Anybody notice the Countdown show is scheduled to air on ESPN. That's huge, huh? It's on the UFC home page, one for Spike on Monday, and another for ESPN on Wed. Could be the start of things to come.
UFC Countdown on ESPN
(20 posts) (11 voices)-
Posted 5 months ago #
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Nice, glad to see ESPN finally stepped up
Posted 5 months ago # -
The truth is ESPN is so embarrassingly far behind the wave of MMA mainstream popularity, that they'd need to air an UFN and a weekly UFC/MMA show in order to make up ground.
ESPN used to be the sports leader, and now they're just as Artie Lange once called them, "the cable channel with scores and bores and whores"...Posted 5 months ago # -
I've long gotten the impression that there are some top brass and big name commentators on ESPN that are MMA holdouts. It's known that there are some guys over there who are not fond of the sport and I wonder how much black balling of MMA has gone on behind the scenes for political and personal reasons. They can't hold out on numbers though and MMA has garnered the fan base and ratings needed to convince even the staunchest low key detractors that ESPN is going to have to jump aboard whether they want to or not. It will be good to see our sport getting more coverage and analysis from media franchises like ESPN and less from websites like sherdog. All around this helps the credibility of MMA and pushes it further into the mainstream.
Posted 5 months ago # -
A big factor in ESPN's reluctance to read the writing on the wall is because so many of those guys running things both in front of and behind the camera are like 45 and older, and came up thinking that boxing is synonymous with combat sports, and fail to realize that boxing is almost infantile stylistically compared to MMA.
If you were going to watch baseball, would you watch batting practice, or score a seat for the whole damned game?
If you were going to see a horse race, would you just check out the training runs and pass on the race itself?
If you wanted to hit the Masters golf tourney, would you check out the driving range and call it a day?
Of course not.
When you watch boxing, you're watching a fraction of what MMA is, and not even the best fraction, from my POV that just doesn't make any damed sense at all...Posted 5 months ago # -
well said boys.
Posted 5 months ago # -
I know for a fact that ESPN has the air time to air the UFC. they do not need to air poker, [not a sport like they make it seem. its all luck.], bowling, pool, darts, or the wnba. no offense to the wnba but show some UFC!
Posted 5 months ago # -
Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. Maybe if the Countdown gets decent ratings we will see more UFC or MMA in general on ESPN where i think it should be displayed more. Not even ESPN can deny how popular the sport has become and that MMA is indeed a "real sport" os i hope that we can see future shows on ESPN about MmA.
Posted 5 months ago # -
I'm sorry, but this needs to be said.
Throwing darts, shooting pool, and playing cards are not fu<king sports, they are what sports fans do after a hard day, or night, at work.
Not trying to disrespect those folks, but I'm supposed to believe that some cardplayer wearing shades and a cowboy hat is more deserving of airtime on ESPN than GSP?
Please...Posted 5 months ago # -
i agree jcohl,
dude i hate it and i will say it again, i fu*king HATE it when poker players and shhit like that are called athletes, that's some bull$hit because there is nothing athletic about those things, i respect Golf and i know it takes great skill to do what they do but skill is also used in Pool, Golf has zero athletes IMO, there is no "Athleticism" involved so i say that ESPN has no reason not to air MMA which is a sport and has the best athletes in the world IMO.
Anyway, i'm happy that the Countdown will air on ESPN because it will most likely expose the UFC and MMA to a bigger audience and Lyoto Machida and Shogun are great guys to put on display because both are true pros and will give the sport a good name to anyone who views the Countdown. This like i said i hope is a sign of things to come and in the future hopefully we'll see regular MMA shows on ESPN.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Wow, well said dudes. All of you!
I couldn't agree more. Natural mentioned that some commentators simply don't like the sport and it's some sort of personal thing. I've noticed that too. They make stupid a$$ comments about mma and really don't like talking about it and my guess is that they either don't know sh!t about mma, or they are boxing fans and can't stand the fact that boxing compared to mma is what cd's are to ipods and what vhs is to dvd/blue ray. Or maybe both.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Guess their not doing this. Cant find anything on the ESPN website line-up for this to air. Who knows? on Saturday, the UFC website had an advertisement for Spike on monday and a separate advertisement for ESPN on Wednesday. now they don't. ???
Posted 5 months ago # -
I'm for sure gonna check this out to help the ratings so hopefully in the future there will be more UFC and MMA on ESPN which i think is waay overdue since MMA has clearly taken over the world and especially Boxing. But i am for sure gonna check it out only to support the cause :)
Posted 5 months ago # -
jcohl:
A couple bones to pick with your analysis.
