Ultimate Fighting coverage

[shotglass]

Well, like I said earlier, that's entirely possible. I'm just not well-enough acquainted with it to tell you just what the demographic is, or what kind of staying power it has.

 

[Knighthawk]

Do you cover it? I suspect the "right" answer is to cover it like you cover any other niche sport. Boxing would be the obvious analogy. If UFC ran a show in your town, or a hometown guy was fighting in the main event, maybe you do a feature and a short game story. If a local group has a show, cover it (or not) like you would cover a local club boxing show.

No, XGames would be the obvious analogy, for the reasons you stated. Most major papers have boxing columnists and analysts, and discussion and coverage of the sport dates back decades. I wouldn't describe it as niche as far as the amount of coverage it merits and receives.

Do papers really have boxing columnists and analysts any more? I live in a city with a pretty vast boxing history, and the major papers here don't have anyone approaching a full-time boxing guy. Heck, one of them doesn't even cover the sport at this point.

Maybe it's a regional issue and boxing gets more play in other areas, but when I said that I would cover UFC like I cover boxing, I wasn't at all arguing that it should get tons of print.

 

[shotglass]

I could be wrong, but I think you could actually draw a parallel between boxing coverage and lacrosse coverage these days. Boxing has its pockets -- AC, Las Vegas, NYC, near casinos -- where it gets coverage. But in other places, it's hardly a blip. Just like lacrosse coverage is concentrated around the Beltways and upstate New York.

And as was mentioned before, the practice of starting title fights around 11 p.m. on a Saturday night doesn't help them one bit.

 

[spnited]

Major NYT feature on mixed martial arts today by Lee Jenkins


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/sports/othersports/22fight.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

[Seabasket]

I heard that during APSE, the UFC threw a cocktail party for sports editors to try to educate them about the sport. Was wondering if anyone went and what impressions they came away with.