How relevant is the home advantage factor in MMA?

Most sports bettors, when they are looking at major features like football, rugby and soccer, will know about the home advantage factor. It can be clearly seen in any good source of sports stats, that teams have a better winning percentage on home turf than on their travels.

The Green Bay Packers, for example, are going to have a massively inflated crowd bias at Lambeau Field. Those extra cheers for a good play can have a massive psychological boost on their players.

As can the home comforts of being in a familiar locker room where a lot of team bonding has happened. Not having had to undergo a long road trip, and likely a desire not to let down the home support for a game are other advantages to playing at home.

It’s a common thing that bettors take into consideration when sizing up a bet. But in a two-person clash in MMA, is there any kind of home advantage that can give a fighter a boost?

What Can Home Advantage Mean in MMA?

If you look at a UFC Fight Night card, because the organisation is located in the US, naturally you are going to see a heavy-prevalence of American fighters in action. So international ‘home advantage’ is less of a thing. Fighters also fight at a lot of different venues, so lack a dedicated ‘home’.

But it could relate to a State or even a City for a fighter. In most cases there genuinely may not be a ‘home’ fighter. If the night of UFC action is from New York and the main title bout features a fighter from California and one from Texas, what do you have to go on?

Heritage could perhaps play a part. A Latino fighter, featuring in a bout in a Latino community may pull extra support for example. But none of this feels as strong as home-field advantage like an NHL or an NFL team has.

Motivating Factors

There will be instances when a fighter from Las Vegas is fighting in the city. One major thing about the sports home advantage is when a team doesn’t have to travel. If a home fighter only has a 20-minute drive to a venue, as opposed to their opponent flying in from the other coast, that can be an advantage.

The crowd aspect, the louder cheers of support turning out to see a local could be something that boosts a home fighter. The fighter themselves may be slightly more motivated when fighting at home, as they try and defend their territory and bring the win home for the city.

But on many occasions there just isn’t a clear home advantage situation in MMA fights, with both fighters in unfamiliar territory. But that doesn’t mean that bettors can’t look a little bit deeper and potentially find a bigger influencing factor.

Does Popularity Edge Home Advantage?

Support of MMA fighters just isn’t so much based on regional influences as a baseball team would be. When two fighters are on neutral territory, then the crowd’s bias is going to be based on popularity. Imagine an abrasive villain-type character who tends to rub most crowds the wrong way. The support is going to likely be against them.

If there is a character who always thanks their fans, talks with respect during pre-fight interviews and just has a good public persona, they may receive more cheers during the fight simply based on that. The popularity battle may be a bigger influencing factor than actual ‘home’ support.

Where Do The Referees Come In?

Many fights are determined by the decisions of the judges. This is something else to factor into the entire betting perspective of an MMA fight. Judges and referees are expected to be impartial professionals of course.

But you do have to wonder if a bit of impartiality would creep in if, for example, a Brazilian judge was sitting ringside of a Brazilian fighter. There’s another angle to this – could referees potentially be more biased to a home fighter or a popular superstar, when the situation arises, because of crowd pressure?

A Bet On Home Advantage?

It’s tough to pin down a solid reason for backing a fighter because they are fighting on home soil in MMA. Fighters spend a long time in camps ahead of a fight, so may not necessarily be far away from their fight venue.

A ‘visiting’ fighter with a more favourable attitude, may counteract the home fighter under the eyes of the referee and support. It’s hard to see genuinely where an influential boost is going to come from in one-on-one contests.

MMA doesn’t seem to have that advantage and it’s one of the instances in sports betting where the home factor doesn’t necessarily need to be factored in as an element against the stats.