In your analogies, I think you are a bit off. I would change them to:
Baseball: Only watching the outfield.
Horse Racing: Only watching the first quarter mile.
Golf Tournament: Only watching the putting greens.All of those are integral parts of a more complex event, but all are still viable things to watch. Boxing is specialized MMA striking. MMA is much much more than boxing (clearly) but just as putting well is integral to a good round of golf, so boxing principles are integral to MMA striking. Same goes for the other sports you mentioned.
According to Merriam-Webster, a sport is defined as "physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2) : a particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in." So while card playing could reasonably be excluded from the strict definition of sport (it's much more of a mental activity than physical one), I would argue that golf is definitely a sport. Especially the golf that's shown on television. Those guys do more physical activity in four days than most of us couch potatoes do in a couple of weeks. Darts and pool? Both require a coordination and training that requires a lot of time and effort to hone and refine. By your strict definition, NASCAR isn't a sport either, I suppose, so kick that off the air as well.
Most of the draw for the poker on ESPN is the perception that "all you need is a chip and a chair." That, in theory at least, anybody could plop their $10k down, play the eight or so days of cards of their lives, and come out multi-millionaires. All you need is the series of positive statistical probabilities to fall your way and the money's yours. That and there is a centuries-long tradition of playing poker in all of its varieties and flavors, while MMA has only become main-stream over the last few years since TUF 1 came on.
Companies like ESPN should probably be a little more pro-active about sports coverage, but at the same time, can you blame them for not dumping money and time and talent into something that may or may not catch on (see the XFL)? They have an MMA section on their website, and I have noticed over the last year or so after UFC events, they have write ups that show up on the main feed on the front page, just as baseball, football, etc. recaps do. Website stories take up many fewer resources to develop than do half-hour television programs. It is coming, I'm sure. The staying power of the UFC has been demonstrated. Be patient.
Posted 5 months ago # -
To add to your point, bsbiz, UFC events are more regularly finding themselves a part of the "Sports Center Top 10" which is at least a move in the right direction, now if only we could get a 5 minute segment on Sports Center, with say Jon Anik, on later Saturday/early Sunday airings following UFCs, that would be awesome.
Posted 5 months ago # -
They are in a kind of unenviable position where they have to cover not only the traditional big sports with all the depth required to maintain their core audiences (NBA, MLB, NFL, College sports, NHL to a slightly lesser extent), but also pick out the newest trends that are going to be worth their on-tv time. This is, in my opinion, the reason there isn't an MMA show. They don't have as wide a margin for error without losing their credibility as the sports news authority.
Posted 5 months ago # -
"NHL to a slightly lesser extent," they hardly give the NHL any coverage as it is. Yeah, it's better than they give MMA, but they have more for billiards and poker than they do for the NHL. The biggest addition they've done in recent years is the addition of all their NASCAR coverage. I don't blame them, NASCAR is huge, but I don't give a rip about it. It is also the formerly fastest growing sport in America, recently supplanted by MMA, IMO.
Posted 5 months ago # -
In Canada it's huge, our second largest sports network "sportscenter" ( next to espn affiliate tsn) has MMA connected. Which is a half hour show dedicated to MMA but mostly the UFC hosted by Showdown Joe. Great program but it's only on weekly so most of the info is outdated but always have good interviews with lots of big name fighters and alot of Canadian fighters. It's amazing how big MMA is in Canada, next to hockey i'm sure it's one of the next most watched sports. We don't really care about college football. Baseball for alot of people is take it or leave it, usually leave it. NFL is pretty big becuase the CFL sucks and we only watch it because it's always on friday night and it's a good excuse to go and drink beer. Soccer, well it's soccer. Same could almost be said of the NBA. So yah up north we love any sport with fisticuffs and hockey, mma is all fighting and hitting. God we love that stuff.
Posted 5 months ago # -
I have zero problems having my posts' bones picked by posters like bsbiz and Justin H, but just to be glass clear that while I PERSONALLY don't consider card-playing, shooting pool, and throwing darts sports, the proper definition from Webster notwithstanding, I DO IN FACT consider golf a sport, and a damned fine one to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you have a horrific hangover.
Even the commentators sympathize with your hangover and do their duties sotte voce.Apologies if I didn't make that clear in my above posts...
Posted 5 months ago #
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