ESPN unhappy with the UFC moving to Fox ?

Quote :

The Ultimate Fighting Championship earlier this week announced a landmark television deal that will see their programming spread across the airwaves of the Fox family of networks. The deal, which is for seven years, will put UFC programming in various forms on Fox, FX, and Fuel TV, at the minimum.

The mixed martial arts juggernaut will move its reality series, The Ultimate Fighter, from Spike TV to FX, with a complete revamp to a “jive-live” format. FX will also carry at least six live UFC events per year and Fox will carry four. Fuel TV will be a home for other UFC programming, including UFC Prelims Live.

The UFC, Fox, fighters, and fans rejoiced over the news on Thursday, but not everyone is as pleased. Spike TV, of course, lost a programming cornerstone for their target demographic, Men 18-34 years of age.

But it also appears that ESPN may not be too pleased with the arrangement, at least according to UFC president Dana White.

As is customary from the UFC exec, White took to his Twitter account late Friday night to take a shot at ESPN for cancelling an upcoming promotional interview, he says, due to the Fox deal.

“ESPN always hated us and now they hate us more now that we are on FOX. They canceled my (interview) next week for UFC Rio. (Expletive) ESPN,” he tweeted, before adding, “(Jim Rome) is the only good thing about ESPN.”

UFC Rio: Silva vs. Okami is an especially important event to the promotion. It marks the UFC’s return to Brazil for the first time in nearly 13 years. The promotion also sees it as a big step into the Latin American market that company officials have long coveted.

Mixed martial arts, and the UFC in particular, has crept into ESPN’s on-air programming over the past couple of years, after starting out as part of the sports media giant’s online offerings.

Mixed martial arts can sometimes be seen on SportsCenter and other ESPN news shows, and ESPN does have its own MMA magazine-style show in MMA Live, which is hosted by Jon Anik and often includes analysts such as UFC fighters Rashad Evans and Kenny Florian.

ESPN representatives were unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AmoMlSTVlDwWjDKKvz5ro6I9Eo14?slug=mmaweekly-db8a8804b90f2ffad6764195b444a0aa

I'm getting very sick of ESPN. NC Sports cannot come soon enough to give us alternative for sports.

I don't think Dana should have taken the public shot at ESPN. They still need ESPN to play nice, even with Fox.

ESPN still doesn't show much of UFC, even before the rant... their old ass execs don't see UFC as a sport but a cock fighting circuit, fuck em

Canceling MMA Live or blackouts of UFC programming doesn't help anyone involved with the UFC/Fox partnership. I hope Fox reached out to Dana and said "dude..no". It's been a few days and Dana White has already said "FUCK ESPN". Come on man.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Canceling MMA Live or blackouts of UFC programming doesn't help anyone involved with the UFC/Fox partnership. I hope Fox reached out to Dana and said "dude..no". It's been a few days and Dana White has already said "FUCK ESPN". Come on man.

a blackout of ufc programming? other than mma live which airs at 1 am for most folks there is no other programming

They usually have pretty decent coverage of UFC events online. I don't know about on Sportscenter or anything as I haven't watched it in atleast like 2 years

What I mean is conspicuous efforts to not hype major UFC events. Not treating them as if they're mainstream or the level they are now. Or worse, pumping direct competition.

ESPN strong arm. Same shit UFC does when they don't get their way.

There isnt going to be any alternative to ESPN. UFC is lucky they are already used to not getting helpful coverage from ESPN otherwise Dana would probably watch his tweets.

Kings got it right.

KingsOwn19 wrote:

ESPN strong arm. Same shit UFC does when they don't get their way.

There isnt going to be any alternative to ESPN. UFC is lucky they are already used to not getting helpful coverage from ESPN otherwise Dana would probably watch his tweets.

Why can't NBC Sports be an alternative? Sure VS is small now, but with some funding and marketing they could be a real alternative (probably never surpass or even be a huge competitor). They already show NHL, some UFC, college football, and have their own version of college gameday.

