Home field advantage used to feel like a bigger deal in stick-and-ball sports, back before diehards were priced out of purchasing tickets and arenas and stadiums started to become more cookie-cutter.
The ramifications of walking into enemy territory was something the visiting team had to consider and take into account, whether it was because of the way the puck bounced in the corners at Maple Leaf Gardens, the way the fans in Philadelphia would rain down boos (and occasionally batteries) on anyone including Santa Claus, or the way the Boston Celtics would cut the heat or air conditioning in the opposing locker room depending on the weather.
While there are still spaces where ravenous fans and home stadiums feel like they can genuinely have an impact on the outcome of a given sporting event, it certainly doesn’t feel as common as when having Game 7 at home carried a significant amount of weight.
This weekend in Manchester, a pair of British champions will look to defend their titles on British soil, as Leon Edwards puts his welterweight belt up for grabs against Belal Muhammad, and Tom Aspinall defends the interim heavyweight title in a rematch with Curtis Blaydes in the final two bouts of UFC 304.
Though neither is from the host city itself — Edwards is from Birmingham, by way of Kingston, Jamaica; Aspinall is from neighbouring Atherton — competing in their home country, in front of what is sure to be a packed house of partisan supporters at Co-op Live on Saturday night will provide them the “home field advantage” feel as they make their way into the Octagon in search of victory.
Fighting at home can be a tricky thing, as some feel extra pressure and like they’re pulled in more directions, while others appreciate the familiarity that comes with being someplace you know well, not having to travel too far, and the ability to maintain their usual body rhythms.
While it doesn’t always have a tangible impact on the outcome of a fight, there have been moments in the past where it has clearly seemed like fighting for gold in their own backyard has helped carry previous UFC champions to victory.
Matt Serra vs. Georges St-Pierre 2 — UFC 83 (Montreal, Quebec)
You have to give Serra credit for how he steered into what was clearly a challenging situation.
After upsetting St-Pierre a year earlier in Houston at UFC 69, the unexpected champion faced the French-Canadian superstar in a title unification bout in GSP’s hometown of Montreal, which marked the first time the UFC had made the trip north of the border.
The fastest sellout in UFC history at the time, the Bell Centre was packed to the rafters with GSP loyalists, eager to watch him earn a measure of revenge against the improbable titleholder from New York, who happily donned the black hat for this one and played the role perfectly.
While St-Pierre, who had claimed the interim welterweight title in a third bout with Matt Hughes four months earlier while Serra was stuck dealing with an injury, was undoubtedly focused on making up for what had transpired at UFC 69, there is no way that marching out to the Octagon in his gi with 20,000 raucous fans booming their support for him didn’t ratchet up his intensity, focus, and drive to deliver the result they’d all came to see.
And deliver he did.
St-Pierre stopped Serra in the second round, finishing things with a series of knees to the body before saluting the crowd, all of whom where on their feet, revelling in his performance.
Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes — UFC 142 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Aldo was born in Manaus, but by the time he emerged as the greatest featherweight in the world, he was already firmly established as “The King of Rio.”
He moved to the Brazil metropolis at age 17 with little more than a dream, and when he returned in January 2014, he was several fights into his reign as UFC featherweight champion after winning and successfully defending the WEC featherweight title before that. A blur in the cage, he was an incomparable talent and conquering hero who had spent the previous four-plus years competing around the globe, but never at home in Rio.
Brazilian crowds are unwaveringly supportive of every national making the walk to the Octagon and notoriously merciless when it comes to reminding any non-Brazilian what they’re in for once they cross that threshold, with “Uh Vai Morrer” (translation: “You’re Gonna Die!”) serving as the soundtrack to any event held in the South American MMA hotbed.
Ironically, the crowd at HSBC Arena (now Farmasi Arena) wasn’t particularly more amped as Mendes and Aldo made their respective walks to the cage; maybe that’s because they were at 11 from the opening bout of the evening or maybe they were running low on energy at the tail end of a night where a Brazilian was victorious in every fight, save for one.
But after Aldo planted a knee on Mendes’ chin in the waning seconds of the opening round, bringing the fight to a halt, the roof came off the building and the jubilant champion raced out of the Octagon and into the crowd; “The King of Rio” celebrating with his supporters.
In retrospect, there is no question that Aldo was on another level heading into this one, as he was not only paired off with his toughest test to date, but defending his title at home for the first time, and the release of all that pent up energy, excitement, and pride is what propelled him into the crowd.
Stipe Miocic vs. Alistair Overeem — UFC 203 (Cleveland, Ohio)
It never made sense to me why the UFC didn’t have Miocic defend his title at home in Cleveland more than this one and only instance.
After winning the belt from Fabricio Werdum in a road game in Curitiba, Brazil, the new heavyweight champion’s first title defence came at home in “The Land” against Alistair Overeem, and it stands as the one real moments where the potential star power of the blue-collared champion really stood out.
The UFC struggled to figure out how to market and promote Miocic throughout his time at the top of the heavyweight division, never quite finding the right way to showcase athletic and dangerous fighter who was both a giant, overgrown child that was always looking for a laugh and a caring, civic-minded Ohioan that worked as a firefighter, not because he needed to in order to make ends meet, but because he wanted to be of service to his community.
Miocic never got a bigger pop than he did with Machine Gun Kelly’s “Til I Die” began to echo through Quicken Loans Arena on Sept. 10, 2016, and while he was certainly in tough against Overeem, you had a sense that there was no way the newly minted champion was going to drop his belt at home, even when the challenger latched onto a guillotine choke int he early stages of the opening round.
Miocic escaped and earned the finish soon after, before leading the boisterous crowd in massive call-and-answer chant celebrating their shared home state.
O-H! I-O!
Michael Bisping vs. Dan Henderson — UFC 204 (Manchester, England)
The last time the UFC brought a pay-per-view to Manchester was nearly eight years ago, when Bisping defended the middleweight title against hand-picked, heated rival Dan Henderson after he had surprisingly won the belt earlier that year.
Now, let’s get something clear: Bisping thrived as both the hometown fighter and the foreign invader, and always found a way get all lathered up even when he was fighting on neutral grounds. The guy had an uncanny ability to make every fight personal in some way, shape, or form, and those elements constantly, unquestionably fuelled him throughout his career.
After shocking the world by knocking out Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 to claim the title, it only made sense to give “The Count” a hometown fight against a challenger of his choosing, and of course he was always going to pick Henderson, who famously flattened him at UFC 100 and was at the end of his Hall of Fame career.
Again, Bisping could find a way to get himself fired up walking out to “Song 2” at the Medicine Hat Legion on a Tuesday night if need be, but defending his title and seeking to avenge the most memorable loss of his career all on one go, at home, as the headliner of a show built around his triumphant return undoubtedly gave him additional fuel to go out there and perform.
This can never be proven by science, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it also helped him eat a couple of the monster shots Henderson hit him with as well.