In the comments on the last series, I was like, oh wow,
people actually understand what we're trying to do so I feel less nervous now.
But then I also do feel nervous because we've now gone on to more difficult subjects.
It's less like who are your role models?
More like, how do you feel about your penis,
which is like ...
[laughter]
So after season 1, we asked viewers what they wanted us to look at in season 2
and a lot of men got in touch and said, can you look at masculinity through sport?
I thought that MMA and the Ultimate Fighting Championship would be
a really interesting place to go and look at masculinity.
This journey is taking me to New York, meeting all the fighters ...
– Hi. – Hey.
And the fans ...
– You're gonna get killed, motherfucker.
And just going to an event I never thought I'd go to.
– Masvidal versus Diaz.
But we started that journey in Nottingham.
Darren Till is a British fighter from Liverpool and one of the best known guys
on the card for the UFC 244 event.
Having lost his last two fights, there's a lot riding on his upcoming match up in New York.
Welcome to the UFC gym in Nottingham.
Big open workout. Big day for the gym. Big day for Darren. Big fight for Darren.
I'll hand it over to the superstar for his open workout.
The open workout is an opportunity for the press to get shots of the fighters
in action and to put questions to them before the event.
I caught up with Darren after his presser.
What is it about UFC that makes it so popular with men?
When it's all stripped down, it sort of goes back to gladiator days.
The cage doors get locked and you sort of fight for the death.
It's got to be the biggest fighting combat sport out there now.
People that don't follow it, do you think they misunderstand what it's about?
Yeah, I think people just watch it for the first time and see all blood
and elbows getting thrown, thinking ooh.
You know what I mean but when you look into it more, and understand
how much skill is involved, I think you become a fan.
Lots of people did say to me, because it's mixed martial arts, it's the best of the best
because anything goes.
So if you've got every art in this world, martial arts, and put them together,
who's the best?
I'm nearly there.
– Yeah? – Nearly.
I heard you were a bit arrogant.
You didn't sound that arrogant when you said that.
Someone time me, 'Oh, you're seeing Darren Till?
He's a little bit arrogant.' That was very ...
Chinese whispers. People putting me down, man.
I'm a little bit arrogant. A nice arrogant.
So I'm here in New York for the UFC 244 event.
There's a bunch of different things happening in a few days leading up.
There's gonna be an open work out.
There's a media day, there's gonna be a lot of opportunities to speak to you guys
who are following MMA and UFC.
What is it that people, particularly men, find in this sport that they don't find elsewhere?
The open workout in Madison Square Garden was in front of hardcore fans
who'd been drawn out to see their favourite fighters ahead
of the event on Saturday.
I'm not really sure how this works.
[laughs]
Everybody is saying that this isn't usually how they do an open workout,
that they've never seen this before.
They've never seen people bring out ...
Usually, what is supposed to happen is he's supposed to do some training,
do a warm up and answer some questions from the media.
We could sit and do this shit all night if no one stopped them.
Yeah but do you think they're insured for this?
What's that?
Do you think they're giving they're insured for this?
Nah, I don't know.
[laughter]
After that slightly bizarre display, Masvidal was whisked off to do his presser
and I decided to shoot my shot and ask him a question.
A lot of people said to me that fighting is a primal instinct that all men have.
Do you believe that to be true?
Do you think that all men have that inside them?
Men and women, survival it's everything.
You know, we're animals, a lot of us.
Some of us are more animals than others, you know.
But I just feel that everybody has it in men, women, anybody.
You know, if you need to survive, if you're fighting for that last bologna sandwich,
it's going to come out of you, you know.
You might not be good at it, but everybody can fight.
– Thank you. – Thank you.
I wanted to get some context for what I'd seen at the open workout.
So I grabbed ESPN's Ariel Helwani, who's been covering the sport since 2006.
The stereotype is that UFC is really popular with guys
that are just super aggressive and violent.
That stigma is as prehistoric.
That guy wearing a suit is an MMA fan. Celebrities are MMA fans.
The president is an MMA fan.
It's never going to be everyone's cup of tea but in 26 years,
enough people from every walk of life like the sport to where I think
it's a lot more diverse than maybe someone who isn't a fan might think.
In this moment, this week, when the fight is about to happen,
how much of that do you think people consume for pure entertainment?
And how much of that do you think taps into something deeper,
particularly for men?
There are elements of WWE in this, you know, the showmanship, the characters,
but there's also this emotional investment that they have in these guys.
You know, he's going into battle and I'm going to battle with him.
And there's also a part where you're almost living vicariously through this guy.
They're superhuman, in my opinion.
These guys and girls have something in them that you and I don't possess.
