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“I say it all the time, they are a small organization, and they are always going to be a small organization. The whole Herschel Walker thing - listen, I give the guy the props... he is almost 50 years old. He is still in great shape and he went out trained in mixed martial arts and he beat a guy who had no athletic ability, no stand up, and no ground. Herschel Walker is like 50 years old and it’s a cool little fun hobby. You know what makes me crazy is the media attention it got. ESPN will cover Herschel Walker fighting when you got guys like George St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, Brock Lesner, and B.J. Penn. - all these great athletes that have been training for years and are the best in the sport and you are talking about Herschel Walker? Then you start talking about Walker possibly fighting Jose Canseco? Oh my god, give me a break... We just can’t break through at ESPN, man. It's crazy. They know there are millions of fans that want to watch it. It's crazy, it’s coming from the top. From the top over there at ESPN, I don’t get it."
-UFC President Dana White talks to the Afternoon Gridlock on ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas about Strikeforce, Herschel Walker, and the limited MMA coverage from ESPN.
Penick's Analysis: It does speak to how far the sport still needs to go in the mainstream consciousness that the Walker debut received much more coverage than most any UFC event outside of UFC 100 by ESPN. With their MMA-related programming all but relegated to the Internet-exclusive "MMA Live" program and the occasional front page placement of Sherdog.com articles on the sport, there's still a long way to go as far as MMA being put on the same level as the other major sports covered by the top mainstream media sports entities, and in this instance especially ESPN.
White's frustration with the coverage that Walker's fight received in comparison to the UFC events is completely understandable. One of the things he's been trying to fight for during the massive rise of the UFC's popularity is to have these top fighters and the sport being treated as just as legitimate as the other major sports. Some are ahead of others in that regard. The Walker coverage by ESPN clearly, to him, was a sign of how far they still have to go.
When the most coverage for something MMA-related then becomes the debut of a 47 year old former professional athlete from another sport in an organization other than the UFC, that can be seen as a step backward for the legitimacy that White and the UFC have tried so hard to obtain. That's a perception that comes with the way certain stories are covered over others, and really the UFC is still just waiting to get over the hump to be featured on an event by event basis on not only ESPN.com, but SportsCenter and all of the other programs that ESPN airs. MMA coverage has taken big strides, but it's understandable that White would want "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" to treat UFC's top fights and fighters that true MMA fans are most interested in as the top story of the month, not a novelty like a Walker fight which in the big picture has little or no impact on the actual sport of MMA.
[Dana White photo by Wade Keller (c) MMATorch.com]
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