Fuck ESPN
 

So I remember back in 2007 when they were all over the Rampage/Liddell fight then they started ESPN's MMA Live.. Well, that show is now on at like 2am on Friday mornings.. The only time I've seen them talk about UFC was a few interviews with Sonnen and a glancing mention of GSP's comeback.. This is ridiculous cause they fill their day with reruns and multiple discussions of the same stories.. Today they have 16 year old African girl chess champion playing their analyst in studio..

Really??

You couldn't have a 3 minute segment about the biggest network card in the history of MMA??

:nono:

Yet they cover spelling bee's, NASCAR, poker, pool, bowling, and now chess, I guess..

:foc:

fuck you

Doesn't help that Dana blasts them all the time though, hes always dogging that Josh Gross guy.

fuck Josh Gross

Spillfuck

This is a factor.

Maybe if Dana White was more of a professional, instead of a profane, overreacting trash talker, his company would get more respect.

Can you blame ESPN for not covering sports that they dont broadcast on any of their networks?

"HEY GUYS LETS PUMP UP THIS EVENT THAT WILL CRUSH OUR SATURDAY NIGHT PROGRAMMING".

ESPN is a business.

Bingo.

MMA isn't mainstream yet, and it won't be until the most powerful man in the sport quits acting like a drunk frat boy who thinks somebody hit on his girlfriend.

They had a good working relationship 5 years ago that by all accounts ESPN ended.. Pretty sure Dana wasn't "blasting" them during that time period..

ESPN was in the talks to "buy" UFC rights and have live events on ESPN.. From what I remember, they wanted to take over "creative control" which Dana wasn't gonna give up..

If they treated it like a legitimate sport and gave title shots on merit and not "who can draw" then it wouldn't have been a big deal.

Creative control probably just had to deal with promotional aspect of things and given better cards than other networks.

Oh, and not having shitheads like Diaz or Lesnar go apeshit on live television.

lol

They show/cover boxing which has been doing this for well over a century..

ESPN ate up the Lesnar UFC 100 postfight antic, bro..

But it didn't happen on their network. How positive was their coverage of Brock's stunt? They show Suh kicking people in the balls and stomping on skulls a lot too.

Yes. Boxing is also getting horrible coverage and show times because boxing is dead barring a handful of fighters.

I can get MMA updates and results sent to my phone through ESPN, but not boxing.

The boxing portion of ESPN.com is a subpage in the MMA section..

Isn't boxing part of the mix in mixed martial arts?

Yes but ten years ago, ESPN had a Boxing section with no MMA..

Now it has an MMA section with a boxing subsection..

Boxing is a dead sport..

ESPN don't give a shit about boxing, all they do is cream over Pac/Floyd.

Even when Marquez KO'd him none of the talk was about the fight, just crying about how it means the 'superfight' aint gonna happen anymore (like it was gonna happen anyway)

Used to like MMA Live when Anik and Sonnen/Florian presented but now it sucks...Rivera is a shit analyst guy

Yeah it is absolute shit.. The main reason IMO isn't that Anik is gone, cause Todd Harris is OK, but it more of the fact that the analysts are shit.. That's because Dana got tired of ESPN so you don;t get KenFlo/Sonnen/Rashad, you get Pat Militiech, that black guy espn.com writer who always asked stupid questions at pressers, and that guy that looks like Jeremt Horns retarded uncle..

ESPN didn't fold boxing into an MMA subsection. They're two separate pages under the "More Sports" tab and boxing is ahead of MMA unless I'm retarded and missing something.

Love how Brits like my homie MoFo say presented instead of hosted. British lexicon is so proper.

Must be how I have mine personalized..

:o

a dead sport making 10 times what the UFC does a year.....

The fight this past Saturday had 1 million ppv buys.. The UFC on FOX had 6 million views..

The only boxers that draw are Pac and Mayweather and one of those dudes isn't gonna be a draw after this past Saturday.. Boxing stopped creating new superstars in the late 90's when the UFC started making theirs.. Boxing is on the way out..

Boxing will never die. MMA is predetermined just like wrestling.

MMA is fake. Besides I don't agree with martial arts mixing. They should stick to their own.

Did Bobby Jaggers ever fight GSP?

Bobby Jaggers would kill GSP, whoever the hell that faggot is. Also what's the deal with those affliction t-shirts?

