A Message To The B/R MMA Community: Words Of Wisdom

Hello everyone,

My name is Mitch Ciccarelli and for those who aren’t familiar with me, I am a community leader for the UFC section as well as an MMA Featured Columnist here on Bleacher Report. I joined B/R about seven months ago as a relative unknown but have steadily evolved into one of the top writers of this website.

Through my work on this website, I have had six of my articles syndicated to Sports Illustrated and have recently had one of my pieces published to Fox Sports. As previously mentioned, when I first came here I was for lack of a better term, a “nobody”. I was writing previously to smaller websites but I was nowhere near as accomplished as I am today, however I am far from great and I realize that I still have a lot to learn.

Now this article is not about my accomplishments so please do not think I am here to brag. This article is about B/R and the MMA community in general. Lately there have been a lot of complaints from other writers about the rankings system and the featured columnist positions. Everyone believes they deserve a certain spot and instead of working that much harder to earn it they instead use their time to attack the ones who have.

Let me just say that I have a lot of respect for each and every one of you and I wish we could all have a top ranked position and become featured columnists but that is not how things work. I do believe that everyone who contributes to the MMA section has a great deal of potential and I apologize if I do not say that enough to you.

I want to make the effort to help other MMA writers out with accomplishing their dreams. I understand it can be difficult and frustrating to watch someone else succeed when you feel just as deserving. Here are a few tips that I think would be very beneficial to aspiring MMA writers on B/R.

Maintain a professional attitude

Writing good quality articles is one thing, however if you cannot maintain a certain level of professionalism then you will not make it far at all in this industry. You’re all opinionated writers and I respect that about you but don’t get carried away. Heated debates are encouraged but when you start responding to people using swear words and using filthy language, it hurts your image as a writer.

I understand it can be hard to deal with difficult readers. Sometimes you’ll come across a reader who leaves personal attacks on your articles and it’s very hard to respond in a positive light. At first you want to jump through your computer screen and tear said person apart limb from limb and it’s natural to feel that way.

However don’t let your difficult readers know that they have gotten under your skin. I’m not saying I am perfect, just earlier today I allowed a certain writer to get under my skin and I feel very embarrassed about that. Luckily we as mature adults were able to settle our dispute and apologize to each other.

Before you click reply on a comment, think of it as a job interview; would an employer hire you if you were using foul language and verbally attacking people? The answer to that question is no, you would not get hired. On the flip side if you maintained a confident and polite attitude and let your potential employer know you’re mature enough for the job then your chances of getting hired increase dramatically.

Take something from everything

I know this may sound odd, but constructive criticism is your friend. Sure it may sound insulting at first but if you are able to take bits and pieces from critical comments and mold them into your writing style then you will see some surprising results. It’s all part of the evolutionary process of a writer, much like the evolution of an MMA fighter.

Fighters need to constantly evolve in order to reach the championship or hang on to their title and this is the same with writing. If you’re stubborn and you believe that you’re way is the best way and everyone else is below you then you are not going to accomplish very much in this industry.

Look at UFC Lightweight Joe “Daddy” Stevenson as the perfect example. It wasn’t long ago when Stevenson struggled to evolve in this sport. He has always been a good fighter but he never truly took the time to evolve. After taking consecutive losses, Stevenson has re-invented himself with Greg Jackson and is truly evolving as a fighter.

This is something we all must do in order to truly improve and get to where we want to be. Take something from everything, even if the criticism is a bit harsh.

Be consistent

In order to move up in the rankings and get noticed in this community, you must be a consistent writer. Yes, quality over quantity rings true but consistency is still very crucial especially when it comes down to the rankings. I’m not saying you have to write an article every day, but once or twice a week is a very good base to have in the B/R community and it will get you noticed more by the head honchos at the B/R offices.

As a featured columnist I am required to write two articles every week and I have been doing that ever since I was given the position. I understand a lot of you have jobs and a family to take care of so it can be near impossible for all of you to write two articles a week. However one article a week is still consistent where as one every three weeks is not.

Once again, quality over quantity rings true but if you only write a quality article every couple of weeks then you shouldn’t complain about your ranking.

Think of it in terms of MMA rankings for a second. Let’s say for example Josh Koscheck is a top five ranked Welterweight yet suddenly becomes very inactive for several months. Meanwhile other 170-pounders go on huge winning streaks while Kos is on the shelf.

Should Koscheck still remain in the top five or should the other fighters who have been winning take his spot?

Don’t take the rankings personally

Honestly, I don’t pay much attention to the rankings because while it is pretty cool to be ranked in the top five, I understand that it means very little in the grand scheme of things. A lot of you seem to take it personal that you aren’t ranked high enough and I think that is a mistake because there really isn’t anything to be upset about.

Bleacher Report, from my understanding, does not hand pick the rankings. It is all computerized and it is based on certain factors. It used to be more about comment activity and there were writers ranked in the top ten that hadn’t written an article in months but because they posted thousands of comments they maintained a high rank.

