Article: UFC Media Coverage
Mar 7, 2006 21:27:48 GMT -5
Post by LWPD on Mar 7, 2006 21:27:48 GMT -5
Below is an interesting article on UFC Media Coverage through the eyes of a boxing writer. Times are quickly changing..
Courtesy of Boxingscene.com
UFC May Not Be Grabbing Boxing Crowd Now, But Give It Time...
By Charles Jay
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is developing its own substantial following, but is it cultivating any of boxing's mainstream audience? Some, but not as much as its promoters had hoped.
Zuffa LLC, a Nevada company which controls the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and is thus the sport's dominant player in the U.S., has attempted to reach more avid boxing fans by courting the boxing media. The idea was that once a boxing writer saw the UFC product and liked it, he would pass that word onto his readership. The residual effects would be felt with more crossover business from the boxing world. It hasn't worked all that well, but it's not for lack of trying.
At last year's annual dinner for the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA), held in Las Vegas, the UFC bought a major sponsorship and had a substantial presence. But it failed to make much of a dent. Kevin Iole, the boxing writer for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, who has covered every UFC event held in that city, says he told the UFC that was going to be the case, but he thinks the barriers to acceptance by the mainstream boxing press and public may have more to do with the limitations imposed on the major media than the quality of the UFC product.
"In newspapers, space is at a premium, even for boxing," says Iole, who says he's grown to appreciate the UFC as he's seen more of it. "To go to MMA, that requires the writers taking the time to understand the difference and to search out the demographic, and the writers aren't going to do that. They're going to try to get more space for what they already know and are comfortable with, and that's boxing."
Iole also feels the UFC may not have approached the media in the correct way. "What they really need to do is a better job of educating sports editors and boxing writers about the sport," he says. "In boxing, it's simple; you've got a hook and a jab and an uppercut and a cross and that's pretty much it. When you go to mixed martial arts and especially the UFC, most of the time it's bad boxing. The other things these guys bring to the table aren't so easily discernible, unless you're an aficionado in that particular discipline."
One of the reasons newspapers aren't clamoring to cover the UFC is that its fans are not their customers. The UFC demographic tends to skew younger, and young people are reading newspapers less and less. According to a study done by the Online Publishers Association, for only 9% of adults aged 18-34 is the newspaper the first or second medium of choice.
Also, mixed martial arts is a sport that is not legal in many jurisdictions. Less than half of state athletic commissions, which were formed for the purposes of regulating boxing, allow it; among those who do are Nevada, New Jersey, Florida, California, Mississippi and Georgia, with an MMA-only commission having been recently been established in North Dakota. Because of that, it can carry an "outlaw" perception - not the least of which is a confusion with toughman contests - that is not often compatible with mainstream media coverage.
Generally, the safety aspects of the UFC, the result of a restructuring of the rules in the late 1990's, stand up favorably to those of boxing, but commissions have been slow to catch on, principally due to a lack of understanding of the disciplines the sport encompasses.
Larry Hazzard, commissioner of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, was the first to give MMA his stamp of approval. But Hazzard brought plenty of background to that decision; he is a black belt in Karate and Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and has taught close quarter combat at a number of law enforcement academies.
"Yes, this is a combat sport, but it's still a totally different animal," says Hazzard. "People are used to boxing, and they know what they're looking for. And it seems this (MMA) loses a lot of people once it gets to the ground. They don't understand the wrestling and the submission holds. If you put together a highlight clip of MMA action, it seems more brutal, and that's probably turned some people off."
Before adjusting its rules, the sport of mixed martial arts had made some powerful enemies, including Senator John McCain, who called for a nationwide ban. Appearing on CNN's Larry King Live on December 6, 1995, McCain referred to it as "A disturbing and bloody competition which places the contestants at great risk for serious injury or even death. And it should not be allowed to take place anywhere in the United States. It appeals to the lowest common denominator in our society."
