Personalities of Non-English Speaking Fighters (Bilingual Bros GTFIH)

[ThaiSexPills]

Francis Ngannou is actually quite soft spoken and pretty articulate. He comes across pretty likeable which is why I dont understand when his former coach Fernand Lopez say that he kinda had ego problems.

This is actually a super interesting thread. I’m womdering if his perceived ego comes from his English and use of it or some biases on him.

He comes across as a cool, chill and likeable guy to me and his English appears to have gotten a lot better too.

In comparison, ive always found GSP’s fighting style to be like how he speaks - Very meticulous but boring. To me, he’s even less interesting in French unlike Francis.

 

[Ecstasy]

@drbolony @Volador

Thoughts on Ortega and Gastelum? Me imagino tienen un acento mexicano norteño verdad?

 

[rushbeg]

I made this thread years ago. Unfortunately it's gone, or I'm too stupid to find it. Either way, it's been a long time and there are plenty of new fighters to talk about.

The idea of the thread is to explain to us dummies who only speak one language, how some of the fighters who don't speak English extremely well sound in their native tongue. If there are specific fighters anyone would like to know about, ask. Maybe someone can answer.

For example:
-Frank Mir is very articulate and communicates well. He can sometimes sound a little pompous.
-The Diaz brothers speak in a way normally associated with "the hood" using a lot of slang and profanity. They are often dismissive or defensive with interviewers. They dgaf.

Some specifics I remember from the first thread that stuck with me:
-Shogun and Ninja Rua have a rural accent and a weird cadence. A Brazilian poster who described it, seemed to like it.
-Kid Yamamoto (R.I.P.) spoke in what could be considered a "hood" way. Iirc it was basically described as how hoodlums speak over there.
-Korean Zombie is very articulate and very polite
-I wasn't able to get much about Fedor other than that he seems really nice
-some people ITT accused me of trying to stereotype fighters and basically be a dick. That is not the case. I really just want to know what they're like.

There were a lot of good posts the last time. Hopefully this thread will deliver as well.

TLDR: If you speak a language other than English, tell us ignorant Americans what the fighters who primarily speak that language are like.

Edit: some specific fighters I'm interested in are Petr Yan, Jan Blachowicz, Paulo Costa, GSP's French, Horiguchi, Aoki, Wanderlei, Nogueira brothers, Fedor, Aleksander E., and I'd love to hear about anyone else you guys can tell us about.

Ilir Latifi is very fluent in Albanian despite him being born in Sweden (His family migrated to Sweden in the 1956s).

He speaks a Northeastern Gheg dialect (Same as me) , Considering that he most likely has learned Albanian at home from his parents.


His Albanian is very impressive (Especially considering that he's an second generation immigrant) , Not only is he fluent in Albanian he is also very fluent in Swedish and English as well which makes it even more impressive.

 

[Willie]

This is actually a super interesting thread. I’m womdering if his perceived ego comes from his English and use of it or some biases on him.

He comes across as a cool, chill and likeable guy to me and his English appears to have gotten a lot better too.

In comparison, ive always found GSP’s fighting style to be like how he speaks - Very meticulous but boring. To me, he’s even less interesting in French unlike Francis.

French canadian accent to me is such a love killer, I dont understand how it derivated so much from actual french over the last 400 years.

Yeah pretty good thread indeed.

 

[rushbeg]

I speak fluent Russian and Polish so...

Petr Yan comes off as a bit of a chav but it's because he was raised in a chav-ish city with crime and drugs being common. Actually, I am quite impressed that he has made it this far coming from an arguably shithole part of Russia. I will be rooting for him in the title fight.

Jan Blachowicz used to rub me the wrong way in KSW but he's gotten a lot more modest and serious about training in the UFC (probably gained perspective, he used to be a big fish in a small pond) and I find myself rooting for him often. He's developed an English sense of humor too, as evidenced by the recent trolling of Jones, haha.

