How come ESPN neglects

[Guest Big_Jay101]

I can understand that ESPN doesn't show smaller MMA events such as To Hot To Handle or something of that nature, but why do they neglect the UFC and even King of the Cage(which seems to be getting bigger)? I can understand the small ones not getting covered just like Minor League Baseball isn't covered. I even went as far to e-mail Jim Rome's show on ESPN and I didn't get an answer, but I didn't expect to on the air. I mean UFC/MMA is one of the fastest growing sports today it seems, with the UFC airing shows on free TV and having 10 million people actually watching the event at one time or another, and they plan to have another show on August 6th, and they have a successful TV show and another one on the way, so it really baffles me to why they do not get coverage on ESPN. Boxing gets coverage on ESPN, and it is rapidly declining and is in such bad shape at the moment. Hell even a fucking spelling bee gets coverage and gets repeated coverage on shows throughout the week such as Around the Horn,PTI,Jim Rome is Burning, and Sportscenter. Even worse than the spelling bee I actually saw a mathematics competition on ESPN 2 last week. So why all the hate for UFC and the world of MMA.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

HD Net has an ECW...err..WEC (World Extreme CageFighting) event like once a month and they replay it several times.

 

Of course they also do World Championship Shuffleboard.

 

The things you'll watch when you have a HD-TV and are desperate to watch HD content..

 

Shuffleboard is pretty cool in HD..cooler than you'd think..

[razazteca 0]

ESPN2 showed K-1 reruns last week. I don't know how many times I watched the Bob Sapp vs Ernesto Hoost or Gary Goodridge vs Mark Hunt match.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

ESPN barely covers boxing these days, let alone Mixed Martial Arts. I think the problem is that the audience is somewhat limited, and many people inside the sports media carry negative opinions of MMA. There probably are not enough dedicated fans to convince ESPN to fight the biases associated against Mixed Martial Arts events.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

It's true. Many people that work for ESPN themselves have compared it to a "Toughman" competition and such, so I doubt they'd be so willing to fight the biases of the rest of the media.

 

I was reading one article supporting a banning of MMA in Boston, and the ONLY two main facts surrounding why it should be banned had to do with how "No one has ever died in MMA, but many people have died in Amateur boxing and Toughman competitions" and "Last Week in the Ultimate Wrestling Association(Don't remember the name) a man who was 22 dove out of the ring and killed himself". It was the story of that spider guy in general wrestling that we all heard. So people dying in toughman comps and PRO FUCKING WRESTLING is a knock on MMA. Right.

 

If you were wondering, the whole article was written that poorly.

[TheDevilAndGodAreRagingInsideMe 0]

Don't forget the unlimited hours of poker.

[Guest Brian]

I say in two years, if the Spike deal turns some heads ,and maybe they get a feature on FOX Sports, ESPN might be forced to show their hand a bit. I assume that boxing still has a lot of clout and that's holding

[Guest Big_Jay101]

Yeah I am actually watching a K-1 rerun now, I know it is MMA to, but I am talking about MMA that allows you to get on the ground and the rules of UFC and or PrideFC, K-1 is basically just kickboxing and thats all it is in my opinion. I mean ESPN don't have to show reruns or events, it would be nice just to get some coverage as it did for the NBA or NFL before games were shown on ESPN. It is sad when a legitimate sport such as this is overlooked and they show a spelling bee yearly and mathematics competitions. Poker is not a sport neither, and yet it plays more than any other thing on ESPN and FSN, but FSN actually shows MMA/UFC.

 

Comparing this to toughman is crazy, toughman IIRC was brawls with untrained fighters who just basically swung away without using technique.

 

MMA being banned in New England is bullshit, especially UFC as UFC has had no death in it's history. Pro Wrestling and MMA is like apples and oranges, although obviously more dangerous to physical health MMA goes out of it's way to protect fighters. It sounds like the pro wrestling death was an obvious suicide(was it?). Boxing has had more deaths, I remember one happening in the 90's. An arena football player recently died does that mean we should ban football, absolutely not. But obviously soem sports are show certain bias.

[Guest Brian]

Hey, I was once in that math competition.

