The Farsightedness of MMA and Our Desire for Mythos – Part II

 The word mythos is defined by my mac dictionary (because I don’t really care to go find anything more credible) as “a tradition or recurrent narrative theme or plot” and “a set of beliefs or assumptions about something.”   The mythos of a culture refers to the narratives that give that culture identity. They are shared stories that can be referred back to for identification. MMA has a certain mythos already. That is, certain stories already exist for us. Most noticeably, the Gracie family and particularly Royce Gracie brought about what is almost like our origin narrative.  However, our sport is young and, in turn, is still in the process of developing its mythos.  Think about it.  Baskeball (Michael Jordan, Bird vs Magic, Dr. J, Pistol Pete), baseball (Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, the curse, Lou Gehrig) football (Superbowl III, LT, The Dynasties) and boxing (Ali, Tyson, Foreman, Frasier, Joe Louis, Marciano) all have stories with which fans of the sport can identify with in one way or another. They may take sides on these stories but they are unequivocal touchstones in the sport.  Our farsightedness as culture demonstrates our desire for such stories for our own sport.

Fedor represents the new emerging narrative. Even if he lost now, Fedor will still be looked back upon as a touchstone character in MMA lore, but as we watch that character we want more, more aura. Even though fighters like GSP and Anderson Silva make compelling cases as better overall fighters, Fedor’s mystique comes from him being Russian, somewhat undersized for the division, and gaining his credibility despite never having competed in the biggest and most known company in the sport.  If Fedor came to the UFC, beat a few key fighters, and went home, it would be set in stone. Hell, Fedor could lose after that or even suffer a lose in the UFC if it were to the right fighter (Randy Couture) without hurting his legacy one bit. The Last Emperor is already the stuff of legend but there will always be a “what if” if he does not fight under the UFC banner and do it in time for the dream fights MMA fans want to see. This is why Fedor catches our attention and keeps it… no matter what else is going on.

Alas, it seems as if we must wait and wait we will. I am convinced that Fedor might well end up in the UFC, once his contract with M-1 is up, which by my understanding is one more fight.  I can even see it happening by the end of the year.  What is important here is that our fascination with Fedor and his potential moves at the expense of super-fights around the corner demonstrates our desire to have a history, narratives that we can turn to.