The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

A lot of people on this board are well known for their other "loves" (sporting wise).  I'm a baseball nut, as is Stroke.  JTex loves bowling (and does pretty well at it himself).  A bunch of you are hockey fans.  So on, so forth.

What sport, outside of of football, baseball or basketball, do you enjoy?  Why? 

You may cast 10 votes, although I strongly suggest you don't unless you truly love all of the choices.  If I've missed something that you enjoy, select "other" and explain why.  Please note that professional wrestling is not an option on this, but feel free to include it if you wish!

This is a chance for you to speak about sports that others may not have considered.  Enlighten us, maybe we're all missing something!

I included an other in my voting as you only said MLS. I really don't watch MLS but really enjoy watching national soccer team games. The national teams are the elite of the sport. Watching the MLS (or any of the other leagues) is pretty watered down in my opinion.

I selected the following.

NHL
MMA
Arena Football
Summer & Winter Olympics

I enjoy Hockey, Arena Football and the UFC. I do not watch them religiously like I do with the NFL, NBA, and MLB but I follow it to an extent.

The Olympics I am glued to 24-7 when they are on.

Good point.  Changed it to "professional soccer."

I'll watch pretty much anything on two or four wheels but particularly f1 love le mans and sports cars, British and world touring cars, gp2, MOTO gp, MOTO 2,125s. Sad I know.

Premier league football and champions league too!

water polo

If you can play a fantasy game for a sport, I'll watch that sport. I checked off NHL, NASCAR, both Olympics, X-Games and "Other." I'd rather watch fringe sports on TV than just about anything else that ever shows up on TV.

I hate to derail this thread, but I don't consider NHL a "fringe" sport on par with X-games, etc.  Its as "legit" as MLB and NBA.  Not sure why it gets this bad rap all the time.

I am not sure how the multi-billion dollar industry that is golf got the fringe label either? 

hockey is not a FRINGE sport, it's part of the "major 4"

NHL, Golf and NASCAR do not belong in this, imo.  I only watch NHL out of the three.

I wouldn't call MMA a fringe sport when they get between 750,000-1 mill + to spend upwards of $40-50 a month on their shows.

I chose MMA and Professional Soccer. 

For the longest time I refused to watch MMA because I thought it was excessively violent; but my son is a big fan and got me watching.  I realize now that it's usually much less violent than sports like boxing. 

I really enjoy international soccer, especially when the national teams play.  I'll also watch the English Premiership. 

i put down mma and professional soccer .. i'll watch the portuguese liga, the english premiership and the spanish la liga .. i don't really like the style of the italian serie a or the french league

as far as nhl goes .. it's a legit "other" in the realm of the big 3 of football, baseball and basketball .. once upon a time NHL was in that tier.. but no longer .. not when your playoffs are shown on the VS. network and maybe .. just maybe you'll have a single game of the stanley cup finals on NBC .. maybe

MMA is great. Once your hooked, your hooked!!  If you ever get the chance too, go back and get the DVD's of the Couture-Lidell series from the middle of last decade. Must watch stuff!

I think this TV deal with Versus has really hurt the NHL in popularity.  I miss the days when ESPN used to have NHL rights.  The coverage was a lot better, you could see more than 1 game per day.
However, because is has a major league with international teams and big time funding, I still think its a bit above the others on Maine's list.
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Professional hockey has lower ratings than re runs of "Friends." Fact. With select cities aside (Boston being one), hockey attendance is at an all time low. It is not part of "the major four" in reality, only on sports center on ESPN. Los Angeles. Columbus. Phoenix. Dallas. Tampa. Buffalo.Detroit. Atlanta. All cities with hockey teams struggling to make a profit and anemic gate takes. No major TV deal. Occasional games on Bersus or NBC. Other networks won't touch it. Let's be real about hockey, shall we?

NASCAR has been in decline for the past three years, ratings and attendance. Neither are "major" sports. They are both niche / fringe sports. MMA drawing 750,000 for PPV events doesn't make it a major sport.

Golf, tennis...people - these are niche sports. Sorry.

Let's stop the screwing around / arguing over semantics and just discuss the topic?

I put MMA, Nascar, X-Games and both Olympics.

I'm not in love with Nascar or X-Games, but I'll watch it and I actually understand and appreciate what's going on.

I straight up ENJOY MMA, though, and watch whenever I can.  The Olympics are also cool, but not for any love of the events, but just nationalism.

I don't care what any of you say, I love NHL hockey.  I will continue to watch it.  I gave up my Dolphins' season tickets but I will NOT give up my Panthers' tickets.

I just can't get into MMA.  What's so appealing about it?  People who like it make it a lifestyle, and can't get enough.  They wear it on their clothing and revolve their lives around it.

What am I missing?

Sort of walking along with Brian on this one... I can't stand MMA, despite a half dozen attempts at watching it (both live and on TV), but I am absolutely loving the NHL action now that I'm finally watching hockey.

I also hate professional wrestling of all varieties except amateur "real" wrestling at the college or Olympic level.

Tennis? I'd rather watch C-Span in HD...

Golf? I'd rather watch C-Span with a coat hanger antenna

Professional soccer? World Cup only...

