Typical ESPN Coverage of the UFC

By Micah Stoll

At this point I think most fans of MMA have heard about ESPN's airing of a piece on fighters pay in the UFC. And if you read about or watched the Outside the Lines report, you have more than likely heard the UFC's angry response.

Close to a year ago I wrote an article claiming the UFC needed ESPN to reach the sports stratosphere that Dana White claims they will eventually achieve. 

ESPN is the world wide leader in sports. It would be nice if the UFC had fights broadcasted on the network that reaches over 100 million homes, which is approximately 90% of the homes in the US. Since 2010, ESPN2 has been available in the same number of homes as the flagship channel.

There is no denying ESPN's reach once you also add ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN radio and their web site.

However, having fights on ESPN is still not as important as having the channel cover the sport.

For a reason I do not know, ESPN has been slow to cover MMA. However, they feel the sporting fan enjoys watching poker, college lacrosse and the most brutal of them all, the WNBA.

ESPN once again showed their biased towards MMA, the UFC inparticular, with the Outside the Lines report.

My biggest complaint is that the report used phantom math numbers to guess the percentage fighters receive, compared to the amount the company earns. The UFC is privately owned and is not required to make their earnings known to the public.

Some have claimed the UFC pays out between 10-18% of the money earned to talent. In the major four sports, the money payed out is about 50%.

However, comparing MMA to the NFL is impossible.

The biggest difference is the money taken in due to broadcasting rights. The UFC signed a great contract that pays them 100 million dollars a year, for seven years, with Fox. That will help fighters salaries and the expansion of the company.

The NFL has a 3.73 billion dollar deal with CBS, 3.6 billion with NBC, 4.27 billion with Fox and 8.8 billion with ESPN That totals 20.4 billion to broadcast the NFL through 2013. From 2014 to 2022 the same networks will pay out 39.6 billion to broadcast the NFL.

The sheer numbers of the contracts payed out to the UFC and to the NFL are important. It is much easier to give out a bigger piece of pie, when the pie is so astronomically large.

Also, the organizations are run much differently. All NFL teams are independently operated. How the Chicago Bears scout, draft, gameplan, play on the field, hire employees and market the team does not affect how the St. Louis Rams operate. If the Bears build an excellent organization, put a good team on the field and play in front of a full stadium, the effects are not felt by the Rams. However, the UFC is a single banner that all the fighters compete under.

The other aspect of the report that did not sit well is the newness of the UFC. The top four sports leagues have been around much longer than the sport of MMA and the UFC.

UFC 1 took place in 1993 and as most know, spent years barely surviving. It was not until 1995 that the organization started crawling out of the 40 million dollar hole they were in.

When the big four sports leagues first started players had to have secondary employment. Mike Ditka tells stories of teammates and what they did to earn extra money.

For many other reasons the Outside the Lines report was a butcher job, intentionally trying to discredit the UFC.

I of course want fighters to make more money. I also have some philosophical differences with the UFC and some of their business practices. However, the company is growing rapidly, paying their fighters in greater excess than any other MMA organization by far. While also providing insurance, giving fighters greater sponsorship opportunities and giving them recognition that again allows them to increase their chances to make more money.

The report probably garnered more attention by MMA fans than it deserves. It is a show with low viewership on a channel that has long fought the growth of MMA. 

Until they take care of their own combat athletes (boxing), and not pay some their participants in the hundreds of dollars, they should allow the outlets that are unbiased and understand the sport of MMA to cover it.