Recently, Ffion Davies and Jasmine Rocha had a somewhat spicy exchange of words in the WNO pre-match press conference. In the grand scheme of things, it was relatively harmless - but culminated in Ffion saying "I will beat you any way you want to be beaten, bitch!" It was fun, and exciting, and made me want to watch the match more.
If you check the social stats on the Flograppling account, you can see that this exchange also received an order of magnitude more views and interactions. However, the comments section displayed mixed feelings.
While some were excited by the feisty content, others lamented the introduction of "trash talking" into jiujitsu, with cries of "views over integrity."
I have been in the business of promoting professional grappling for almost ten years now, and have been a keen observer of fight sports for many decades. Drama, sells, fights. It is that simple. You can take the moral high ground, and say that you hate to see this kind of thing in martial arts, and that's fine, but the simple fact is that drama sells. Why was the Ultimate Fighter so good? Because a bunch of people you have probably never heard of were punching each other? Or because they got really fucking wasted and got into fights by the pool and cried? You can pretend it was for the first reason, but you'd either be lying, or some kind of weirdo addicted to watching people fight. We are hard wired to react to this kind of thing.
Imagine if the pre-match interview had gone as so many others had.
Ffion: Jasmine is a tough up and comer but I have been training hard and I will win.
Jasmine: I also have been training hard. I will be the one who wins.
Ffion: We will see! I would like to be the winner!
Jasmine: Good luck friend
Yawn, change the channel, Marge.
Now this does not mean I want jiujitsu to become a free-for-all with no moral landscape to speak of. My position is this: If this is a professional event, that is trying to attract viewers, then athletes must behave in a way that attracts viewers, while still maintaining a level of common human decency.
Nothing that was said between Ffion and Jasmine was particularly offensive, and they shared a hug after the match. There were some mildly personal jabs, a perfect setup for "the knee cut", which in turn created drama within the match itself as Ffion nailed the knee cut, and some bad language. That was it. It was just enough to spice things up. When athletes talk trash, they put themselves on the line more completely. Jasmine had firmly stated that she did not respect Ffion's knee cut and Ffion had stated that she could beat Jasmine any way she felt like. Now both had more skin in the game, and the interest level in the match jumped dramatically.
Look at every major leap the UFC has taken in popularity and size. Each was based around personality and / or personality clashes. Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell. Ronda Rousey. Conor McGregor. The Diaz brothers. The WWE is one of the biggest sporting properties in the world and it is just as much drama as it is sports. "Well I don't want jiujitsu to be WWE" Well, do you like money? Then the sport must grow.
I am not advocating to go too far. I found most of the Conor vs Mayweather promotional campaign morally repugnant. While I think the sport desperately needs more drama, more rivalry and more spice, there is a limit to what is desired. But if athletes seek money (and, based on almost all my interactions with them on a professional level, they do) then they need to do their part.
Jiujitsu is not a beautiful and unique snowflake that needs to remain pure at every level of its existence. I believe we need heroes, we need mutual respect when training and in life, and when it's time to sit down and watch entertaining matches, we need drama and intrigue.
When Garry Tonon fought Dillon Danis on Polaris, he dressed up as Dillon, getting a henna tattoo, dying his hair, and wearing goofy sunglasses. They got in each other's face at the weigh ins. Jake Shields jumped up ready to punch something - anything. There was real skin in the game, and it remains one of our best-performing shows.
Gordon Ryan puts his entire reputation and personality on the line every time he fights, and for this reason probably has an army of people tuning in just to see if he will lose, and the ensuing meltdown that is likely to occur.
I truly believe there is a time to be an honourable martial artist - at the gym, at home, in the ring. And there's a time to be a showman, a show-woman, an arrogant bastard, a shit-stirrer - and this is when you are in the business of selling fights.