[iggymcfly 0]

Hey, I was once in that math competition.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Really? Me too! I went to nationals and everything.

 

I didn't get to the countdown round or anything, (the part they show on TV), but that's just because we never worked on it at my school. The other schools actually practiced regularly on it after school, and at my school, we just spent two class periods on it, (one of which was the qualifying test), and then went down and competed. Even after I got second at state, I never really studied at all.

[Guest Big_Jay101]

No offense then fellas(about the math..lol), but when is the last time you saw a major boxing match with coverage be as good as Forrest Griffin vs Stephan Bonnar, when is the last time a big time boxer showed as much heart as them two or Evan Tanner(in his fight with Rich) in a big match. I cannot remember such a time recently. The only boxing matches covered are Mike Tyson vs some chump or Klitschko fighting some bum who beat Mike Tyson because he tore his knee up. It just doesn't make sense.

[starvenger 0]

It's funny. They hired David Amber away from TSN in part because he was their MMA guy on the staff. Now he shows up every once in a while on SportsCenter...

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I like how people think that there's only heavyweight boxers.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I like how people think that there's only heavyweight boxers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's true though, even in the media heavyweights are given so much more clout. It doesn't matter about the fact that pound for pound they're generally the worst, people just want to see the biggest guys fight because they're heavyweights OMG~!

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

When was David Amber the MMA guy? I remember him being on TSN but I don't remember anything about MMA, than again I was not that into it at the time he was around. When was he around anyway? I remember him leaving around 2002 or 03. Did ESPN really hire him to talk about MMA?

[razazteca 0]

Comparing this to toughman is crazy, toughman IIRC was brawls with untrained fighters who just basically swung away without using technique.

Bob Sapp, Mark Hunt, David "Tank" Abbot, Butterbean....I see no difference.

[Guest Brian]

They're still trained fighters, which is more than they can say for most toughmen. And you have to recognize that in Japan, there is no athletic commission that prevents these guys from fighting some of the guys they do.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Comparing this to toughman is crazy, toughman IIRC was brawls with untrained fighters who just basically swung away without using technique.

Bob Sapp, Mark Hunt, David "Tank" Abbot, Butterbean....I see no difference.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Those are bad examples I would say, since Butterbean, Bob Sapp and Tank are all sideshow attractions that are used mainly for gimmicky shit. They're not good examples of MMA.

 

Mark Hunt is a legitimate Kickboxer, I don't know why you're bringing him up.

[razazteca 0]

Just bias against fat fighters and his K-1 fights that are on reruns are not that great.

[The Dames 0]

Those guys are the exception, not the rule.

 

MMA today has most DEFINITELY evolved from the early days of UFC, where there were no weight classes, no rules and seemingly no technique until Royce Gracie changed that.

 

If you're not a well rounded fighter today, with good stand up, defense and submission skills, you're kidding yourself if you honestly believe that you can easily be one of the top fighters in the world.

 

Dames

[Youth N Asia 0]

I don't even try and question EPSN anymore. Seems like every time I turn it on I either see Sportscenter or cards, or poker, or whatever.

 

You'd think MMA could get a little notice on ESPN 2...the network that used to air MAGIC THE GATHERING, and every now and then Scrabble.

[starvenger 0]

When was David Amber the MMA guy? I remember him being on TSN but I don't remember anything about MMA, than again I was not that into it at the time he was around. When was he around anyway? I remember him leaving around 2002 or 03. Did ESPN really hire him to talk about MMA?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He was the guy who hosted the MMA newsmagazine show, and would intro/outro fights and such. At the time, noone else was doing this stuff (although MMA guys would show up on OTR on occasion) so I figure that you had to have some passion for MMA to be associated with it on the network.

 

Anyways, when ESPN hired him, I think that there was some talk (by Zelkovich at the Toronto Star) that they were looking to go that way. But this is ESPN, so who knows?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

It's all about having names. If an MMA guy blew up on the national stage as a name, then there would be a buzz around him and the dominoes would fall accordingly. Poker got a big boost from Rounders where Johnny Chan cameo'd. I love that movie, and for the longest time knew dick about (Hold'em) poker, but I knew who Johnny Chan was and every time poker was on and he was playing I'd stop and take a look. It was only a matter of time before I saw him enough times to get a feel for the game and those playing it.

