Mike Kogan is a man who's seen it all and done it all in the world of mixed martial arts. From promoting events to commentating fights to managing fighters, there's nothing that he hasn't seen or heard in the sport that would shock him. In this unique series, Kogan shares his perspective on the do's and don'ts in MMA. With that being said, check out what he had to say about fans, their use of social networking sites, like Twitter, and racism.
My take on social networking is, everything that is good has a little bit of bad in it and if it's bad, it has some good in it. Social networking, I think, all in all, is good. First of all, it puts a fan base from one portal from all around the world. When you look at Twitter and Facebook and all of that stuff, it's fans from all around being able to voice their opinions. I think, from a business standpoint, it's a great marketing tool also because you're actually able to market fights and events, or what have you, to a larger community. Its downfall is it's impersonal. A lot of these people have fake accounts and fake emails or whatever. And then you have people that are just straight up hating. This has always been my rule for social networking, I use my real name, I use my real picture, and if I'm gonna say some bad shit to you on Twitter, I will be ready to say it to your face. If I voice an opinion on Twitter or on Facebook, or wherever, I'm ready to say that to your face. If I'm giving my opinion on anything, I'm using my real name and email address and let's have a debate and you come back and talk to me. So my rule for social networking is very simple, if you have the balls to say it on Twitter, make sure you would say it to that man's face. Some people just really get on there to say unnecessary shit. It's one thing to voice your opinion if you think a fight didn't go well or you think a fighter is not up to par for something, but to just straight up hate is ridiculous.
I mean, Gerald Harris has a fan base and he has it set up to where they can send him a request and he sends them an autograph. He gets an email from a fake account, where the dudes name doesn't exist, and this dude asks, "Why would I want an autograph from some nigger who got cut from the UFC?" Now, that's fine. If you don't want his fucking autograph, don't fucking ask for it then. If you don't like the TV channel, then change the motherfucking channel. There are 400 different ones to choose from. The whole thing with social networking is, it's inevitable because people are pussies and they are allowed to do this shit, they will, and they will take advantage of it. But to me, that's the part that's been a little disappointing. To me, if you're going to keep it real, then keep it real all the way. But all in all, I think social networking is a great thing. It allows you to disseminate information so much faster. I mean, you literally have people tweeting from toilets and (laughing) wherever. It's just like, shit is happening live and people are tweeting from the events and from everywhere. I think all in all, it's good, but the...not the negativity because God knows I'm as vocal and negative as anybody can be, but I don't just straight up hate and say this guy is retarded and fuck him. Or I don't like this guy because he is black, which is just ridiculous.
Another thing, this is a social phenomenon that I have a unique perspective on because you know a lot of the athletes that I work with are black. Man, whoever said racism is dead, they must not know a lot of black folk. This country is as racist as it can be. I mean, holy shit. If I had a dollar for every "nigger" tweet that King Mo received, I would be a millionaire. I could take half and give him half and we can retire and be done with this business. This has nothing to do with social networking, but as a result of social networking, as a result of being able to hind behind fake names and what have you, you can actually see the real sense of America, or at least the people that follow mixed martial arts, and they are fucking racist; holy shit! I mean, they are racist. And the worst part is, they don't even know the dude. They don't know nothing about him. At one point, Mo was like, "Why do these people hate me?" I said, "Mo, they are on the inside." And it's kind of funny I said that because if you ever seen that movie "A Time To Kill", at one point in that movie, Samuel Jackson tells his white lawyer, "Hey, you're my secret weapon because you're white. You think like them. Why do you think I hired you." It's kind of funny because I look at Mo and I say, "Mo, to 99.9% of white people that have never met you, you visually from the outside and when you open your mouth, you represent the thug, gang-banging, menace-to-society, gold-tooth and gun-carrying negro that white people have been afraid of their entire life. They don't know anything about you. They don't go out of their way to learn that you are college educated, that you come from an extensive wrestling background, and that you have represented your country all over the world. They just see a gang banger." That's why Rampage and Jon Jones are so popular. They are "house niggas", they are for the white folk, you know what I mean? I'm not trying to put down black folk, but if you sit down and listen to Jon Jones, ain't no black folk saying that shit man, come on. The last person that said that shit is Barack Obama, and that nigga the President, so of course he gonna say that shit.
But my whole thing is, Mo tries to keep it real, but at the end of the day, you don't know anything about him. You don't know that he has a daughter from a white woman and he has just as many white friends as he has black friends. Mo is probably the least racist fighter out there. If you look at his Twitter account, and it's terrible, but people are like, "Nigger, I want you to die." It's just terrible. That's one aspect of social networking that I feel, if you have the ability to look at it from a different angle, then you will see how racist this country is and that's just fucking sad. They got nothing to do with fighting, but, when you provide people with a forum where they can talk without getting caught, you realize just how fucked up people are. It's kind of like if there was no laws, then people will just walk around killing everybody. And here it's kind of like that because you have this kind of anonymous stature and no one knows who the fuck you are, people say some nasty shit. Oprah had the KKK on her show years ago and she said afterwards that she realized she provided them with a forum and vowed never to have them on there again to spew their hate and shit. But at least those motherfuckers had the balls to show up and say how they feel. But here is the thing, I'm not advocating people being racist or not racist, because I really don't care. To be honest with you, as long as your views don't physically harm another individual, I don't give a fuck what they are. If you don't like black people, then that's fine, don't hang around black people. I'm not one of those people that believe we should all walk around hugging and kissing each other. You like black people, great. If you don't like black people, that's fine too so long as what you are doing doesn't oppress them or hurt them physically; as long as you don't fuck with their lives. It's kind of like the gay thing. I'm not for gay marriage, and I'm not against gay marriage. It's none of my fucking business, you know what I mean? As long as I don't have to fucking wax his candle before he goes in the fucking corn hole (laughing), it's whatever. It's not that though because, like I said, at least those motherfuckers on the Oprah Winfrey Show had the balls to show up and say on national television, "That's right, we don't like niggers and we want them all to die." That's fine if you have the balls to say that. I don't agree with what you are saying, but I'm talking motherfuckers that if you see them at the event, they want pictures and autographs and then be tweeting, "You fucking nigger. I fucking hate you." It's like, what the fuck? Calm down. So my final thing on social networking is to have the balls and have the decency and the respect to utter the same shit to these guys' face that you would say to them on Twitter. Stop with the fake names, put your real fucking names in, and say what's on your mind. That's fine, but make sure that if you meet that person that you are talking about, then say the same thing to their face regardless of the consequence. As long as you do that, that's fine. Otherwise, you're just a fucking hypocrite and fuck you!
Be sure to follow Mike Kogan on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/#!/MikeKogan and email your questions, opinions and thoughts to mkogan@fighthype.com!