After speaking to Ariel, I wanted to chat to fans directly to hear
what they liked about UFC.
So I headed to Legends Bar, where a live radio show was being recorded
with UFC fighter and commentator Dan Hardy.
What do you like about the sport?
We fight every day.
You know, we fight to stay in our job, get paid, get through the days.
So watching someone push through, just getting beat on and then
when they come on top, to me, that's a rush.
I more than any other sport find a lot of attraction to the actual individual fighters.
A guy like Nick Diaz, you get to see his personality before he gets in the ring
and you get to see him be that personality in the ring.
You can get the richest person in the world. He can pay for the best trainers,
the best everything since he's twelve years old
and he wouldn't be the champion of the world.
There's something about them that's just missing that I think people
are drawn to that we can't really relate to them.
This is the ultimate media day, which is the Thursday before the Saturday fight.
It's quite fun, just to see how it all works.
This is nuts. It's like choose your fighter.
I need to go around and find my favourite looking one to questions to.
In the end, I decided to speak to Kelvin Gastelum.
He was Darren Till's opponent on fight night.
What is it about UFC and MMA as a sport that attracts you to that?
I think there's so much fake stuff going around in the world today
that people are looking for genuine entertainment.
Something pure. Something real.
What is it that pushes you and makes you want to do this?
I grew up in Arizona.
My family came from Mexico a long, long time ago.
So we were a very poor family growing up.
All I know is hard work.
You know, that's the immigrant mentality is we gotta work for what we want.
Nothing's ever been handed to us.
Do you think that links to the UFC?
We all come from different backgrounds, different upbringings.
What makes us all the same is that.
– That kind of striving? – Yeah.
Everybody's on the other side of this wall trying to get lines from Nate Diaz,
but I've managed to find Dan hanging around the back here.
Are you OK hun?
[laughter]
Everyone watching this is going to think I don't know how to use a spoon.
Why is she talking to this guy? He's not even figured out cutlery.
What is it about this that you think appeals to so many men across the board?
Every man, as we're talking about masculinity, falls on that spectrum of wild animal,
civilised human being.
Some of us have got a bit more wild animal than others, and that wild animal
needs to manifest in some ways.
Why has it suddenly gone quiet? Face offs.
Does that mean they're just looking at each other.
Yeah.
I want to see what's going on over there and then we can come back and sit down.
He does it every time, it's his thing.
So it's like, a catwalk for fighters? A little bit.
More of a lion walk than a catwalk.
A lion walk than a catwalk. [laughs].
These guys are sizing each other up. They're ready to do battle.
Have you made that joke before?
– No. – Really?
– That was pretty good. – Was it?
Yeah, off the cuff.
You were just saying about how you think society needs to take
martial arts more seriously.
I don't think we fully understand and appreciate as a society our important
combat sports [are].
Every single person on this fight card.
if they didn't have a space for that animalistic side of them to manifest,
it would have manifested somehow.
It would've manifested in a negative relationship or a negative marriage.
I mean, I think we should be encouraging more people to get involved in combat sports
because I feel like if you can separate that part of yourself away
from your regular life,
it's not gonna manifest in your real life.
Headline fighter Jorge Masvidal didn't turn up for his face off,
but he did give the media some sound bites.
No matter what your views on Trump as president, the guy is a bad motherfucker.
I managed to get him by himself to follow up with a few questions of my own.
I was asking you if aggression and the need to fight and be competitive
is innate in all men.
It's not a trick question. It's not like anything like that.
Shit. How much time do you got?
How much time do you want to give me?
Masculinity and men fighting.
Why would they pick me to answer that? That's so weird.
Cheeky fellow.
I think I said yes, and men and women have it, but men obviously more
because it's in our nature.
You know me in particular, I think my bloodline comes from the guy
that was maybe not smartest or didn't care to be the smartest.
He was just hanging out in the village and then when other villages came to invade,
they knocked on his door and said, 'hey, man, we've got these guys trying to invade.
We need your skillset.'
OK. He got out there and took care of business, went about his day.
The world back then was ruled by men like me and then shit happened
and fucking laws came into place, the police and all these types of stuff
that allowed like weak betas and people with too much opinion to take over,
but fighting is in everybody, you know.
When I came to that event, it was interesting for me because it was a lot more underground
than I thought it would be.
And you brought people on the stage who were not fighters
and you got them to fight.
What was it you wanted to do?
We're going to have fun. These guys are going to fucking throw blows.
I'm going to make the UFC sweat their balls off.
They're gonna be like, no this a huge liability, but I just wanted them to have fun
and I wanted me to have some fun.
and have a good time. That's it.
