I've been watching a large variety of sports recently- the French Open, the NBA Championships, UFC 114 and 115, the World Cup, live baseball games in Pittsburgh and Baltimore- and it's made me think about what makes a sport exciting to watch.
I think the #1 thing that makes a sport fun to watch is the sense that something could happen at any moment, and if you turn your attention away, you may miss something of consequence.
For example, I was watching a Red Sox-Orioles game in Baltimore, and the Red Sox were winning something like 11-2. It became hard to pay attention- I think once you reach the point that two grand slams would not change the outcome of the game, it becomes less interesting.
Some blowouts can be fun, though. I was watching the Germany-Australia soccer match this afternoon, and I was pretty riveted in seeing just how badly Germany could beat Australia.
In MMA, I think some fans confuse activity for excitement. There are some fighters who are quite popular- Clay Guida and Michael Bisping come to mind- who I find pretty boring. While they are constantly moving, they've shown they can't finish fights. So even though Michael Bisping may throw 20 punches in a minute, I feel like I can look away without missing anything.
Pat Barry, on the other hand- he's exciting. He may have thrown only 2 punches in his fight against Cro-Cop on Saturday, but they were absolute hammers.
For that reason, I generally favor fights in the heavier weight classes. Lightweight fights have lots of action, but a battle between two behemoths like Shane Carwin and Brock Lesner- well, that could end at any moment.
That's exciting.
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