Joe Rogan schools some boxing goof (Lou DiBella)

I wanted to comment on what led off the top of Sportscenter.

Brian Kenny who does a lot of Boxing for the Network led off with a look at Liddell and his UFC 43 loss to Randy Couture followed by his victory over Couture at UFC 52. Then they go back to UFC 19 and the loss to Horn before going back to UFC 54 and showing the avenging of that loss. Then highlights of the loss to Rampage in the Middleweight Grand Prix air. Kenny details how the UFC got started and mentions Royce Gracie.

More behind the cut.



Then they bring in Joe Rogan and some dufus boxing promoter who uses the human cock fighting line, while getting ready to take his place in the cock sucking line.

Rogan pointed out that boxing is only one aspect of fighting and that MMA allows all to be featured. Dufus boxing promoter said that it was easy when 1 company dominated a sport. He said that everything outside of UFC was garbage. Rogan ran down Bodog, EXC, Pride and IFL and said that they all had good fights. Dufus boxing guy had earlier accused Rogan of not being a boxing fan even as Rogan was providing more info on the top fighters in boxing today than you get from most boxing analysts.

Let me say that this is not a knock on boxing because I've got no problem with the sport. The people who run it are so wildly incompetant that I wonder if they're not even dumber than those running TNA Wrestling. Boxing's success is a result of the athletes themselves and exists despite the best efforts of those who control it.

Rogan's round 10-9. He was more prepared and knew what he was talking about.

Kenny then produced a graphic which showed that UFC had 223 million in PPV revenue last year, that the WWE had 200 million and HBO boxing 177 million. This was strictly a PPV revenue chart...and Kenny then pointed out that last year's 177 million was HBO's second best year ever which I'm sure made the boxing guy happy.

I want to offer ESPN one bit of caution.

The comparisons to Boxing and UFC make for great TV but they'd better be careful in how they present the sport of MMA. When you've got guys on shows like Around the Horn and PTI providing misinformation and treating the sport as a joke...the more you treat it as one the more your fans will see it as one and if they see UFC as a joke, then you're a joke for bothering to cover it. So the coverage ESPN provides and this is true for any sport, they'd better have people who know what they're talking about because ultimately if they don't it can reflect poorly on them. This is especially true for a sport that a lot of people are just getting familiar with, having an NFL analyst who is a complete idiot is not as harmful than having a complete idiot talking MMA because football is more familiar a sport and the fans have an easier time knowing who is and isn't a moron.

ESPN can make or break a sport depending on how they cover it. This fact is actually addressed in an Ombudsman's column on ESPN which you can read here

I did think ESPN was right to throw out the question of whether or not UFC was a fad like kick boxing or something that was here to stay. Their first major coverage earns a B+ I guess...but letting people with know knowledge of the sport continue to opine on it is in the end counter productive.