All Purpose UFC/MMA/That Kind Of Thing Thread

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

Nope. Which means giving UFC more ink than WWE won't take a lot.

Honestly, we hardly cover boxing anymore -- many large papers cover it only occasionally, too -- but it there is something unique, something local or something extremely noteworthy, we'll run features or something. But as far as printing recaps of the UFC PPV events, I just don't see that happening soon.

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

Agreed.

The Houston Chronicle recently started gutting its already meager boxing coverage, which means my dad, Rallen13, has verly likely lost a side writing gig.

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

Exactly.

The biggest UFC PPV had less than 2 million homes order it.

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

Round and round we go with the same UFC arguments. This weekend UFC will likely do a buyrate bigger than anything this year except Mayweather-DeLaHoya; the Washington Post, the LA Times, the Houston Chronicle, and the Baltimore Sun are just some of the major papers who will cover it; Sportsline, Foxsports.com, NBCSports.com and MSN, basically all the major Internet sites except ESPN, will cover it. And a few people on this board, who seems to get fewer in number each time but get more obstinate about it with each passing month, will come up with the same tired reasons why it doesn't deserve coverage.

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

Bruce, you're misrepresenting what we're saying.

Yes, the UFC does deserve some coverage (get the AP to move copy, I'll run it) but the debate is how much coverage should it get.

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

And just because UFC pulled record PPV numbers doesn't mean it's a lock to get coverage, nor does that mean there SHOULD be coverage, either.

Despite what so many supporters of UFC think, journalists' attitudes about it aren't driven largely by a dislike of the sport, but rather the fact that the sport doesn't yet deserve the level of coverage being called for.

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

They'll cover it. Perfectly fine for them to do so. I've got no problems with that.

What the MMA apologists chose to miss is that it is still a very minor sport with minor rating and it's done in very few locations. Arena football is bigger than UFC, has more athletes, more tickets sold, more games and more interest. Whine about the lack of coverage for AFL at papers without an AFL team before you start whining about the lack of regular coverage UFC gets in papers with minimal local events.

As I said, I'd probably be more inclined to run UFC results than boxing results in my paper if the AP supplied them. UFC is, IMO, more legit and less bogus than boxing these days. But there is no way I'd consider sending a reporter to cover a UFC event if it didn't feature a local athlete.

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

If the sport truly is growing, it'll eventually get the coverage it deserves. Don't try to rush it just because you have a passion for the sport. However, people have been saying for decades that soccer is growing in popularity, but its representation on TV and in newspapers reflects the passion which exists in the U.S.

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

I don't know but their new deal with ESPN tells me that at least those in Bristol think people are willing to watch soccer, oh yeah that and the fact that the ratings for the UEFA Champions League keep growig every year.

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

It's probably a good thing MMA doesn't get too much coverage since one of the biggest stars can't bother to show up sober or stay awake during an interview on Good Morning Dallas ...

The Dallas TV man discusses the interview...

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=125114&catId=347

 

Re: UFC beats boxing, crushes WWE in 2006 PPV revenue

wow, that's good stuff.

 

Re: "60 Minutes" piece on UFC/MMA

Chuck Liddell popped up on, "Good Morning Texas" a couple of days ago.

Unfortunately, Chuck was, kinda, wasted. It was early.