angryjonny

So indirectly you are supporting their decision. It's cool though. I don't expect to many people to do so. That is what sucks. Zuffa and Dana can get away with this stuff because they got the market by the balls now. What's up soon to be monopoly? Zuffa doesn't care about MMA they care about UFC and lining their pockets, not the fighters. I will take my business elsewhere. I'd rather KOTC and TKO get popular so I might see if I can watch a couple at my parents house every now and then.

[Danny]

I'm just saying that the UFC does have a good amount of fighters that are in teh top ten and I want to see them fight. I'm a Chuck, Randy, Arvlowski, and Babalu fan and I want to see them work and watch their careers grow. I'm just saying not watching UFC is like taking a damn big chunk out of the MMA world considering Pride is the only promotion bigger and better than it.

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glockmn

I don't think it is all about money I think alot of it is hushing certain fighters like Tito ..

I think the deal with the tuff fighters is so the people that haven't been fans since way back like most of us can watch a figher grow and get attatched to a fighter from day 1 in the UFC..

Do I agree NO I think it is bad PR

JoeRoganismyhero

But on the other hand they get rid of Salaverry, Lindland, Ortiz, Belfort, etc. All guys that we were getting used to. I don't understand the UFC sometimes!

Unknown

I am not a marketing expert. And I can’t say I am qualified to make a fare judgment on this. But, that said, I think the UFC is going to need all the money it can get soon. Having an Ultimate Fight Night the on a Monday night was ballsy. And I Hear it pissed the WWE off. At the moment the UFC dose not have the resources to compete with the WWE.

I knew it was the UFC intention to compete with the WWE when Spike TV brought in the only current competitor for the WWE, TNA, to promote the Ultimate Fighter Marathon and to show impact after Ultimate Fight Night 2.

Now, I don’t agree with the decision to deny credentials to the media that has supported. Mostly because I like the coverage. But I think the UFC might be planning to use this to get more money. Even if they don’t charge us for access, charging advertisers will bring in some more money.

A lot of people have said that this will give more PR to the smaller organizations and Pride. They are right. But you have to look at it this way. These companies directly compete with each other. You could be a fan of all of them no problem. And right now any good PR for MMA is good for the UFC.

I dislike some of the things that they have done, because I like my Media coverage and I like the guys they were giving away. But right now I think that the UFC might be facing a harder challenge that the ‘dark days.’

AikaImmortal

Good article.. apperantly fightsport.com's spoiler posting was POST media ban.

The Savage Truth: The Silent Treatment
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The Savage Truth: The Silent Treatment
October 5, 2005
by Greg Savage (Greg@sherdog.com)

So it’s finally official.

Absolutely no MMA media will be on hand to cover this week’s UFC 55 card. No weigh-in video. No post-fight interviews.

I have heard all of the conspiracy theories floating around the Internet from the ill-informed pseudo insiders:

The UFC’s decision to rescind MMA media access was due to the TUF 2 spoilers leaked on the Internet.

(Sorry kids, word of the ban was out before any spoilers were posted. Feel free to try again.)

It has something to do with UFC’s purported entrance into the publishing realm. Word has it there will be a revamped Web site as well as a brand-spanking new UFC magazine.

(Quite possible, but I am not 100 percent sold on that one yet.)

Perhaps UFC President Dana White has had enough of what he perceives as the less than supportive coverage of his company from the people whose livelihood he thinks is dependant upon the UFC.

(Ding, ding, ding. I think we have a winner.)

The word on the street is the Prez attributes the success of Sherdog.com, MMAWeekly.com, Full Contact Fighter, et al, to a massive coattail effect. Now there is no denying the recent popularity enjoyed by the UFC has contributed to an increase of traffic for our site; I would imagine the same is true of others in the industry.

But don’t forget, Sherdog.com was growing long before The Ultimate Fighter fell into Zuffa’s lap and turned its ledger from an ocean of red to the sea of black I would imagine it is today.

With that said, White has every right to do what he has done — with a few caveats attached that is.

Those exceptions being that Zuffa outline a clear set of criterion for those who wish to cover their shows and uniformly enforce those requirements across the board, without exception.

The book on this calamity could be slammed shut in minutes and all questions answered if only a line of communication would open up between Zuffa and those media entities Dana White himself was so anxious to praise less than six months before. Is it too much to ask for these “new” requirements? If we do not meet the requirements, we would at least know what we should be aspiring to.

Now I don’t know if Mr. White was on an emotional high after seeing his friend and former client Chuck Liddell (Pictures) take home UFC gold after knocking out Randy Couture (Pictures), but he can be seen and heard on the UFC 52 post-fight presser video singing the praises of a couple of the now unwelcome media outlets.

How the tide has turned. In just a few short months we have gone from an integral part of the evolution of the UFC to a band of illegitimate hacks. I, on the other hand, would have thought we were moving in the other direction. But what do I know?

Well one thing I do know is that there will be a big uproar over this and rightly so, but I really don’t think it’s that big a deal for Sherdog.com as a company. Don’t get me wrong, less UFC access will have its drawbacks but the fact of the matter is Sherdog.com covers the sport of mixed martial arts, and although some entities in and around this sport may disagree: the UFC is just a cog in the machine that is MMA.

Sure, it is a huge part of the sport, but a part nonetheless.

