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By: Ryan Kane, MMATorch Contributor 2008 was undoubtedly a tremendously successful year for UFC. Not only did 2008 produce big-time stars for the UFC, most notably Forrest Griffin, Kenny Florian, Rashad Evans and Brock Lesnar just to name a few, but they also started receiving a good amount of media coverage; especially as the year went on. When the Lesnar-Couture fight was announced, ESPN, in particular, was quick to jump on the announcement. Not only was UFC 91 a huge pay-per-view for MMA fans around the world, it may have helped to open the gate that is ESPN.
There isn’t a question that the UFC was and is self-sufficient when it came to producing hype for their events but, as of late, the "world-wide leader in sports" has done their part to help promote the UFC’s events, and other MMA events (including EliteXC and Affliction). But for the sake of trying to focus on what ESPN can do for the UFC, I’ll try and keep it simple.
While, as of this writing, the UFC still have not disclosed the pay-per-view buys for UFC 92, Dana made it pretty clear, in an interview with ESPN the Magazine, that UFC executives believe UFC 92 outdid UFC 91 by 150-175,000 pay-per-view buys. This is significant news considering the UFC did over one million buys for Lesnar-Couture (UFC 91). With that it appears the UFC did over one million pay-per-view buys in back-to-back pay-per-view’s; in back-to-back months.
Going over the one million mark for UFC 92 in pay-per-view buys would also mean that the UFC, cumulatively, went over 6 million PPV buys for 2008. One would have to wonder how much it helped to have the promotion of their two big pay-per-views on the main page of ESPN.com, the day of the events. Not only was ESPN.com promoting the pay-per-views on the front page of their website, but they (UFC) had the upper right hand corner of the website spotlighting the pay-per-view itself. That is terrific news if you are a UFC fan.
I was out for dinner the night of UFC 92, and while waiting for my table I was watching ESPN and on their ticker, on the bottom of the screen, they have a tab called, "The Lead." This basically spotlights what ESPN considers the top 3-4 headlines for the night. I was shocked when I saw one of those stories saying something along the lines of, "Interim UFC Heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria locks horns with Frank Mir to determine Interim UFC Heavyweight champion, winner will face current UFC Heavyweight champion, Brock Lesnar." If I’m not mistaken, they also flashed Griffin vs. Evans for UFC Light-Heavyweight championship. As a fan of the UFC, I thought that was great and potentially groundbreaking for the UFC. After all, ESPN, the great ESPN, considered UFC 92 a major sports headline for the night. I believe I remember seeing ESPN report the results of UFC pay-per-views starting around UFC 88, but if not then, they definitely reported the results of the Michael Bisping and Chris Leben fight for UFC 89. Since then, ESPN has been scrolling the results of the "big" fights at each UFC since.
This is significant because it’s showing us, Joe Q. Viewer that are MMA fans, that what we are watching is legitimate…in their eyes. While some may believe that ESPN is ridiculous, they are known as the premier sports information network. If UFC, and MMA in general, is considered legitimate in their eyes, the UFC could explode in terms of not only pay-per-view buys, but ESPN could help reach out to people who never considered MMA or the UFC a legitimate sport. Let’s not forget either that ESPN has been producing weekly MMA shows, on their website, for around half a year now, or however long it has been. Now I work in sports television, and I know ESPN has endless amounts of money, but producing shows can be very costly. Now these shows haven’t been put on television yet, but my prediction is that, at some point in 2009, MMA Live will find its way on to ESPN programming at some point during the year.
UFC certainly has built their way up to where they are today without the help of ESPN, but, already, one could argue that ESPN reporting and covering UFC events will not only take the sport’s viewership to another level, it might put it in another stratosphere. That is great news, and I believe ESPN will play an integral part in legitimizing the sport further in 2009, helping to reach that "demographic" that the UFC themselves haven’t been able to reach. I encourage MMA fans to keep this in the back of their mind somewhere and make mental notes, here and there, as you see ESPN increasing their coverage of MMA throughout the calendar year.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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