Fedor used to be every Russian fan's sweetheart, so modest, so kind, so honest and frank. At some point he joined the Russian ruling political party tho and started responding with "God's will" to almost every question - both of these facts diminished my fandom. Russians still mostly root for him tho.

Aleks E. is just horrible. He's an insane, psychotic alcoholic. He's made friends with Kadyrov. He gets shitfaced a lot. Gets arrested and acts like that's a good thing. Talks mad shit all the time. Almost nobody likes him. Ugh.

Any other details you wanna know about anyone - ask me.

Fedor career went downhill the day he started hanging out with isis-looking Serbian Orthodox Monks.......

 

[Kono dio da!]

Volkan Oezdemir speaks French very well with almost no Swiss accent. His French interviews are very enjoyable, much more relaxed than the English ones.

Swiss accent? How different is Swiss French from a someone from... France or Belgium for example?

 

[Kono dio da!]

Zhang Wei Li

She speaks as though she lacks a proper education (guessing she was brought up through sports schools which are quite unique in China), right off the bat her accent is something of a lowly village girl, even looks wise it is obvious she isn’t from a developed part of China.

Yet, she comes across as very nice and somewhat girly, but also her patriotic nature leads me to believe she is 100% behind her nation and will argue for the mainland which I detest extremely.

Wait a minute. Low education? I thought martial arts schools were well rounded but just had an emphasis on ass kicking classes. Damn almost feel bad for her after reading that. Anyway glad she's made it this far... And pro mainland... Yeah that's... Uh... Dicey. Yo how scared are people in China to talk about that shit? I hear crazy stories about how wechat and stuff censors you and shit. Sorry to go off on a tangent it's just your take on weili is interesting.

 

[Kono dio da!]

Overeem in dutch sounds very softspoken and intelligent. Like if I would hear him speak in dutch without seeing him I wouldn't think it's a giant of a man who can probably fuck up most people on this planet.

Btw, this is actually a pretty interesting interview. Overeem talks about how he got into MMA, how he got into Japan, how he got into K1 and his first fight with Badr, etc. It's in dutch but there are english subtitles.

Yo when did overeem grow up? I remember 8 years ago he was a fucking prick. Now he seems super easy going. When did he change?

 

[Kono dio da!]

I speak fluent Russian and Polish so...

Petr Yan comes off as a bit of a chav but it's because he was raised in a chav-ish city with crime and drugs being common. Actually, I am quite impressed that he has made it this far coming from an arguably shithole part of Russia. I will be rooting for him in the title fight.

Jan Blachowicz used to rub me the wrong way in KSW but he's gotten a lot more modest and serious about training in the UFC (probably gained perspective, he used to be a big fish in a small pond) and I find myself rooting for him often. He's developed an English sense of humor too, as evidenced by the recent trolling of Jones, haha.

Fedor used to be every Russian fan's sweetheart, so modest, so kind, so honest and frank. At some point he joined the Russian ruling political party tho and started responding with "God's will" to almost every question - both of these facts diminished my fandom. Russians still mostly root for him tho.

Aleks E. is just horrible. He's an insane, psychotic alcoholic. He's made friends with Kadyrov. He gets shitfaced a lot. Gets arrested and acts like that's a good thing. Talks mad shit all the time. Almost nobody likes him. Ugh.

Any other details you wanna know about anyone - ask me.

Khabib? Is he cool? Is he self righteous? Is he humble? Is he fake humble? Is he as scary as he seems to us?

 

[99]

I speak fluent Russian and Polish so...

Petr Yan comes off as a bit of a chav but it's because he was raised in a chav-ish city with crime and drugs being common. Actually, I am quite impressed that he has made it this far coming from an arguably shithole part of Russia. I will be rooting for him in the title fight.

Jan Blachowicz used to rub me the wrong way in KSW but he's gotten a lot more modest and serious about training in the UFC (probably gained perspective, he used to be a big fish in a small pond) and I find myself rooting for him often. He's developed an English sense of humor too, as evidenced by the recent trolling of Jones, haha.