Hazzard, who participated in formulating the new rules guidelines, is credited for being among a handful of interested individuals who rescued the sport. In Clyde Gentry III's book "No Holds Barred: Evolution," which chronicles the history of mixed martial arts, Lorenzo Fertitta, the co-owner of the UFC, was quoted as saying, "Without Larry Hazzard and the New Jersey State Athletic Commission, this sport would still be dying a slow death."
"It's still more a spectacle than a sport in many people's minds," says Tim Graham, boxing writer for the Buffalo News, who was recently elected president of the BWAA. "But I'm a fan of it. I see it as a very pure and worthwhile sport that's a worthy competitor to boxing."
Graham looks upon the fact that the UFC is both the promoter and the sanctioning body as a positive for the fans. "They basically control their product, and they can put on the very best matchups possible and give the fans what they want on a very structured basis. So from a business standpoint, it's everything boxing isn't."
Iole echoes that, making the point that not only does the UFC seem to be more responsive to public demand than most boxing promoters, it has the business model necessary to do something about it: "If there's a big matchup in a division, they get that fight made right away."
One might take issue with those statements, since UFC's virtual exclusivity over the sport on these shores may have occasionally precluded many of the best MMA fighters who campaign for other promoters (namely Pride, based in Japan) from competing in its events. In that way, there is perhaps a similarity with boxing, though admittedly not to the same degree.
Old-line boxing people have expressed little interest in the UFC or mixed martial arts in general, and that prospect is not likely to change. International matchmaker and agent Don Majeski points out that there was more commonality between boxing and wrestling fans in the 1950s and '60s, but he doesn't see it happening with boxing and MMA.
"Years ago there used to be wrestling and boxing in the same place, where you'd see a wrestling match one night and boxing the next night, or vice versa," Majeski said. "And often the boxing promoter and the wrestling promoter were one in the same, or they had a great rivalry between the two of them, where each disdained the sport of the other, and they went after each other's fans. I guess this (MMA) is the new martial arts sport that is going to challenge boxing. But most of the traditionalists disdain it or have nothing to do with it. I haven't seen much crossover promotion."
Veteran promoter Mike Acri, who has worked with world champions Roberto Duran, Hector Camacho and Paul Spadafora, among others, says that even if he had access to someone who could draw considerable box office, he wouldn't stage an MMA promotion. "Some might do it," he says. "But the boxing purists don't see it as boxing, just like they never caught on to kickboxing."
Younger boxing promoters, however, may be a little more accepting of MMA events. Scott Wagner, 37, who promotes his regular "Ballroom Boxing" series out of Glen Burnie, Md., says that if the sport was legal and regulated in his state (it is not), he wouldn't hesitate to put on shows. "I'd do it in a minute," he says. "Actually, it wouldn't even take me that long."
Wagner recognizes something in the UFC's approach that boxing doesn't have a hold on. "People who don't like it are basing their judgments on something they don't know about," he says. "What I see about the sport is that the demographic, as far as sponsors go, is a bonanza. It's male, 18-25. They don't even know who's fighting. But they're there. I went to one of those events. They sold 16,000 tickets or however many that joint held. You couldn't get in that place. How many boxing matches do you go to and see that many people?"
There is little question that mixed martial arts is one of the fastest growing sports in America. "By the end of this fiscal year," says Hazzard, "we will have sanctioned more MMA shows than pro boxing shows in this state, which is a first."
It likely won't be the last time we'll hear that. MMA promoters, specifically the UFC, seem to possess more marketing savvy than their boxing brethren. With a pay-per-view buy rate rumored to be over 300,000 for last April's Randy Couture-Chuck Lidell rematch (Zuffa is very secretive about this information), and reportedly even more for Couture-Lidell III, the enterprise has clearly arrived. They may not be capturing the boxing audience now, but they're latching on to a generation of customers who will eventually make up more and more of the demographic pool. As its dyed-in-the-wool loyalists become less in number, boxing may in time have problems arousing the interest of fans who have been weaned on MMA.
