Now before you bring your hands to your mouth, suck in a chest full of air, and slam me with your deepest spit laden boo, understand that it is recognized that if you spend your hard earned money on a ticket to a MMA event (or any sporting event for that matter) you have the right to boo. Should you though; is it fair to the combatants?

Boos happen for a number of reasons. There is a perceived lack of action. The fight has been on the ground too long. The fight is stopped for an unclear reason or too early. And lastly, the judges' decision seems inaccurate.

Let's tackle the first two because they often go hand in hand. Booing due to "inaction" in a fight may demonstrate a serious lack of understanding for what is going on in the cage. The movement, the footwork, the circling, the jostling for position, are all important parts of the fight. The movement between the actual engagements ensures that each exchange will be that much better, not some wild drunken windmill swinging catastrophe. So booing because too much of this movement is occurring is simply an unintended admission of a lack of understanding about what the hell is going on.

Booing when a fight hits the floor is similar to the standing "inaction boo." Just because they aren't punching each other in the noggin doesn't mean they aren't working to win the fight. Give it time, let it play out. Fighters these days are on average highly skilled, and it takes a great deal of strategy and continued adjustments for one man to find or create an opportunity to finish the other. And hey, if they aren't working to better their position, the referee will stand them up.

Notice that the previous paragraph mentioned strategy, also called a game plan. Fighters, just like other professional athletes, have game plans that they've spent weeks to develop and then implement. If their game plan doesn't fit your whims, then that's too bad. Their job is to win, and sometimes this happens in a way that isn't as entertaining, but is it fair to expect them to change their game plan, and in effect jeopardize their livelihood to appease the boo birds? Besides, we all preach about how this is a sport, and the goal of sports is to win, entertainment is a by-product. If entertainment is placed before winning then we'd better stop calling MMA a sport.

A stoppage for no apparent reason often gets the booers riled up to something of a fever pitch, one similar to a Justin Timberlake sighting at a middle school dance. Point is, stoppages shouldn't be questioned. They keep fighters safe. Remember their livelihood, fighting? They can't do that if they are seriously injured. So yes, it is downright frustrating to see a great fight stopped, especially when it is hard to tell why, but it is certainly no reason to boo. The fighters most likely wanted to continue, the doctors and referees are simply doing their job.

Of course sometimes bouts are stopped when it seems a fighter is able to continue. Really this one is where the whole Justin Timberlake bit should have been, because it really cranks up the booers. Unfortunately, this is a part of the sport, and it will continue to be. Refereeing a fight has to be one of the toughest jobs in the sports world. So much is on the line, so much has to be taken in and processed, and decisions have to be made in the blink of an eye. The wrong decision can be costly to say the least. So if a referee stops a fight too early, again frustrating, but their ultimate job is to keep the fighters safe. Surely we'd rather see an early stoppage instead of a late stoppage any day of the week.

The final reason that gets the boo birds singing is a poor decision. Sometimes it is hard to determine exactly which fight the judges were watching, and this is painful for any MMA fan. Here's the problem with booing after the decision is read; the winner ends up getting the brunt of the boo. Totally not fair! All he did was step into the cage, fight his heart out, and win a decision. It is understood that the booers might consider his win undeserving, but how can the guy be blamed for getting in there and fighting? He didn't make the judges score it the way they did, so why boo him. Be mad at the judges, complain about them on the internet forums, but don't boo the fighter!

There you have it, booers beware, because often your boos are unwarranted. However, there are times when it is perfectly fine to boo your heart out: when a cocky, trash talking fighter is squaring off against one your favorites, boo, when a fighter calls out your hometown, boo, and when the guy next to you knocks over your beer, definitely boo, then go wide eyed and exclaim, "There's Justin Timberlake!" As the klutzy Timberlake fan spins around in giddy anticipation, calmly take his beer then act as if nothing happened. Nobody can boo that!