the most explosive groundnpounds in the sport, but in the last few years you've exploded your way to three decision victories and a knockout loss to Georges St. Pierre.
You haven't finished an opponent since September of 2005. You haven't finished an opponent in the UFC since 2002. Excuse me if I'm less than impressed.
It seems like you expect people to cheer for you because you have a belt. I'll cheer for fucking Danny Abbadi if he brings his A game to an undercard fight (I don't, because that doesn't happen, but I would), but I'm not going to cheer for you just because your name is on the poster, and I'm not going to cheer for you just because you have the biggest bicepts of any 5'6 fighter in the sport.
At some point, the steroids become another redundant point in my arsenal of reasons for not liking you. It doesn't matter whether you actually took them or not.
If you didn't, then you've had three crappy performances in a row.
If you did, then you've had three crappy performances in a row and even illegal performance enhancing drugs couldn't help.
Frankly, I'm not impressed either way.
You will always be a solid athlete, but so will Mark Kerr. If you cease to impress, I will stop cheering, and so, I'm glad to say, will the rest of the fanbase.
This sport is still in its infancy, I refuse to stay silent while guys like you have shitty fights and then go and blame the fans when they make a note of it. This isn't the NBA, we're still dealing with the stigma of being a major combat sport and we're still trying to attract fans. If you continue to be a fucking diva, you are going to lose the support of the entire sport, just like you've just lost mine.
I've been a fan of this sport for a long time, and you were on the first live card I watched, so I've got some nostalgia, but if you stop treating this like a job and start treating the entire fan base like they should cater to your ego, someone is going to smash you.
Stop whining and get back in the gym. Put a performance out there that you can be proud of, and stop trying to defend wins that are clearly not worth defending.
Well, that's all I've got.
For the rest of my fellow MMA fans, whether you are still going to back Sean Sherk, I respect your loyalty, even if you're crazy. That said, I think we all like it when fighters fight, and don't waste their time and ours by Bible beating and inflating their own egos.
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