I know this was not a popular decision in the Zuffa office, for good reason. And I wonder what the true motivation was behind its inception. I can tell you this: It would have been a whole lot easier to swallow had there not been a long history of personal rather than sound business decisions being handed down from atop the Zuffa throne.

And the silence we, as an industry, have been met with regarding our concerns about this new policy speaks volumes.

All we are asking for are the new set of qualifications Zuffa is using to grant credentials. Seems simple enough, don’t you think? The only reason I can come up with for the refusal on Zuffa’s part is my belief that there is no new set of guidelines and this decision was made in the most arbitrary of manners.

Does it make sense to clean out press row? You bet your ass it does. I can’t tell you how many times I have been sitting in the pressroom watching fans, err “journalists” posing for photos, soliciting autographs, and just plain gushing over fighters like teenaged girls fawning over Brad Pitt. But it makes absolutely no sense to throw the baby out with the bathwater and that’s what they are doing when they ban the top MMA media sites.

When I wrote about this issue last January I hoped to shine a light inside the world of MMA media. Little did I know Dana White was getting ready to take a flamethrower to press row.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Shortly after purchasing the UFC, the Zuffa brass thought it was ready to take the world by storm and at UFC 32 it tried to relegate the MMA media to second-class citizen status.

(This was the impetus for the classic Eddie Goldman meltdown — I would love to explain but I don’t have an extra 10,000 words so let’s just say it involved Eddie unleashing an F-bomb laced tirade on the girl in charge of media credentials after finding out he was not going to be sitting ringside. And for good measure he put an exclamation point on his remarks with a word that rhymes with “hunt.”)

That Zuffa policy lasted less than one show, as we were allowed to fill in all the spots that had been reserved for all the “mainstream” media that failed to show.

I fear this time we might have a tougher fight on our hands. We all know what we are up against and personally I feel the best course of action is to continue to conduct ourselves in a professional manner. This will leave the UFC little wiggle room on the true reason for the sudden and unwarranted revocation of media credentials for outlets such as Sherdog.com, MMAWeekly.com and Full Contact Fighter. The reason is still a mystery and will continue to be until Mr. White finds time to address the issue. I would imagine if there were legitimate reasons he would be shouting from every mountaintop, reassuring MMA fans that he still has the best interests of the sport at heart.

Sometimes silence can be deafening.

As always, comments are welcome — even from you Dana. Drop me a line at greg@sherdog.com and let us know what you think.

The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com

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LuvMyCRX®

In the end, the media blackout doesnt effect me. It seems like a pretty shrewd business move, but the UFC will have to do something really crazy to lose me. Since Im a bill-payer, I dont see them doing too much to piss me off.

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subgenius

I find myself wondering how the larger media fits into this situation. I mean, when was the last time ESPN or any major sports media outlet (ABC, CBS, etc.) reported on the outcomes of UFC, or any MMA, events? I wonder if some behind the scenes courting of ESPN (and others) will be revealed at the next UFC PPV. Perhaps they want to flush out the so-called MMA Media sites because they are less professional (maybe?)... As with the Eddie Goldman meltdown...

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BJ Penn stole my SHOE!!!

angryjonny

I have no interest in a UFC magazine. And it is very possible that you will have to pay to get the info on their website. I doubt they are going to give it out for free.

I don't know how you think it doesn't effect you CRX. You are a fan and that is who this is effecting. There is no reason they needed to do this except greed. Things would have been going along fine had they not changed this. I can understand the part about not letting some sites have credentials but when some of the top MMA sites get banned, that is where it get's ridiculous. I don't know if you live on Sherdog and MMAWeekly as I do but if you don't then I can understand why you don't care.

LuvMyCRX®

I dont visit them as much as I should. I depend on yall for my MMA info!
*CRX removes lips from FFs butt*
The inside info will still be around, someone will buy it and put it up for all to see.

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subgenius

I only hope that UFC greed equals better UFC fighters! I mean, I know that the UFC big executives have to make it rich and roll in the money, but they also NEED to reinvest that cash into the promotions. If they use it to draw in big PRIDE FC names or some such, then I am all for it... But, I still do not see why they would alienate certain key MMA sites (other than a deplorable lack of professionalism, if that exists).

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BJ Penn stole my SHOE!!!

angryjonny

You are 100% correct. I am just having a hard time believing this is how it is going down. To me they are focusing solely on making their "average" to "above average" TUF fighters into stars. They are exploiting them and letting the real talent go or moving them to the dark matches, unless they are the poster boys, for a lack of a better term. I understand the money thing, they need to make it but I just don't see them doing it to improve the sport. They are just capitalizing on a fad that blew up in popularity and has me wondering what they will do when it dies down. Each week it seems the ratings are slipping for TUF which shows that some are losing interest. It's not a huge decrease but it is slowly starting to dwindle. That is not to say that they haven't gained some "real" fans who have actually showed interest in learning more about it. Not just the drama crap and only caring about the TUF fighters. I know for a fact that there are some people who only watch it because it's just another reality show. The main thing that bothers me is I went back and watched the UFC 52 post fight press conference and Dana was kissing Sherdog's, and FCF's butts and less than 6 months later he stabs them in the back. (yes I know it is not only Dana but it's easier to just say that)