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Friday chalkboard: ESPN’s wall-to-wall UFC coverage
By Zach Arnold | May 25, 2007
Erin Bucknell reports that the California SAC has granted K-1 a temporary promoter’s license for their Dynamite event next week. The Orange County Register confirms the same information in Erin’s report, but also adds that Lesnar’s opponent could be Kim Min-Soo.
On Thursday in Clark County, Nevada court (for the Fishman Companies vs. DSE Inc. lawsuit), an objection was filed in the case on behalf of Frank Fertitta III, Lorenzo Fertitta, and Kirk Hendrick in response to Fishman Companies obtaining a subpoena (‘duces tecum‘) to have them participate in witness depositions on Wednesday, May 30th.
On ESPN Radio Friday, Colin Cowherd said that this weekend is when MMA officially becomes mainstream. Joe Rogan made an appearance on Cowherd’s show and predicted Liddell beating Rampage.
On ESPN TV, Liddell vs. Jackson is getting similar if not larger coverage than De La Hoya vs. Mayweather — including SportsCenter, which is leading with it as their top story. There was a guest square-off with Joe Rogan vs. Lou DiBella about “ultimate fighting vs. boxing.” DiBella called MMA human cockfighting and pitbull fighting. He did not come off well on television. Floyd Mayweather’s negative comments about MMA got video play, side-by-side with Chuck Liddell’s rebuttal.
This was an amazing infomercial for UFC and none of the other MMA promotions.
BodogFight announces their American debut show, set for July 14th at Sovereign Bank Arena.
Luke Thomas is back and better-than-ever on the radio.
That Edmonton Sun article calling MMA a flash-in-the-pan has not gone over well.
Onto this afternoon’s headlines.
- Yahoo Sports: Ready to Rampage
- The Los Angeles Times: Does UFC have boxing’s number?
- The Las Vegas Business Press: Going to extremes – Fertitta brothers consolidate control of cagefighting competitors
- The Las Vegas Business Press: The sweet Xyience of cagefighting
- The Rochester Post-Bulletin (Minnesota): Logan Clark to fight in August WEC event
- The Chicago Sun-Times: Terry Martin finds his ultimate challenge
- Marketwire (PR): Art of War to have MMA show at Ultimate Resorts Project in Las Vegas
- Press Release: IFL 6/1 Seattle card line-up
- Bloody Elbow: UFC 71 event predictions
- UFC Junkie: Live UFC 71 weigh-in results
- The Canadian Press: Keith Jardine looks to avoid meeting close friend in UFC cage
- The Fanhouse: Johnnie Morton thinks Priest Holmes should try MMA
- The Canadian Press: Iceman hopes to add to his MMA legacy
- ESPN: Four years since the fury
- Yahoo Sports: Liddell vs. Jackson – Keys to victory
- MediaPost Publications: MMA keeps getting bigger
- Las Vegas Sun: Take five – UFC 71, Liddell vs. Jackson
- SLAM! Sports: UFC 71 predictions
- SLAM! Sports: Iceman guarantees knock out
- The Fanhouse: Lou DiBella plays the ‘human cockfighting’ card
- The Muslim News (UK): MMA explosion rocks the foundations
- The Tallahassee Democrat (Florida): Boxing faces its ‘Ultimate’ challenge
Topics: BoDog, Boxing, HERO's, IFL, K-1, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, WEC, Zach Arnold | 20 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
This UFC media blitz is just insane.
Rogan made Lou DiBella look like a complete jackass on national television. I mean it was like Gonzaga vs CroCop but with words.
ESPN is huge. The sport just reached it’s next level. I think without question we can finally call it mainstream. I know many on this forum have been there since the early days. Can anybody really believe it would come this far? I remember the days when Kevin Randleman got injured before his first title defense against Pedro Rizzo. And getting details on the event was near impossible.
UFC is now mainstream in America, not MMA.
And while UFC will run more shows in Europe, it does not come close to having a real international feel like PRIDE events had.
For people who haven’t found it yet…. It is still a little hidden, but it is there:
http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/mma/
Do you think Kevin Iole plays Fire Pro Wrestling? I’ve never seen somebody rank fighters using the ten point system.
“And while UFC will run more shows in Europe, it does not come close to having a real international feel like PRIDE events had.”
Even with all the internatioanl talent in the UFC? I think the reason is simply that Pride took place in Japan with foreign fighters as the stars. It had a totally foreigh look to us in the US and still does. I don’t know if an objective look at the rosters will support the impression.
On the podcast….
The UFC can trademark “submission” or anything else they want, it doesn’t mean it will hold up and probably will not. There was some deranged MA instructor who tried to trademark “biomechanics”. That was a laugh. No one took it seriously and no one will be threatened by the UFC’s trademark of generic terms.
What is interesting is if the UFc is vigorously enforcing their servicemark on “Ultimate Fighting”. They are supposed to send letters out evertime they see it used improperly i.e. generically. If they let too many of those generic usages of the term go, they could lose the service mark when challenged.
I hear ya, 45.
I can’t believe this sport has come this far.