Farmer1906 wrote:

KingsOwn19 wrote:

ESPN strong arm. Same shit UFC does when they don't get their way.

There isnt going to be any alternative to ESPN. UFC is lucky they are already used to not getting helpful coverage from ESPN otherwise Dana would probably watch his tweets.

Why can't NBC Sports be an alternative? Sure VS is small now, but with some funding and marketing they could be a real alternative (probably never surpass or even be a huge competitor). They already show NHL, some UFC, college football, and have their own version of college gameday.

The UFC is on there way out the door, the NHL is by far the weakest of the 4 major sports, and whatever college football they have is pretty irrelevant. but they do have the Tour de France!!!!

A million miles apart.

captain organic wrote:

Farmer1906 wrote:

KingsOwn19 wrote:

ESPN strong arm. Same shit UFC does when they don't get their way.

There isnt going to be any alternative to ESPN. UFC is lucky they are already used to not getting helpful coverage from ESPN otherwise Dana would probably watch his tweets.

Why can't NBC Sports be an alternative? Sure VS is small now, but with some funding and marketing they could be a real alternative (probably never surpass or even be a huge competitor). They already show NHL, some UFC, college football, and have their own version of college gameday.

The UFC is on there way out the door, the NHL is by far the weakest of the 4 major sports, and whatever college football they have is pretty irrelevant. but they do have the Tour de France!!!!

A million miles apart.

Thats current. You don't think they're going to bid on more major sports? And there are 3 major sports. The NFL is not one.

I guess they could make a bid, but im not seeing any signs that they will.

And why is the NFL, the biggest sport in the US, not one of the 4 major sports?

captain organic wrote:

I guess they could make a bid, but im not seeing any signs that they will.

And why is the NFL, the biggest sport in the US, not one of the 4 major sports?

im sure he meant NHL

The NHL is a major sport but much lower on the totem pole.


Without knowing the terms that were discussed, it is hard to compare a potential ESPN deal with the Fox deal, but we can compare the rumors that were pretty close to what the real deal would have looked like with NBCsports/G4/Comcast . I think either deal would have been good for the UFC but this one is clearly the more stable and reliable business model. Fox is established, has a UFC friendly culture, and is integrating the UFC in what appear to be very beneficial ways. The other deal would have left a lot to chance and been a much more ambitious process that depended on the success of two new networks and a new sports brand.

With an ESPN deal, I wonder how integrated the UFC would have truly been. Would it be something they focused on or would it be a side note like the AFL? Fox fully supports the UFC and all the major executives are on board 100% with the UFC's mantra. Many people in Fox wanted this for a while.

I think this is the deal we all always wanted. This is such great news for the UFC and MMA.

Well ESPN knows, as does everyone, that watching the Pirates vs. the Nationals will crush anything the UFC does. Word has it that they will counter-program the UFC on Fox with Poker and lumberjack competitions.

They have that Bellator KO on the frontpage right now.

Jon, Brett, and Josh may be unemployed soon.

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

Well ESPN knows, as does everyone, that watching the Pirates vs. the Nationals will crush anything the UFC does. Word has it that they will counter-program the UFC on Fox with Poker and lumberjack competitions.

when was the last time ESPN aired Pirates vs Natl's?

The Pirates alone, one of the worst teams over the last decade, in one of the smallest markets in the country, sells more tickets during a year then the UFC does.

MMA is not in the discussion with Baseball.

captain organic wrote:

Andrew the Raider King wrote:

Well ESPN knows, as does everyone, that watching the Pirates vs. the Nationals will crush anything the UFC does. Word has it that they will counter-program the UFC on Fox with Poker and lumberjack competitions.

when was the last time ESPN aired Pirates vs Natl's?

The Pirates alone, one of the worst teams over the last decade, in one of the smallest markets in the country, sells more tickets during a year then the UFC does.

MMA is not in the discussion with Baseball.

81 home games that are held in much bigger arenas.

But you are right the UFC is not in competition with baseball, not even close at the moment.