As a result, the question we posed at the top of this piece may be more appropriately asked in reverse a decade or so from now
Courtesy of Boxingscene.com
UFC May Not Be Grabbing Boxing Crowd Now, But Give It Time...
By Charles Jay
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is developing its own substantial following, but is it cultivating any of boxing's mainstream audience? Some, but not as much as its promoters had hoped.
Zuffa LLC, a Nevada company which controls the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and is thus the sport's dominant player in the U.S., has attempted to reach more avid boxing fans by courting the boxing media. The idea was that once a boxing writer saw the UFC product and liked it, he would pass that word onto his readership. The residual effects would be felt with more crossover business from the boxing world. It hasn't worked all that well, but it's not for lack of trying.
At last year's annual dinner for the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA), held in Las Vegas, the UFC bought a major sponsorship and had a substantial presence. But it failed to make much of a dent. Kevin Iole, the boxing writer for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, who has covered every UFC event held in that city, says he told the UFC that was going to be the case, but he thinks the barriers to acceptance by the mainstream boxing press and public may have more to do with the limitations imposed on the major media than the quality of the UFC product.
"In newspapers, space is at a premium, even for boxing," says Iole, who says he's grown to appreciate the UFC as he's seen more of it. "To go to MMA, that requires the writers taking the time to understand the difference and to search out the demographic, and the writers aren't going to do that. They're going to try to get more space for what they already know and are comfortable with, and that's boxing."
Iole also feels the UFC may not have approached the media in the correct way. "What they really need to do is a better job of educating sports editors and boxing writers about the sport," he says. "In boxing, it's simple; you've got a hook and a jab and an uppercut and a cross and that's pretty much it. When you go to mixed martial arts and especially the UFC, most of the time it's bad boxing. The other things these guys bring to the table aren't so easily discernible, unless you're an aficionado in that particular discipline."
One of the reasons newspapers aren't clamoring to cover the UFC is that its fans are not their customers. The UFC demographic tends to skew younger, and young people are reading newspapers less and less. According to a study done by the Online Publishers Association, for only 9% of adults aged 18-34 is the newspaper the first or second medium of choice.
Also, mixed martial arts is a sport that is not legal in many jurisdictions. Less than half of state athletic commissions, which were formed for the purposes of regulating boxing, allow it; among those who do are Nevada, New Jersey, Florida, California, Mississippi and Georgia, with an MMA-only commission having been recently been established in North Dakota. Because of that, it can carry an "outlaw" perception - not the least of which is a confusion with toughman contests - that is not often compatible with mainstream media coverage.
Generally, the safety aspects of the UFC, the result of a restructuring of the rules in the late 1990's, stand up favorably to those of boxing, but commissions have been slow to catch on, principally due to a lack of understanding of the disciplines the sport encompasses.
Larry Hazzard, commissioner of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, was the first to give MMA his stamp of approval. But Hazzard brought plenty of background to that decision; he is a black belt in Karate and Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and has taught close quarter combat at a number of law enforcement academies.
"Yes, this is a combat sport, but it's still a totally different animal," says Hazzard. "People are used to boxing, and they know what they're looking for. And it seems this (MMA) loses a lot of people once it gets to the ground. They don't understand the wrestling and the submission holds. If you put together a highlight clip of MMA action, it seems more brutal, and that's probably turned some people off."
Before adjusting its rules, the sport of mixed martial arts had made some powerful enemies, including Senator John McCain, who called for a nationwide ban. Appearing on CNN's Larry King Live on December 6, 1995, McCain referred to it as "A disturbing and bloody competition which places the contestants at great risk for serious injury or even death. And it should not be allowed to take place anywhere in the United States. It appeals to the lowest common denominator in our society."