Fedor used to be every Russian fan's sweetheart, so modest, so kind, so honest and frank. At some point he joined the Russian ruling political party tho and started responding with "God's will" to almost every question - both of these facts diminished my fandom. Russians still mostly root for him tho.

Aleks E. is just horrible. He's an insane, psychotic alcoholic. He's made friends with Kadyrov. He gets shitfaced a lot. Gets arrested and acts like that's a good thing. Talks mad shit all the time. Almost nobody likes him. Ugh.

Any other details you wanna know about anyone - ask me.

Yan comes across the same in Russian as in English: a thug, basically. Nothing out of the ordinary for a fighter, of course. But the hard edge you hear in English is very much present in Russian.

Fedor is extremely soft spoken and humble. Since becoming more serious about his Orthodox Christian faith, it's true that he mentions God more. But he doesn't come across as a religious fanatic, just a man who has found peace through the Church. When he talks about the outcome of a fight being God's will, he is displaying even greater humility than before. Of course, if you don't share his religious convictions, then his answers now are less interesting/charismatic than his old persona. He sounds almost like a very chilled out monk.

Khabib has a very different personality in Russian than in English, because so much of his shtick in America is connected to the humor of his weird grammar and pronunciation. In Russian, he has an obvious Caucasian accent, but he is also quite articulate and thoughtful in most situations. Yet there is also a harder edge that comes out sometimes. I don't want to say that he is "fake" when he speaks more honorably, like a humble sportsman. It's more like he sincerely believes that is the proper way to conduct himself, but sometimes his rough side comes out. You can take the man out of the mountains, but you can't take the mountains out of the man.

 

[Kono dio da!]

Khabib and other North Caucasian (not all are Muslim there) typically have a heavy accent with slang used in their parts of the country when speaking Russian.

As for personalities, Zabit comes off as a very shy, modest dude, while Khabib tries to be like that in the interviews, but his real life interactions show that he’s very self confident and sometimes rude to a point of talking like a Diaz

Talking like diaz? You mean he's as vulgar as they are? The worst thing he's said in English is "shit", he's worse in Russian? It's funny because it always comes across as :he has another side to him that he homes in.

 

[Kono dio da!]

There was that incident with a russian rapper last year, Khabib wrote a 'heartfelt' message about the guy on Instagram, it had to be removed because it contained some rude words to say the least, he called him a rooster, and other 'orientated' words which in russian is supposed to be super offending. I was surprised to see Khabib go that far. I dont think I ever heard Khabib swear at all, at least not in english.

Wait like that word israel called schaub and brunson, the same one werdum likes so much that colby called him after the boomerang? That kind of language?

 

[99]

Wait like that word israel called schaub and brunson, the same one werdum likes so much that colby called him after the boomerang? That kind of language?

It was very vulgar.

 

[rushbeg]

Yan comes across the same in Russian as in English: a thug, basically. Nothing out of the ordinary for a fighter, of course. But the hard edge you hear in English is very much present in Russian.

Fedor is extremely soft spoken and humble. Since becoming more serious about his Orthodox Christian faith, it's true that he mentions God more. But he doesn't come across as a religious fanatic, just a man who has found peace through the Church. When he talks about the outcome of a fight being God's will, he is displaying even greater humility than before. Of course, if you don't share his religious convictions, then his answers now are less interesting/charismatic than his old persona. He sounds almost like a very chilled out monk.

Khabib has a very different personality in Russian than in English, because so much of his shtick in America is connected to the humor of his weird grammar and pronunciation. In Russian, he has an obvious Caucasian accent, but he is also quite articulate and thoughtful in most situations. Yet there is also a harder edge that comes out sometimes. I don't want to say that he is "fake" when he speaks more honorably, like a humble sportsman. It's more like he sincerely believes that is the proper way to conduct himself, but sometimes his rough side comes out. You can take the man out of the mountains, but you can't take the mountains out of the man.

