UFC's Time?: UFC on ESPN + A defense of the UFC and MMA in general

Yeah, well, after being in journalism for a decade now, I'm starting to wonder about my brainpan, too.

 

I think UFC is brutal and will not get my viewership; nor does boxing. ESPN is shameless, passing off promotion of its own programming as a true news story (Is UFC the new NASCAR? etc.) It's like them using Pirates of the Caribbean themes in SportsCenter because Disney owns ESPN, etc. It's gross and they should be ashamed.

ESPN drops another level in my eyes; as if they haven't sunk low enough already.

As for UFC, I don't get off on humans beating the shit out of one another; just me.

 

Says the guy with the football tag at the bottom of his sig. A sport that brings about far more concussions and seen a handful of players permanently paralyzed.

 

Compare the middleweight boxing title "fight" -- i use the term loosely -- last weekend in Memphis to any UFC on cable and there's no contest. The Ultimate win!

Ultimate Fighting is cover of SI this week.

Also, if Stu Scott is the live ring announcer and that'll kill it.

 

Eh, just rattling yer chain.

This stuff doesn't do anything for me, and it seems way beyond cruel and barbaric, but what the hell do I know? I'm a Cubs fan, for God's sake.

 

True. Cheerleading has far more injuries than many high school sports. Does that make it more brutal? Of course not. It's about the intent.

The primary aim of football is not knocking out another person. UFC revels in its brutality, and while the NFL also sells its violence, hard tackles are not the primary point of the game.

 

I hear ya. No offense taken, I guess.
And, I guess if you don't watch the sport very often, it can appear "cruel and barbaric" because shows like ESPN only show the punching side of the sport when airing highlights. They ignore the more tactical side of the sport, the matwork, the wrestling and submission moves. And, no joke, the fighters do take far less serious blows to the head than boxing does.

I'm not trying to talk you into being a fan. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I totally understand that. I just think there's quite a few misconception when it comes to the sport of MMA and its fans.

 

From what I understand, UFC/MMA -- in its current defensible form -- is about 5-7 years old. That isn't a long enough arc to see how much of a hold it has.

People who are fans of the older days of UFC/MMA, which McCain correctly dubbed as "human cockfighting,"....well....I don't want to meet them and they might keep a lifelong interest because they are fucking sick.

 

To achieve greater legitimacy, UFC greatly needs to become controlled by more than one person. Dana White simply has too much power.

 

That being said, you could say that one of the reason boxing has been marginalized is because of the alphabet soup of belts that are now available.

If you have it all under one umbrella, at least you have some kind of legitimacy to the title holders.