 

Chris Moneymakers win put it way over the top as it gave poker an "everyman's" feel, where "someone like you" could win. TWSOP got a spot on TV and made the best of it, good announcing, good characters, good structure and editing, good education. I think these two/three elements are important in _anything_ getting popular - to be recognizable and relatable. That's why, I think, Forrest Griffin is so popular - he got recognition from The Ultimate Fighter, and he's a down-to-earth, funny, guy that you could easily have a drink with. But it took YEARS (decades, even) for Poker to blow up to where it is right now, and it's been like that for stuff like Skateboarding and other "underground" phenomenons. It takes many pieces to put together a "mainstream" puzzle.

 

I think coverage by sports journalists and outlets would be the biggest step towards mainstream acceptance, where the results of UFC shows are highlighted on Sports Centre. But that's unlikely for another 5-10 years.

 

An MMA movie would be another step in the right direction (a good movie, though, a Rounders-like one that intellectualizes it and has interesting characters, rather than a Rocky III-esque flick that just plays up the stereotypes), and I believe a UFC movie is already in development. Right now, the UFC's TV deal with SPIKE is a big step in the right direction. They are where poker was three or four years ago. They have TV coverage, they have some recognizable names, they just need to turn it up a notch.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

And why isn't it covered on ESPN? Well, for the first time sports viewer - which would be the vast majority of the audience - MMA would come off as "different" at best, and barbaric at worst. A UFC fight, for example, will have guys wearing tiny gloves rather than the big red boxing gloves, they will be fighting in a cage rather than a ring, and guys will be hitting each other on the ground. And then a PRIDE fight, while being in a ring, would have guys kicking each other when they're down. This is a pretty big mental leap for lots of people. As a wrestling fan, it was easy for me to transition into watching MMA because I accepted submissions and striking a downed opponent, but a lot of people see that as "unsportsmanlike" and "cheating".

 

To go back to the poker reference, I always knew how to play one form of poker - 5 card stud - which, in this case, would be like boxing. Texas Hold'em was very difficult to grasp for me at first because I only knew this one form of poker and to learn another meant I had to let go of the old one. The rules of boxing say "once someone is knocked down you must let him up", whereas in MMA once someone is down you get right on them and finish the fight. In boxing, you see hundreds of punches thrown in a round, whereas in MMA you see punches thrown, few landing, and of those that do land, many end the fight. Throw in kicking, knees and elbows, and it becomes a different animal, but since it's similar to boxing, the same view exists. Boxing is more 'glamourous' where as MMA is mostly 'down and dirty'. They come off differently on TV to someone who is unfamiliar.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

To finish it off...

 

Ultimately, it comes down to advertisers. If the UFC can attract big money, then the networks will follow suit.

[Guest Big_Jay101]

PTI mentioned UFC, they said maybe Mike Tyson can fight in one of those Ultimate Fighting Championship things. Ahhh thats all the attention a growing sport gets, its sad.

[razazteca 0]

Fox Sports Net has more love for UFC and wrestling than ESPN. In the past FSN has brought in Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock to be interviewed on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.

[Sass 0]

FOX is going to have Wednesday Night Fights witrh the UFC one day. The sport will explode when and if it explodes on SpikeTV.

[Lei Tong 0]

In a related note, FSN has started editing fights.

 

Example: In their airing of Ricco/Sylvia from UFC 41, they jump from Tim's knockdown punch of Ricco directly to the anouncement of the winner, presumably to avoid showing the follow-up shots to Ricco on the mat.

 

I guess the idea of a "gentlemanly fight" is still held on tightly to by some.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Tis a shame, those follow up shots were pretty sick and cool to watch at the same time, what with Ricco's head bouncing off the mat. You also give the impression that the fight was stopped early, as opposed to it looking like it was, with Ricco just KTFO.

 

Most sports fans don't really respect ESPN, so it wouldn't surprise me for them to be the last to jump on the MMA Bandwagon, just like how they're very conservative with anything that should be pushed. They're filled with corporate whores....well, even moreso than the rest of the media.