UFC president's homophobic, sexist rant at reporter

Coming up tomorrow on ESPN, Steve Phillips does a viral video pretending to be the pissed-off Yankees GM. And on Friday, he will do the same pretending to be the Cubs GM.....

 

I hear there is some quality MMA action in the new Bruno movie.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0708081bruno1.html

 

Not to antagonize the MMA fans on here — which is growing as boxing continues to circle the drain — but who really gives a shit what some schmucko from UFC has to say about anything? So he's narrow minded. You expected something else? Giving him the other 14 minutes of his 15 minutes only detracts from someone or something else that could use the attention.

 

He should be sentenced to death.

 

UFC hires Bobby Knight to coach men's basketball?

 

Just because something has a lot of fans or followers, doesn't necessarily make it a sport or worthy of news coverage. I know, lots of people like MMA, but lowering our standards to cover it regularly, is something I'm not in support of. Either way, if the "face" of any pro sport used the kind of offensive language (and I don't mean the F-word) White did, he/she would certainly be reamed for it, and rightly so.

 

Kind of jumping in on this one late, but I wanted to give my two cents:

I'm a big fan of MMA. I train at a gym that regularly sends fighters to the UFC and smaller fight organizations. And it really is more than guys, to quote It's Always Sunny, "getting jacked up and beating the Christ out of each other." There is an amazing level of technique and skill that goes into it. While the exterior looks like a bloody mess, underneath there really is a science of skill. Now whether or not you find it entertaining/worth watching is no concern of mine. What bothers me is seeing people looking down on a sport (yes, I said a sport) without really knowing anything about it. They see two bloodied and bashed guys and a legion of screaming fans and assume it's below them and/or their paper. That is just ignorant. Of course I'm speaking generally, but clearly the posters on this site that appreciate MMA are in the minority.

If you consider boxing a sport, then you have to consider MMA a sport. It's just that simple. MMA is just what the name implies - mixed martial arts. The true practitioners of MMA have trained in boxing, wrestling, judo, jiu-jitsu, muay thai and kickboxing, just to name a few. I think you would find few that would say boxing or wrestling aren't sports. So what is different about MMA? It is more gruesome than wrestling for sure, but is it really more gruesome than boxing? Have you seen some boxers after a 12-round fight? You can't even recognize them sometimes. And in almost 20 years, no one has died in an MMA fight.

As for the sport's popularity, I also think it will continue to grow. It certainly has broken through the fad status. It was a fad in the early 90s when there were no weight classes or regulations. It really was a sideshow. Now it's PPVs pull as many viewers as some of the bigger boxing matches. Whether or not that means it should be included in our papers isn't up to me, but I think if there were a local angle, you would get more than just a handful of dumb rednecks reading the story.

Clearly White is a grade-A douchebag. It is a shame to see him give MMA a blackeye (pardon the pun). But he is a glorified promoter and I'd say in that capacity, he's been quite successful. That doesn't mean I'd want to grab a drink with the guy. What I thought was really interesting was a story I read on si.com from MMA writer Josh Gross in his reaction to White's tirade. He talks about how White won't even credential sites like si.com or sherdog.com for UFC events. That just seems stupid to me, if White's really trying to crack the "mainstream media." It is ego at its worst, punishing sites/organizations actively trying to cover a sport that complains about lack of coverage. Asinine. As much as I love the sport, this pisses me off as a journalist to no end.

Gross' story: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/josh_gross/04/03/dana-white-rant/index.html?eref=T1

Anyway, sorry this was so long, easily the longest post of my time here. But it is something I have a little bit of passion for.

 

Just wanted to correct one thing, Ty. There was a death, in 2007, a week after a fight.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-fighterdeath120207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Oh, and I too read the Gross piece, and agree with your sentiment completely.

 

Seems the female reporter isn't a complete hack.
Her and Randy Couture just finished a book together and I'd wager that Couture, who is a name I recognize, might just the whip the ship out of the UFC president/loudmouth.

In other, more valuable, news. I think this is a photo of Loretta Hunt...
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=174190727&albumID=89062&imageID=18658274#a=89062&i=18658279

I also googled up a Q&A she did on the Couture book and it read like a poster here. Made me wonder, not that I much care. I just ask that Couture doesn't show up at my house.
Thanks in advance.

 

If anyone's dialed into a UFC conference call in the last year or so it'd be clear that it's already reached mainstream media coverage. The majority of media on those calls are from the major sports web sites and legitimate newspapers. There are also a few MMA-centric sites too, but it's not like the sport isn't covered by major sites and publications.

I'm not saying every paper should cover it, and I'm certainly defending anything Dana White said in that rant...just trying to clarify that if you checked out on the sport two or three years ago, you've missed that it has continued to move into mainstream coverage.

 

AWSM weighs in:

 

I'm not a fan in the least, but it's as much a sport as boxing, and how is it "lowering our standards" to provide coverage of something that a lot of people are intersted in? So, because YOU aren't interested it doesn't matter? That's asinine if you ask me.