With all the buildup to UFC 71, MMA being on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and the extensive coverage of UFC 71 on ESPN, many MMA media outlets and fans were saying that MMA is now finally "maintream," that it had "arrived," and it was "here."
However, with last night's K-1 Dynamite event, there was no coverage on ESPN, and only blip that has been mentioned was Morton getting KO'd and refusing to do the drug test. There could be at least 2 other (relatively) big stories:
Royce Gracie (the guy responsible for essentially bringing MMA to America) avenging the multiple family-loss
Brock Lesnar in his first MMA match (not only is he in this "new" sport, but they covered the hell out of him trying out for the NFL - it would've almost made for an interesting story about how he couldn't make it in the NFL, but was successful in his MMA debut, while another athlete - Morton - who was successful in the NFL, got KTFO in his MMA debut).
There was nothing on either.
I would make the case - at least for right now - that MMA isn't "here." Rather, the UFC is "here."
It'll be interesting to see how ESPN covers UFC 72, a card that looks completely lackluster in comparison to the Chuck/Rampage main event.
Right now, the majority of MMA fans in the US are casual fans that are just sprouting from the popularity of the UFC now. I don't see how they would have even known K1 was last night.
UFC has all media outlets in the bag, just like they have the NSAC, CSAC.
Funny how they didn't report the event as the largest attended MMA event but just had to concentrate on the negatives. Seems pretty obvious what they were up to.
"Though the Coliseum was virtually empty – promoters tried to give away 70,000 tickets and still were unsuccessful – that had more to do with the ineptitude of K1/Hero's, not Lesnar."
what's up with all the negative press? they provide nearly a free event for people with some decent fights and all the UFC bribed media do is can talk shit.
seriously wtf.
they should have covered the event like any other said there were 2 legendary fighters in the ring in a rematch, Brock lesnar won his fight.
INstead they concentrate on making k1 look bad.
They gave people free MMA entertainment and this is what they get in return.
Yahoo Sports was also the same guys running an article a couple weeks ago about how Chuck was the #1 or 2 P4P in the world (with Randy). It also said how Fedor wasn't as good and hasn't faced the same sort of opposition. It then went on to say that Pride's fighters weren't as good (more or less) as the UFC's fighters, citing recent losses by Herring and Cro Cop as evidence (too bad they left out the fact that fmr Pride fighter Anderson Silva was the UFC MW champ).
Oh, and who was one of the people they got a quote from for all this? Keith freakin' Jardine. B/c we all know what an expert this guy is...
Wiggy is correct. Yahoo and ESPN lost any credibility when they declared CHUCK without question the #1 fighter in the world. Shows you how much influence the UFC has in the media.
What do you expect? ESPN doesn't cover boxing at all except for the mega bouts (i.e. PBF v. DLH) and a Tyson blip here or there.
They're not going to bore people with news on fighters they know nothing about. MMA is about as mainstream as it is going to get. When a production that the casual fan knows of (only the UFC right now) features a bout with fighters that the casual fan knows of (Chuck, Rampage, or Couture) then we will see some media coverage. Otherwise don't expect to see any.