90% of Sherdog actually think that Khabib is Russian lol

They obviously have no idea that there is a thing called Ethnicity lmao

 

[ImmigrantMentality]

All the people saying GSP's french is so bad. Is it just a french canadian thing, is it that he sounds kind of low class, or does it sound like he's not that fluent because he mostly speaks in english now and has maybe forgotten some french?

 

[Volador]

@drbolony @Volador

Thoughts on Ortega and Gastelum? Me imagino tienen un acento mexicano norteño verdad?

I'm not Mexican, so I can't give any details on regional Mexican accents. To me Ortega's diction seems pretty unpleasant there, almost slurred lol. In the big picture he's pretty much completely fluent, although you can tell Spanish is his second language. As a native speaker I detect tiny things in his sentence construction and word choice, stuff like that. Still very good.

Gastelum is pretty much completely fluent, I believe he did Spanish commentary. I heard him mix up 1 or 2 words, which I'd chalk up to living in the States for a long time. He comes off very jolly, upbeat and like a nice guy. Guys like him are so fluent that there isn't any detectable personality change from one language to the next.

Cejudo is 100% fluent, if I encountered him I probably wouldn't guess that he grew up in the US.

Cain Velazquez is weird in that he has very good (though not flawless) pronunciation, but he stutters and pauses a lot, seems like he has to make a huge effort to string sentences together, and vocabulary seems a bit limited.

Werdum has very good Spanish. He has a strong brazilian accent, but can speak fast, fluently, crack jokes and tell stories. I think he did commentary as well. I'd rate his Spanish over Cain's and maybe even Ortega's. His pronunciation is not as good, but his vocabulary and general speech is much better.

 

[Kono dio da!]

I'm no expert but I know for a fact that the Caucasian region has HUNDREDS of languages and it would not be a surprise to me if Khabib's posse consists of multiple non-Avars so they all communicate in Russian - a common second language they share. In fact, I think there must be a few Chechens in there who have their own separate language.

Khabib's accent also does not strike me as unusual - most Caucasian Russian-speakers have a strong accent but remain perfectly understandable to me. Each has his own "flavor" and I can more or less discern a Georgian from an Armenian on a good day but Dagestanis all sound the same to me.

And if you're interested in how the general Russian public views him... well, reading comments on Russian sports website I get the impression that he's more hated there than on Sherdog, tho the haters use the same kind of arguments against him - Muslim fundamentalist, Kadyrov's pal, bigot, hypocrite, not representing Russia properly (as he does not carry the Russian flag after fights) etc.

I personally liked Khabib right up to the Conor brawl. After that he had a chance to apologize and take a high road but instead got full of himself when Putin sorta gave his nod of approval for this "retaliation" - which left a bad taste in my mouth. IMO Khabib is an amazing fight and I love watching his aggressive groundwork AND I think that MMA is a great way out of poverty and conflict for people from poor Dagestani families and troubled regions in general... but they often keep a specific mentality and culture that is sometimes hard to understand or accept.

So who's more... Problematic him or yan? Yan has shown ugliness in almost all instances I've heard or read his thoughts. Calling Sean a doll, calling cejudo... That word, etc. Who's worse between khabib and yan in that aspect?

 

[ViD]

So who's more... Problematic him or yan? Yan has shown ugliness in almost all instances I've heard or read his thoughts. Calling Sean a doll, calling cejudo... That word, etc. Who's worse between khabib and yan in that aspect?

They are about the same, but Yan isn’t hiding it really, Khabib is since he’s now a huge public figure in that part of Russia.

 

[Kono dio da!]

Something Chael said about Anderson just popped in my head. He mentioned Anderson speaks the king's when it comes to English, just pretends he doesn't. Anyone know if this is true? I remember seeing a Steven Seagal short clip where Anderson indeed seems to speak fluently and with an American accent....can't find it anymore though

That's fucking hilarious. Anderson silva fluent? It wouldn't surprise me at all. Guy's a troll.

 

[Joinho10]

90% of Sherdog actually think that Khabib is Russian lol

They obviously have no idea that there is a thing called Ethnicity lmao

He is.