It's like Fight Club. Yeah my own Fight Club.
[cheering]
Today is the weigh ins. It's Friday night in New York.
It's completely packed, there's so many people in here.
Dana White has just come out on stage.
Apparently The Rock is going to come out in a second.
And I can't lie, I'm quite excited to see how it plays out.
[boos]
Yo, he's got a MAGA cap on.
He has a make America great cap on and he's holding Donald Trump's son's book, Triggered.
– Fuck you Colby. – The drama.
[crows shouts] Fuck you Colby. Fuck you Colby.
You suck. You suck. You suck. You suck.
So they've just done the presser for the next event, UFC 245.
The theatrics, it was nuts. Yeah.
I just don't know what to make of it, it's mad.
And now for the ceremonial weigh in for UFC 244, it's Joe Rogan.
If you smell what The Rock is cooking?
Please welcome Nate Diaz.
[crowd cheers]
Official weight 170.5
Jorge Masvidal,
official weight 169.5
Throughout the days leading up to the fight, I got a pretty good idea of a number
of different reasons as to why MMA is so popular with so many men.
I turned up to the event on Saturday excited to see what the atmosphere would be like.
Basically, just tell me what it is you like about UFC.
I just like the blood, you know.
Punching and all that.
I like it when people get rocked.
It's like, I don't know, it gives me goosebumps.
Who are you looking to see?
I'm going for Nate Diaz but I'm a fan of Jorge too.
Why is Nate Diaz so popular?
– Everybody's saying Diaz. – Go Diaz!
It's just the gangster in him. Everybody likes it.
I'm watching someone who's an artist paint a picture.
They take their skill pretty seriously and they've got knockout power.
That's what everyone's here for, to see a knockout.
I think boxing is kind of played out. This is more fun.
This is ... you get a lot more action. OK. It's a combination of theatre and athleticism.
What's the Guardian's view on UFC? The Guardian generally doesn't cover it.
I'm going to go in.
We're not allowed to take our cameras with us next to the octagon,
so we're gonna be shooting on our mobile phones.
The BMF title is on the line.
– What it is? The doctor is waving it off? – No way. What? No way.
– No way. – Dana White immediately out of his seat.
Ladies and gentlemen, due to the laceration on Nate Diaz's eye,
by TKO, the winner of the BMF belt, Jorge 'Gamebred' Masvidal.
The gate was $6.6 million dollars.
– Wooo. – Yeah.
[laughter]
When we first bought this company, venues didn't want us.
And at that time Trump reached out and asked us to come to the Taj Mahal.
Everything that ever happened to me in my career, Trump was the first guy
to pick up the phone and reach out to me.
And I don't care where you sit politically.
The president of the United States is here at our events.
We weren't allowed here a few years ago.
Rough week.
No matter what any fighter will ever tell you, they will be scared.
If they tell you they're not, it's a blatant lie.
But this fight I wasn't scared, I was terrified.
Coming off the losses I was coming off and how invincible I thought I was before that,
I know I'm still the greatest but I know I've got to work at that.
It's been a long year, so we're gonna have a drink before you guys start barking.
I haven't eaten either so.
Oh yeah, that's good pizza.
As far as painting my Picasso, I almost got to do it, you know.
I don't want nothing to take my greatness, to say some guy tripped on a pebble
and that's how I beat him.
That's not me. I wanted to end him.
I want to send them off to another dimension.
I got nothing but respect for the dude, but that's the type of artwork I like to do.
I love the fucking belt. I'd rock that shit.
I wear that out in public, maybe.
MMA and UFC is operating on multiple levels.
I think linked to masculinity, it's fascinating.
There's the athleticism. There's the art of it, right?
There's the entertainment. There's a spectacle.
There's a kind of show.
I did find it bizarre when Trump turned up.
At the press conference, afterwards, they were all like, oh you know,
the president was here.
And that is a statement.
And it's also that thing of it being not a politically correct space,
a place where rules are broken and you can feel frustrated.
There's an outlet.
And I know a lot of people aren't very sympathetic to that idea.
But people don't like rules.
And this sport really captures that energy.
Dismissing the sport because Trump was there, or dismissing the sport
because it's violent, whatever, it kind of misses out everything else
that's going on around this.
And it will continue to grow and be a very popular sport.
It did better than the boxing the other day on pay per views.
You know, people do like this, you got to be involved in the conversation
and, you know, understand these things.
Don't how you follow on from this
and Trump and UFC and Masvidal and Nate Diaz's face.
But if you want to see what we do next, like, comment and subscribe
and stay up to date with the next episode of Modern Masculinity.