Who is that masked man?

Hate ‘em or love ‘em, the guys from Tapout are shrewd businessmen.

While the UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter show on Spike is handcuffed by a stale, repetitive format, the Tapout reality series on Versus allows for more creativity, fresh story lines and a chance to show some of the behind-the-scenes action at those small, out-of-the-way venues that make up the backbone of the American mixed martial arts scene.

It’s a great idea for a show. Unfortunately, few of the shows that I’ve seen have stood up to the first episode of the series that takes viewers to Greg Jackson’s training camp in New Mexico.

Episode 1, which introduces us to a lightweight dynamo Damacio Page, has some wonderful moments, like the scene where Mask is on the phone with soon-to-be UFC welterweight champ Matt Serra.

As Mask walks around the parking lot of some Iowa truck stop, Serra is supposedly on the other line dumping Tapout as a sponsor on the eve of the biggest fight of his career. The message is that money talks and loyalty (Tapout had been with Serra throughout his up and down career) doesn’t amount to much. It’s a wonderful moment of reality TV.

We also get some depth when it comes to who Mask is. He is the man behind Tapout and that comes across in episode 1. In other shows, it’s difficult to tell exactly his role in both the show and company.

In later episodes, producers take it for granted that we understand the Tapout dynamics. They don’t do much to show us what Mask, Skrape and Punkass do for Tapout, other than ride around the country in an RV.

That’s a shame because Tapout has done a lot to promote mixed martial arts. They are one of the best-known sponsors in the sport and their support of fighters goes much deeper than the Hollywood version we see on the show.

I don’t really think the face paint and wigs do much for the show but if that’s who these guys are so be it.

The problem is when the episodes start falling into predictable patterns with little insight into the guys behind Tapout, then they come across as little more than caricatures. And that’s really too bad.

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