Shogun Rua & Anderson Silva React To Keyboard Warriors
Mixed martial arts is an ever-growing sport, and has evolved massively since the early days of the 1990’s. With the introduction of the internet and social media, promotions like the UFC have learnt to harness the power of the web to help expand their product to never-before-seen levels of success.
But with this widespread use of the internet comes a freedom of speech, a freedom that some abuse to often borderline criminal extents. With their identity safely hidden behind a generic username, these keyboard warriors can be extremely spiteful, especially in MMA.
Two prime examples of when the internet was used to bash UFC fighters recently? Look no further than the UFC’s biggest stars, Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor.
After experiencing their first UFC losses, the two top level stars were also served with a barrage of insulting memes and comments from internet tough guys. It seems that in MMA, more so than in any other genre, the fans can be extremely unforgiving. Of course you can argue that the UFC itself put these hard feelings in the back of the fan’s minds with their relentless promotion of ‘Rowdy’ and ‘The Notorious,’ but it still doesn’t justify the hate they received.
Two legends of the sport in Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Anderson Silva have heard enough, and they blasted the keyboard warriors in recent interviews. Here was Rua’s take on the trolls, as per Combate and translated by BloodyElbow:
“It’s the price you pay when the sport starts to grow. There’s more criticism, more people bugging you. I’m going to give you a pornographic example. I don’t want to generalize, because only a few fans do that. Some people feel good when they go on the internet to criticize. They are like a virgin guy who watches porn all his life and thinks he knows everything about boning, but never had sex. It’s the same thing. Most fans support me. When someone is your fan, they like you as a person and an athlete. Brazilian are fans of results, though. This example goes to that small amount of fans. The virgin who thinks he knows how to bone. They are keyboard warriors.”
So what did former UFC middleweight Anderson Silva make of the criticism he’s received lately?
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”The Spider’ told ESPN that he has no regrets over his recent performance against Michael Bisping, and doesn’t plan to have his fight against Uriah Hall at May’s UFC 198 as his last:
On UFC 198:
“I am looking good. I feel like I’m 22. This was a surprise for me to be on this card, it was a birthday present. I’m very happy to be on this card, fighting in front of my hometown.”
On Bisping fight:
“I give him merit for winning, but I take merit away from the judges for judging it that way,” Silva said. “I was very happy with how I performed. I showed everyone my technique and superiority.”
To the critics:
“I really don’t watch out for critics of my fights because I’m the one who’s going in there and fighting. It’s easy for you to watch a fight and say a guy could have done this or that, but watching a fight and then going out there and stepping in is completely different. It takes someone to actually step in there and take a few shots to realize that.”
Last fight?
“What? No, no, no,” Silva said. “I hope there are many more.”
