Bully Beatdown: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Although the sport of mixed martial arts is becoming widely-known, it still is pretty notable when an MMA-themed show is brought to the mainstream.  With this in mind, you may have heard about (or even seen) the show, “Bully Beatdown” on MTV (of all places), which aired its first episode on March 22nd.  The show is actually more notable for being hosted by long-time fan favorite and eccentric fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller than for its premise, which is more amusing than original.

In case you aren’t aware, “Bully Beatdown” has Mayhem show up, apparently at the request of a person who has been bullied, to offer the offending bully a tempting opportunity: the chance to win up to $10,000 by stepping into the cage with someone who really knows how to fight- a professional MMA fighter.  If the bully performs well, he can win some or all of the $10,000, but if he doesn’t, his victim will get some or all of the cash, instead.  The show, which seems like an innocent, if not high-brow, reality offering that at least stands above most of the programming bile that MTV pushes on young folks, has already polarized some MMA fans.  Let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to “Bully Beatdown”.

The Good-

–First of all, any time MMA fighters can get some of the respect that they deserve, it’s a good thing.  In the first episode, the guy that they pick is brimming with confidence, and clearly is not a person who turns the other cheek in his daily life.  In short, he thinks that because no one in his local area has administered an ass-whooping on him that he really knows how to fight.  To see a professional fighter (in this case, Tony Benello) crumple him up with a well-placed kick to the body is to reinforce the idea that there is a large difference between a high-level professional fighter and a guy who thinks he’s a badass because he’s won a bar fight or two.

–It’s hard to deny the entertainment factor of the show, at least so far.  While the show may end up being pretty formulaic (if the first show’s format of “introduce bully- see what bully can do in training- watch bully fight” holds up), it’s definitely the type of show that can be a good guilty pleasure or way to blow a half an hour if you have nothing to do.  If they continue to find morons the caliber of Ryan (the first episode’s bully), the show will also provide a type of “Real World” entertainment…where you hate the self-absorbed characters, but you can’t help but watch sometimes.  Especially considering that they have to put their money where their mouth is by the end of each show.

–Hey, it’s Jason “Mayhem” Miller!  It’s great to see one of the more colorful personalities in MMA getting the opportunity for some mainstream recognition.

The Bad-

–Even though it’s great to see Mayhem on TV, he just doesn’t seem like himself…at least early on.  By the end of the first episode, especially when he was in the training room or watching the culmination of the show during the fight, he seemed more like himself.  Early on, though, it seemed like Mayhem was being stifled by the normal overly-scripted MTV “reality show” formula, instead of just being himself.  It will be interesting to see if we get any of the usual, unpredictable Mayhem antics as the show continues.

–Though it was undoubtedly fun to watch Bonello tool this Ryan kid just as badly as one would expect, it was unfortunate that the “fight” portion of the show was separated into two parts.  First, Ryan had to wrestle Bonello to see if he could go three minutes without being submitted.  With each submission, Ryan lost $1,000 (up to $5,000 total) to his older brother, who apparently is a coward of colossal proportions.  He won any money that he didn’t lose in that time by tapping out.  Then, the other portion was just striking, with regular kickboxing rules in effect, for another three minutes.  So, even though Ryan was stepping in the cage with a mixed martial artist, he didn’t compete in an MMA match, but instead a grappling match followed by a kickboxing match.  It was probably done this way because the producers wanted the “bullies” to wear headgear, etc. for safety during the striking portions, but it’s still a bit disappointing.

The Ugly

–As I eluded to earlier, the show appears so scripted that it is sometimes hard to really enjoy at all.  Though not as bad as many of MTV’s pathetic offerings, the beginning of the show was so formulaic and cliché that it really hurt the episode’s momentum early on.  Does Mayhem really have to drive up to the guy’s house and have everyone pretend as if they didn’t know he would be there?  Furthermore, how much can we really believe about these bullies?  For this one, it worked out because the bully and “victim” are brothers, but in future episodes, how legitimate will they be?  I mean, if you can call MTV or write them and recommend someone to be on the show, and they accept and appear on it with you, how bad of a bully can they really be?  It’s a small gripe, really, but it would be better to just give Mayhem the reins and let him run with it, instead of sticking to the same kind of format that all the MTV “contest” shows have always had.

In the end, it’s hard to really poo-poo this show, unless you just like to complain.  Those of us who are amused by this type of concept (or just like to see Mayhem on cable TV!) will actually have a reason to turn the channel to MTV, and the sport will continue to get exposure, as well.  Some have voiced concerns about what would happen if one of the pro fighters loses against a bully (which is amazingly laughable, if you have seen the first episode), or whether the show itself is good for the sport (it’s no worse than Kimbo Slice was, thank you very much), but when you’re comparing it to the programming of a channel who ran a show based on bratty sixteen year-olds planning $300,000 birthday parties, it’s hard to really fault it.

 by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com