Now the format has changed to be more about the quantity and quality of the articles. The amount of reads, comments, likes you get on your pieces and etc. It is not to be taken entirely seriously and you should focus more on other goals, for example getting syndicated to Sports Illustrated.

Sports Illustrated syndication is much more important than the top ten writer rankings, in my humble opinion that is.

Sports Illustrated Syndication

Now I won’t touch on this too much because there is going to be a full article written about this in the near future by a well respected member of the community but I will say a few things about how to get your articles syndicated to SI.com.

First of all, the one thing that the guys at SI seem to really like about B/R is when passionate fans like us answer questions or pose interesting topics about the sport. For example, up and coming writer Sterling Spiars wrote an article a few months ago titled “Anthony Johnson shouldn’t look past Yoshida”.

In this article, Spiars talked about how Yoshida is a tough test to “Rumble” Johnson while also stating that Johnson should be able to defeat him so long as he didn’t overlook his opponent. It was a well written article and SI posted it on their site because it was an intriguing topic written by a true fan.

Recently Jesse Motiff wrote a piece about how Gegard Mousasi should come to the UFC and fight the best 205-pounders in the world. It was a refreshing article that was well written, very professional and SI published it to their site.

Another writer off the top of my head that has had recent articles posted to SI.com is Darren Wong. Wong wrote about how the UFC’s Octagon should be a universal fixture in MMA and he talked about how MMA fights in a ring are not as appealing as fights in the cage.

I’ve had six of my articles syndicated to SI.com and with each one you can somewhat see a pattern as far as the type of writing SI is interested in.

If you would like further advice on how to get your work syndicated to SI.com, feel free to contact me at any time and I would be very happy to help you out. However our MMA community leader, Brian Oswald could help you out much more than I can so he would be the man to go to for assistance.

Sentence flow and compelling introductions 

As a writer, you want to make sure your sentences flow well and you’re readers do not have difficulty reading your articles. Admittedly this is something I myself struggle with at times because it isn’t easy to form well flowing sentences.  The best advice I can give you is to try to write sentences that link together and stand out.

You need to balance your unique voice and style of writing with clean, simple, effective prose. The easier your writing is to read, the more flow it has and therefore you will keep your readers entertained all the way through.

Also the introduction of your article is the most important part as that is what grasps your reader’s attention. Here is some advice that was given to me by B/R Editor in Chief Joe Yanarella about one of my articles I wrote several months ago:

“The intro needs a little more style and flavor. It’s essentially 5-6 facts strung together as sentences as opposed to something that really establishes a mood, tone or flow. While it’s important to support your story with factual information, it shouldn’t bog the reader down at the expense of entertainment value. Your lead/intro is where you hook the reader and make them want to come along for the ride and this is done with clever writing, style, humor or color. I need Mitch to paint a picture of Silva and/or set the mood for the story rather than rat-a-tat facts at me.”

This is excellent advice and I really feel that my writing has improved tremendously since utilizing this strategy into my writing.


Be opinionated but not too harsh

One thing I respect about the B/R MMA writers is the fact that most of them are very opinionated and passionate about supporting certain fighters. Nevertheless if you’re bashing certain fighters all the time in your articles, it doesn’t look good. Having an opinion is great don’t get me wrong, but if you’re saying things like “so and so is a coward” or “so and so sucks” then you’re not maintaining that level of professionalism that I mentioned in one of the earlier tips.

It’s ok to dislike a certain fighter and it’s perfectly fine to let your readers know you are not a fan of certain fighters but it is not ok to spend a majority of your article insulting a fighter very harshly.

I am not the biggest fan of former UFC Welterweight champ Matt Hughes and in one of my previous articles I talked about how Hughes was ducking Team AKA. Conversely I also talked about how much respect I have for Hughes and how he is no doubt going to be a UFC Hall of Famer in a few years. I never said anything like “Hughes is an idiot” because if I did then it wouldn’t have looked good and would have damaged my credibility as an aspiring journalist.

On the flip side, supporting your favorite fighters is all well and good in the neighborhood but you also have to remain as unbiased as possible when it comes to certain topics. You can’t say “this guy is going to beat that guy because that guy is a jerk”, you know what I mean?

Let’s use ESPN’s MMA Live host Jon Anik as an example. Let’s say that Mr. Anik is a big Shane Carwin fan and absolutely hates Brock Lesnar with a passion. Now would it be ok for Anik to say on the air, “Carwin is going to smash that loudmouth punk Lesnar and send him right out of the UFC for good!”?

That type of unprofessionalism would likely cost Mr. Anik his job which is why as a journalist you have to be slightly unbiased.

At the same time, having a certain opinion is very important as well.

I hope my tips can be helpful to some of you, and if you would like further advice feel free to message me at any time.

Sincerely,
Mitch Ciccarelli