While the Japanese fight promoters are clueless about doing business outside of their home country, at home they produce some pretty remarkable shows in terms of production values and international flavor. I’ve argued in the past on the radio show that UFC just produces events like it is a basic sport. Here are the fighters, here are their credentials, let’s have a fight. The Japanese do a magnificent job of telling storylines and producing a real magical spectacle.
On ESPN TV today, they used “ultimate fighting” rather than MMA most of the time. It was remarkable to watch how UFC got all the coverage and no other MMA players got much notice, if any.
It depends on how you view “international”. One way is to look at what countries the fighters are coming from.
Another way is to look at how many countries are watching your product. If it is the later of the two, I would say the current UFC is the most international MMA company so far. Pride was really only big in Japan.
UFC is now mainstream in America, not MMA.
I agree, but lets wait and see how the K1 show is covered.
I doubt it will be covered like the UFC. I would be surprised if they had more then 20 seconds worth of clips, but most likely no coverage at all.
And it is true that only the UFC has blown up in America. They have become the biggest name in Europe, easily having bigger gates then any competition. Their upcoming Ireland card was less then 1,000 tickets from being sold out as of last week. They are the biggest in North America by far. The only market they have left to conquer in Asia, and Japan alone is going to be tough. Heck, MMA in general is on a downward slope in the country.
By the way, I just caught SportCenter. The announcer was butchering the talking. He said it was a Heavyweight fight for Liddell/Rampage. He kept on studdering. You could tell he didn’t know what he was talking about. One of the other sports casters in the background kept on butting in, cause you could tell her was a fan. It was funny.
Either way, it was great exposure. They are giving the rules of the sport. They are educating the general public. If nothing else, this will give the UFC staying power. It will keep them in the public’s eye on a monthly basis. That is such power for one organization to have.
Zach, might I ask what’s remarkable about this? It’s the day before one of the bigger matchups in UFC history, and they’re using the event as a springboard to introduce MMA coverage. Things like their chevrons reading “boxing vs ultimate fighting” are problematic, but their partnership with sherdog on the website, and the coverage of shooto, etc bodes well for the future. For now, sure they’ll only cover the UFC on TV. You don’t see SportsCenter showing minor league baseball unless something amazing happens in a game. As of right now, all other domestic players are small-time compared to the UFC. Why would they be covered on SC? Do any of the mid-size orgs even have cards going on this weekend?
Anyone else think tomorrow could be a bad day for the UFC. I mean if Chuck loses. He is the face of the UFC and incredibly popular. A lose for Chuck, which is likely, is a promotional setback in my opinion. Add to that the fact that I really hate Rampage, and I don’t even want to watch.
I have been watching since UFC 1 and always viewed things very technically and stayed detached. Now that it is big business, I am getting drawn in to the other aspects, and the fun isn’t there.
Oh, and get ready for the new wave of MMA “experts” who will be popping up: Old boxing writers who will be giving us their uninformed analysis of the fights.
“Oh, and get ready for the new wave of MMA “experts†who will be popping up: Old boxing writers who will be giving us their uninformed analysis of the fights.”
And how is that any different from what we have now? The majority of people that cover the sport in the mainstream areas are boxing hacks who really don’t understand what they are watching.
MMA Idiots are a plenty when you’re dealing with journalists from the LA Times, Yahoo, CBS Sportsline, SI, and now ESPN. And the saddest thing is that these twists get to actually attend the UFC. While Dana White decided to ban guys like Sherdog and MMAWeekly.com a couple of years ago.
The ESPN website has an article up on fedor and one with the news from Japan by Jordan Breen. While the tv coverage will no doubt be on UFC the day before the event (what a shocker) atleast the web part has more diverse content thanks to sherdog.
In the UFC’s defense of banning Sherdog.com, it is the same website that completely spoiled UFC 70, as well as gave out the results of the TUF4 Finalists like 3 shows into the season. They have acted like amateur journalists to this point, and the UFC has treated them as such.
I second 45 Huddle’s position on Sherdog. I accidentally went there on the Saturday of UFC 70, only to have Cro Cop’s upset totally spoiled. I mean, they can post all the spoilers they want, but why not have the decency to have a disclaimer?
They’ve banned all the old school MMA sites from attending the UFC, not just Sherdog, and they’ve never given a good reason hell ANY reason for it either.
The simple fact is that Zuffa and the UFC used the publicity from sites like Sherdog and MMAWeekly until they didn’t need it any more. This sport is one that survived solely because of sites like those and hell even the UG too, when the cable ban was still going on and the UFC was taking place in some inbred hillbilly town somewhere in Louisiana. Do you even remember the cable ban? Hell how many of you even remember when Zuffa decided to ban the MMA site from reporting on the UFC.
As soon as thought they were going to be mainstream they dropped those guys like a stone and started feeding the mainstream guys their B.S. You guys do remember all the pro-Zuffa propaganda that’s come out in the past couple of years since the ban? Why would they do that?
Because they could, mainstream guys are boxing hacks who don’t know shit about the sport and lack the critical mind to even examine what they are being spoon fed. Besides, why would a mainstream guy even try to rock the boat when they’re given access to these events.
But if you guys really want to bitch about spoilers, well I guess that’s up to you. But honestly that’s a pretty lame excuse about justifying the ban.
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