BBC article on the UFC

Vince135792003

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/6568593.stm A really positive piece. Heres a few extracts:

Boxing promoter Frank Maloney reckons it will have "15 minutes of fame", yet it is the fastest-growing spectator sport in the United States.

Boxing legend Barry McGuigan called it "dirty" and "undignified", but statistics suggest it is safer than boxing.

Ultimate Fighting Championship is coming to Britain - and British boxing is rattled.

Across the Atlantic, it's already big news. UFC, the leading brand within the sport of mixed martial arts, outsold boxing on the box twice over in 2006 and has just finalised a deal with HBO, the traditional home of boxing in America.

UFC champions Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell are household names, which is more than you can say for Floyd Mayweather, arguably boxing's biggest talent.

There's more. Last March, Marc Ratner left his job as executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, one of the most powerful jobs in boxing, to join UFC.

He took Nevada's leading boxing doctor Margaret Goodman with him, and it looked suspiciously like they were deserting a sinking ship.

fatal

The media it seems like for once has not slated MMA in that article.............
Boxing is losing much ground to MMA and thats why it seems like so many boxing promoters aswell as boxers have been trying to badmouth MMA over the last number of months

Vince135792003

fatal wrote:

The media it seems like for once has not slated MMA in that article.............
Boxing is losing much ground to MMA and thats why it seems like so many boxing promoters aswell as boxers have been trying to badmouth MMA over the last number of months

I think what helps the UFC is that the guys they have representing the sport are generally smart, good people.

When you have guys like a Couture or a St. Pierre or a Franklin leading your company its very hard to smear the sport as "undignified".

The Sparrow

Vince135792003 wrote:

UFC champions Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell are household names, which is more than you can say for Floyd Mayweather, arguably boxing's biggest talent.

I think your overstating that a little bit. I don`t think Liddell or Couture are household names at all really. My definition of a household name is that people who have no interest in something and will never have an interest in ordering a ppv of that sport recognise their name. Therefore while Liddell and Couture may even be well known to general sports fans I have a tough time calling them household names. Mayweather has the same deal and its probably up for grabs been the three of them as to who is better known to people outside sports. Oscar De La Hoya, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and Tyrell Owens are however all household names because they are pop culture icons who people that have no interest in what they actually do or ever paying to see them do it recognise their names.

Having said that, I agree with most of your other points. Whatever about Frank Moloney dissing UFC, I have been disappointed over the past couple of months to see Barry McGuigan take post shots at something he clearly has no real knowledge of. I would have expected more from McGuigan tbh.

But I got my UFC 72 ticket today so wooohoo and screw the haters!:D

Vince135792003

I didn't write it.

The Sparrow

Vince135792003 wrote:

I didn't write it.

Oh I thought you did? because you put some things in direct quotes so i figured they were from the article and the rest was your opinion.

Ok so I think the article is overstating it!

Fozzy

Certainly a lot more positive than the sort of articles that were written a few years ago when UFC came to Britain. I think that a lot of people were ignorant to MMA back then, but with the exposure it has now more people are understanding it

I'm not sure about that statement of Liddell and Couture being household names and Mayweather not. The MMA guys have definitely gotten a lot more well known, especially in the last year. My issue would be that if Chuck and Randy are household names, then Mayweather would definitely be too. I'm not a boxing fan, but I've seen Mayweather's name countless times in the sport papers

I'm sure that there will be some negative articles published soon. But they're usually just being ignorant, like an article the Evening Herald had a while back about the "brutality" of MMA, accompanied by a photo of some hardcore wrestlers cutting each other up with barbed wire

Vince135792003

Yeah the article is a little over the top but its nice to see the sport get promoted overly positively than completely negatively for a change.