Extreme Fighting A Sport?

Nobody in their right mind thought the XFL would succeed. It was a joke from Day 1 and continued until the end.

MMA is bigger anyway. It's bigger than the different fighting shows ESPN or FOX has had in the past.

I'm not saying every paper needs to hire a guy for the MMA beat, but it sure as hell wouldn't hurt to run a preview and fight story.

It's not about being a slave to fads, it's about providing coverage of events people find interesting.

 

I don't recall the XFL drawing huge crowds or ratings despite the onslaught of marketing.

From what little I know of MMA, it could be a niche thing. All I am saying that if an activity or sport grows in popularity AND legitimacy, then we have an obligation to cover it. That's the most measured approach I can think of. I'm sure pro football was a fad at one point.

 

This isn't a fad. It's a rapidly emerging sport. There's a reason ESPN, SI, Yahoo Sports, CBS Sportsline all have MMA writers, because there is a demand for coverage. And if there's a demand for coverage, something that might actually help sell more papers, then why aren't people covering it, especially in Sacramento's case when they have a high-profile event in town.

 

Yes. It could.

The people you thrill with an MMA story are having no stronger an emotion than those readers who would roll their eyes and throw the paper aside when they see you're covering something they might equate with pro wrestling.

That's a value judgment, and doesn't hold water. There were obviously people in higher positions than you or I who DID think it would succeed.

 

Um, no, Perennial....the Vince McMahon factor had many people thinking it had a chance as an offseason alternative. You're majorly Monday morning quarterbacking that one.

And for how long will the frat boys follow this before they decide getting laid is more fun, tho? It's still a wild West, and no paper would be wise to credibly say which ones are for real. Let's at least await the shakeout. Take the CBS one: There's a lot on the Net about how Kimbo Slice got the main event despite not deserving it at all, purely on hype. And I'll grant that boxing has issues like that and worse. And it gets little coverage, and deservedly so.

And GB, there's utterly no proof that it has staying power. It hasn't been on the airwaves as long as PKA has been. And reference above; what part of it is legitimate is still to be determined.

 

So, you're saying regular readers wouldn't read about baseball, football, etc. because there was a story about an MMA fight? Not a chance.

 

200% increase

 

No, what I'm saying is you will turn as many people off with coverage of something questionable as you will draw new readers.

Choke holds. Choke holds.

Well, then, that was damn lie.

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Look, it's like this. If the SE were to ask if we should get some MMA copy into the section, I'd say, "Yes, as soon as we pick up Fernandez' pro wrestling column from the Miami Herald."

 

OK, Mr. Sports Editor: Say you wanna run, how about, 45 inches of MMA a week? What do you bump? Consider: The goal is to gain more readers who will stay with the product than readers you'll lose, many of them having been loyal.

 

Like what we're doing right now is working? I hate to pull out this kind of corporate speak, but what part of the evolve-or-die memo did you not understand? Sports journalism -- whether it be print-based or web-based -- has to build its audience. If MMA becomes a legit sport (and I continue to stress "if") appeals to a different kind of reader, then so be it. I don't think the readers we have now will keep coughing up quarters to buy the paper when they're dead.

 

To be honest, I would actually consider MMA more "skilled" than boxing, considering MMA fighters use many different disciplines ... including traditional boxing.

That said ...

It is a fad. For now, anyway.

And it's not a very well-organized fad, which makes it difficult to cover, professionally. There's nothing major-league about it, regardless of the PPV ratings. And it's not mainstream, regardless of its pockets of popularity.

It's a confusing sport, to everyone but a very niche audience (or martial arts practitioners.) The general public doesn't know -- or understand -- the difference between Muy Thai and jujitsu.

Right now, it's worth a feature story, if you've got a good, up-and-coming local fighter. Or an explanatory story, to help understand the fad and explain all the different styles and what to watch for. Or a preview, if UFC is coming to town.

But a beat writer? There's no way most newspapers can justify using their limited resources on what is, essentially, a fad.

Maybe it won't be, in a few years. But chances are, it will.