I like MMA, but my life certainly doesn't revolve around it.   I admit it took some time for MMA to grab my attention, and it helped that my son was knowledgeable about the fighters and the techniques.  What really caught my interest was the clash of styles, and how effective and dominant a grappler can be against a bigger stand up fighter.  I can appreciate a fighter with great technique, both offensively and defensively.  It's so much more involved than boxing.  

no-one is encouraging brian to not like hockey or to not follow a team .. but it clearly is a fringe sport .. there's nothing wrong with following one. I love watching soccer .. it's the most popular sport worldwide by a considerable margin. It isn't even close to any other. but it's a fringe sport in the US

I chose hockey, and both the summer and winter Olympics. I love the Olympics. I will say that I've been watching a bit of the X-Games too and that has some fun stuff

I vote for putting Tennis on the list. :)

Well, fringe is the wrong word.  The Summer Olympics is not fringe.  It is big freaking deal, some of the events in it could be considered fringe, but the event itself is not.  The PGA is not fringe.  Disc golf, which I enjoy, is fringe. 

I think that the PGA is fringe, for the topic of this conversation.  ...and so is MMA.

I enjoy watching Women's beach volleyball, and women's figure skating.

I used to watch a lot of Hockey & go to games until the last strike. That killed Hockey for me and it would seems a bunch of others as well. I have been to two hockey games in the last 6 years mostly because they decided to move the Coyotes to the outskirts of town clear on the westside by the Cardinals Stadium. A vast majority of the ticket holders for both the Cardinals and the Coyotes were either in downtown or on the east side of Phoenix. Driving an hour to see the Cardinals play twice a month on a Sunday is not a big deal. Driving an hour away to see the Coyotes play 10 times a month mostly with rush hour which changes my commute to 2 hours is shit. I think the Coyotes did themselves in by building the new arena away from all of their fans. Phoenix used to draw a lot of fans to the hockey games.....not anymore.

Revolve their lives around it? For the most part  MMA that matters is one big show a month. It's only on one saturday a month and it doesn't start till 10pm eastern time. Im not sure how a fan could revolve ones life around it.

And whats appealing  you ask.....MMA is what boxing USED to be!! Big time prize fights. Take all the BS politics out of boxing and you have MMA! It's great!

MMA is great, once you understand the differences in fighting styles, like Jim said.

In boxing, you have some different styles, I suppose, but the goal is ultimately the same...punch the other guy in the face -- all people "win" the same way.

In MMA, you have a weird paper/scissors/rock thing going on with different styles.  So watching a Muai-Thai guy vs. a wrestler is different than muai-thai vs. jui-jitsu and is different than jiu-jitsu vs. wrestling.  And all guys have different skills in each area, so there is a lot of strategy.  Some guys like to get a fighter on their back and "ground and pound".  Other fighters like to be on their back to do submissions from underneath.  When those two guys fight, it can be a wash in skills and go to their striking.

There's a lot going on that the untrained eye doesn't know.  But if you watch and listen to the commentators (who are often very good, including Joe Rogan), they do a good job of explaining what is happening and what the fighters are trying to do.

One last thing:  I like the respect in the MMA, different from boxing.  While you see the opposite sometimes, in general, the fighters are very civil and respectful to their opponents after a win or a loss.  I think that it's nice that there's an organization that promotes the sport of fighting, but is able to distance itself from the anger of fighting.

just to touch on something dave said

the commentary isn't very good (including joe rogan) the commentary is at it's best because of joe rogan, that guy is extremely knowledgeable and shares that knowledge incredibly well on TV. I was very surprised at how good of a color commentary guy he is with MMA .. it's crazy.

http://www.ultimatefighter.com/

You can watch a ton of this show online for free.  On the homepage, they have a link to Griffin vs. Bonner, which is regarded as the best fight of all time.  Those two guys weren't yet polished UFC fighters, but they showed a ton of heart and put it all out there.

yes, exactly what I said.  There are entire lines of trendy clothing (and douchey t-shirts) dedicated to MMA.  People have "Tapout" stickers on their cars.  That one big show per month - people don't do anything that day, and often spend money to go somewhere to watch it.  Its not just a tv show you watch once a month.

I love hockey and follow it closely.  It's a fringe sport. 

Baseball, in a lot of the country, is at risk of becoming one as well.  Anyone else notice that the Pro Bowl out-rates the World Series lately?  The freaking PRO BOWL had a larger audience then the deciding game of the last two World Series.  That's something.

Attendance and ratings in MLB continue to fall.  For now it's still a "major sport."  It has been in decline, however. 

I participate in MMA, however can't get into watching it.  Maybe it's because I actually fight?  I see these guys on TV and realize how bad I am at it!  ;)

I think that this is just a difference in culture between MMA and other sports.  Individual figures aren't really what's touted in MMA.  You aren't going to find many people wearing a Randy Couture shirt, like you'd see someone wear Dolphin stuff.  Instead, it's about gyms and clothing lines.  So, if you're a fan of Uriah Faber, you're probably also a fan of his training team and the other guys that fight at his gym.  They'll likely have similar styles and mindset.  And they are represented by "Team Alpha Male", so you might wear their clothing line.  That's why you see Tapout.  It's representative of the sport as a whole, not just the individual.

It's just a result of not having a traditional "team" structure with logos and stuff, like you see in the NFL.

I picked MMA and boxing.  Pretty much the only reason I'll ever venture into Other Sports Talk.