That's not really an accurate comparison Kris P. 1 million pay per view buys is a huge number considering that pay per views cost 60 bucks a pop. Also, 1 million pay per view buys doesn't mean only 1 million people watched considering most people watch these fights with friends or at bars that order these pay per views.

The UFC should do 6 million views on t.v. when they're offering a PPV caliber card and to be honest, Pacquiao/Marquez on free t.v. probably would have smashed that number.

Glad to see Gertner and Shisen have put the band back together.

I understand the difference between PPV and free tv ratings but 6 million is a HUGE number for any sporting event barring the NFL or MBL playoffs.. Look at it this way, the NBA on ESPN is averaging 350,000 views per game, with the TOP BILLED games barely making 2 million.. I'm not saying ESPN should drop the NBA cause the rating are actually up this season, but, tonight they are showing girls college volleyball, had they signed the contract before FOX, they could be doing a build up for tomorrow nights fights.. And show the fights tomorrow night and prolly pull better ratings tonight and similar ratings tomorrow night..

I am super happy with the FOX deal as it is the biggest step for MMA since the sanctioning, but I really think ESPN dropped the ball and continues to do so by not covering the fastest growing sport in the world..

Patriots/Texans got 14.5 mill, but I'm pretty sure Jets/Titans this monday will be much closer to the number the UFC put up saturday night..

Comparing NBA/NFL regular season games to championship fight cards isn't really accurate either though. An NBA team plays 85 games a year and the regular season really doesn't matter and the NFL getting 6 million for a matchup between two teams that aren't going to make the playoffs probably wouldn't bother them either, even though I expect that number to be higher anyways. A more accurate comparison would be between that Fox number and the ratings for an NBA Finals game.

The UFC had to put together a PPV caliber card to get that number and Dana has said on several occasions that they lose more money than they make when they stack cards like that for free tv. Plus, ESPN wanted to be able to control the production and Dana wasn't going to give that up.

I'm a big fan of MMA as is known, I just think the nature of combat sports and how it's viewed by the public means there is a ceiling and people who think the UFC will ever be on par with the NBA, NFL or MLB are a bit off. There will never be enough stars or fighters with exciting enough styles for the UFC to have every PPV and free show be compelling. That's just how combat sports work. The mainstream audience might tune in for a championship fight or a PPV card featuring the biggest stars because of the event like status... the TUF finale... not so much.

I know it will never be on par with the NFL I just think ESPN waste alot of time with filler and shows absolute bullshit (poker, bowling, etc) when there is material out there that is much more compelling to the demographic they are geared toward..

And, to be fair, there are 9 belts now, including the women 135 title, so that's three quarters of yr year just having a title fight a month..

Yes and only three of those titles (HW, LHW and WW) are consistent draws. As great as Anderson is, unless he was stacked on a card with another champ like B.J. Penn, people weren't buying PPVs until the feud with Sonnen and if the last PPV buyrate was any indication, those numbers were purely related to the Sonnen feud.

155 PPV numbers are always poor and mainstream interest in 145 and 135 is pretty much non-existent. We'll see how Rousey draws. MMA is just like boxing in the sense that having a title fight isn't enough to be a major draw no matter how popular MMA gets or how it's promoted compared to how boxing was promoted at its peak. There's always going to be a few major draws whose fights are events that draw the public in and every other fight is going to be dependent on the matchup or just serve as filler.

The 155 title just drew a huge number.. I realize it was on free tv but it negates alot of what you are saying..

Also, the feather, bantam, and flyweights are all relatively new for the UFC.. Give them a few years to build the divisions and they will also draw..

Anderson wasn't drawing because of his competition.. Let Bisping beat Belfort and I bet you Bisping/Silva will prolly be one of the best buyrates for next year (behind Jones/Sonnen and GSP/Diaz)..

I agree with what you are saying, I just think ESPN wasted a huge opportunity and constantly show garbage while all but ignoring MMA..

They could have gotten Bellator.. Had a live show once a month and do build up "behind the scenes" shows, etc.. Would have been alot better than featuring a chess champion and showing the World Series of Poker...

It doesn't negate what I'm saying at all considering the fight was free, heavily promoted on Fox and also featured B.J. Penn (a guy who was a big PPV draw for the company in his prime) and Shogun Rua. Also, despite Steele feeling otherwise about Nate Diaz, Nate being the challenger also helped considering the popularity of the Diaz brothers.

And again, Zuffa doesn't make money from those free fights so it's not necessarily in their best interest to have to stack a card like that in order to support a champion that isn't a PPV draw.