On a webcast extra recapping the latest show, Ring was asked if his strategy is “to make the other guys think you’re light in the loafers?” Ring replies: “They’re calling me gay anyway, I might as well play it up. Whatever.”

“The Ultimate Fighter,” seen on Spike TV on Wednesdays, puts 14 mixed martial artists separated into two teams in a house, living, training and fighting until there is one winner. Ring was the first pick of his captain Tito Ortiz in the current season and quickly the “is he gay?” question has popped up on MMA message boards. Beats me, but Ring, 6-feet-3 and from Canada, certainly appears like he’s gay and addresses the question openly on his blog for the show.

For example, check out this “Late Night Man Massage” clip from a recent episode where Ring gets a 2 a.m. rubdown from a competitor:

Here is how Ring describes the reaction on his blog:

From their bedroom, [Kris] McCray loudly asks me a loaded question that goes a little bit like “Hey Ring, Why would you get a massage from a dude at 3 AM?” I knew exactly where he was trying to go with this one so I thought fuck it – I’ll play, so I answered “because I’m a big queer”.

They started laughing hard in disbelief at my remark, and I walked into their room and leaned my shoulder up against the doorway while I flossed my teeth. I knew that my reply would likely take most of the wind out of their sails but being the couple of Neanderthals they are, they relented by saying that I’m standing gay and tried telling me that I need to change my posture blah blah blah. I just thought it was funny so just poured it on more until they dropped it…

I didn’t realize how funny that would actually look on camera, but I was just kind of doing my thang. Me and my friends always joke around like this and I guess some people aren’t used to that, I got labelled a queer in the house pretty fast due to some of the shit that comes out of my mouth hahaha. I wasn’t really too bothered by it though, I know who I am and my friends back home know me and will just laugh about it anyway.

Fellow fighter Brad Tavares wrote this about Ring on his blog:

Now, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m sure Nick’s behavior in the staredown helped you realize that he’s a little bit different. In all honesty, [Jamie] Yager was very homophobic around Nick, and Nick used to chase him around the house in his boxers just to freak him out.

I knew that Ring was a good fighter, and as my roommate, I learned that he was a very intelligent guy. It’s just the role he plays. If you want to call Nick gay, then he’ll act that way, and that’s exactly what he did. In his interview to get in the show, they asked Nick about some of his effeminate mannerisms. He told them, “I’m not gay. My boyfriend is.” That’s just who he is. He has a real dry sense of humor, and he’s going to be himself, and he doesn’t care. He’s a good fighter, and he can back it up.

There was even talk about Ring’s mannerisms as sticks his arm out, wags his finger, shakes his head,  and says  “oh no, you didn’t” prior to a fight on the show. And this was a gesture from the webcast, where he says “Suck it up, buttercup” when asked if the training was too intense:

From his writing, it’s obvious Ring is very bright and aware, and he can handle himself in a fight. So maybe he is gay, or just plays one on TV. What do you think?

Hat tip to Matt Coin

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Having fought and trained a little, let me assure you that there is nothing sexual going on-fighters are in survival mode, the “fight-or-flight” instinct is in full swing. It’s kill or be killed, intensely claustrophobic, and a mental and physical war of counter and bait, deception, and speed. A fighter’s grappling style reflects his body type, his temperament, his training and his thoughts, just like an artist’s. There are thousands of variations on attacks and defense, “the ground game” is hard to appreciate at first, but worth the study. Is it homoerotic? Sure, if you want it to be. But, as Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a good smoke. Of course, to those boxers and boxing promoters who don’t understand and are threatened by MMA, homophobia is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Sheridan was responding to another Daily Beast post (in which I was quoted), by Thaddeus Russell, in which he wrote:

Recently, gay bloggers, homophobic critics of MMA, and even straight fans have declared that one of the great appeals of the sport is its homoeroticism. They note the large number of gay men and straight women who have become fans of MMA and attribute it to the appeal of the nearly-naked hard bodies of the fighters and the intimate, often pelvic techniques of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the favored grappling discipline in the sport.

Sheridan says that it’s the nature of MMA (where the “fights continue if the combatants fall to the ground”) that give it its gay vibe. And some of the terms such as “rear naked choke” clearly can be several ways. It’s a sign of the growing popularity of the sport and the increased acceptance of male-to-male sexual imagery that discussing MMA and gay in the same sentence is becoming fairly common.

For example, I easily found this YouTube clip where a couple of guys and a woman titter like Beavis and Butthead as they watch slow-motion replays of what could be construed as one MMA fighter kissing another. They seem more fascinated than repulsed:

You can also go to the MMA Fix website, which regularly posts its “homoerotic photo of the week:”

I think homoerotic is a much better term for MMA than gay. I agree with Sheridan that anyone in an actual fight is not viewing his opponent as a potential sex partner; it’s hard to have sexy thoughts when someone is trying to pummel you into submission. And I would guess that the percentage of MMA fighters who are gay roughly mirrors the percentage in society as a whole.

But there is an undeniable homoerotic aspect. This has always been true of certain sports — one that feature the body (bodybuilding, gymnastics, swimming) or ones that feature some form of domination (wrestling, football, rugby, MMA). I leave boxing out of this since I have never seen it argued that watching someone punched repeatedly in the face is sexy.

A lot of discussion has come about after boxer Bernard Hopkins and boxing promoter Bob Arum dismissed MMA as nothing but gay porn. Their reactions spoke more of desperation over boxing’s rapid decline, since calling something “gay” is supposed to render it unwatchable by the mainstream (especially young men). But when straight fans can write about their top MMA hotties, and UFC head Dana White welcomes gay fans and fighters, the gay slur is losing its punch.

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For me, and people like me, [MMA] is not something they ever care to see. They’ve watched it. It’s horrible. Guys rolling around like homosexuals on the ground. It is not a sport that shows great, great talent.

Deadspin did a transcription of the interview and found this nugget criticizing MMA fans:

Our audience in boxing is ethnic. Hispanic, Filipino, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and the hardcore boxing fan who can’t watch … like me … can’t watch UFC. UFC are a bunch of skinhead white guys watching people in the ring who also look like skinhead white guys.

Arum is just an old racist and homophobic SOB whose time has passed by. MMA is growing by leaps and bounds with young fight fans, while boxing struggles to remain relevant. He can do little else but insult its athletes and the people who watch it.

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