Hazzard, who participated in formulating the new rules guidelines, is credited for being among a handful of interested individuals who rescued the sport. In Clyde Gentry III's book "No Holds Barred: Evolution," which chronicles the history of mixed martial arts, Lorenzo Fertitta, the co-owner of the UFC, was quoted as saying, "Without Larry Hazzard and the New Jersey State Athletic Commission, this sport would still be dying a slow death."
"It's still more a spectacle than a sport in many people's minds," says Tim Graham, boxing writer for the Buffalo News, who was recently elected president of the BWAA. "But I'm a fan of it. I see it as a very pure and worthwhile sport that's a worthy competitor to boxing."
Graham looks upon the fact that the UFC is both the promoter and the sanctioning body as a positive for the fans. "They basically control their product, and they can put on the very best matchups possible and give the fans what they want on a very structured basis. So from a business standpoint, it's everything boxing isn't."
Iole echoes that, making the point that not only does the UFC seem to be more responsive to public demand than most boxing promoters, it has the business model necessary to do something about it: "If there's a big matchup in a division, they get that fight made right away."
One might take issue with those statements, since UFC's virtual exclusivity over the sport on these shores may have occasionally precluded many of the best MMA fighters who campaign for other promoters (namely Pride, based in Japan) from competing in its events. In that way, there is perhaps a similarity with boxing, though admittedly not to the same degree.
Old-line boxing people have expressed little interest in the UFC or mixed martial arts in general, and that prospect is not likely to change. International matchmaker and agent Don Majeski points out that there was more commonality between boxing and wrestling fans in the 1950s and '60s, but he doesn't see it happening with boxing and MMA.
"Years ago there used to be wrestling and boxing in the same place, where you'd see a wrestling match one night and boxing the next night, or vice versa," Majeski said. "And often the boxing promoter and the wrestling promoter were one in the same, or they had a great rivalry between the two of them, where each disdained the sport of the other, and they went after each other's fans. I guess this (MMA) is the new martial arts sport that is going to challenge boxing. But most of the traditionalists disdain it or have nothing to do with it. I haven't seen much crossover promotion."
Veteran promoter Mike Acri, who has worked with world champions Roberto Duran, Hector Camacho and Paul Spadafora, among others, says that even if he had access to someone who could draw considerable box office, he wouldn't stage an MMA promotion. "Some might do it," he says. "But the boxing purists don't see it as boxing, just like they never caught on to kickboxing."
Younger boxing promoters, however, may be a little more accepting of MMA events. Scott Wagner, 37, who promotes his regular "Ballroom Boxing" series out of Glen Burnie, Md., says that if the sport was legal and regulated in his state (it is not), he wouldn't hesitate to put on shows. "I'd do it in a minute," he says. "Actually, it wouldn't even take me that long."
Wagner recognizes something in the UFC's approach that boxing doesn't have a hold on. "People who don't like it are basing their judgments on something they don't know about," he says. "What I see about the sport is that the demographic, as far as sponsors go, is a bonanza. It's male, 18-25. They don't even know who's fighting. But they're there. I went to one of those events. They sold 16,000 tickets or however many that joint held. You couldn't get in that place. How many boxing matches do you go to and see that many people?"
There is little question that mixed martial arts is one of the fastest growing sports in America. "By the end of this fiscal year," says Hazzard, "we will have sanctioned more MMA shows than pro boxing shows in this state, which is a first."
It likely won't be the last time we'll hear that. MMA promoters, specifically the UFC, seem to possess more marketing savvy than their boxing brethren. With a pay-per-view buy rate rumored to be over 300,000 for last April's Randy Couture-Chuck Lidell rematch (Zuffa is very secretive about this information), and reportedly even more for Couture-Lidell III, the enterprise has clearly arrived. They may not be capturing the boxing audience now, but they're latching on to a generation of customers who will eventually make up more and more of the demographic pool. As its dyed-in-the-wool loyalists become less in number, boxing may in time have problems arousing the interest of fans who have been weaned on MMA.
As a result, the question we posed at the top of this piece may be more appropriately asked in reverse a decade or so from now
IPPON!!