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The Natural

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whatever happened to Renzo Gracie? As far as I can recall he hasnt fought since he lost to Matt Hughes at UFC 112. Didny he sign a 6 fight deal the UFC? or did they release him after that one fight?

 

Nope still with the UFC. Basically it's one of those deals where if he fancies fighting again he will just tell the UFC when he's ready. He recently spoke about starting training for his next fight. Personally, I don't see him fighting much more but you never know.

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Yeah he wants to fight again. He said this week or last that he signed for six fights and wants to complete his other five. I very much doubt he'll fight five more times, especially at the rate he's going with the long layoffs. Maybe one more fight, two at most.

 

I love Renzo but I can't even think who they could put him against at this point. I don't wanna see a young gun beat him down. But there's no legend type fights, he already fought Hughes. His longtime association with Matt Serra nixes that one aswell. There's not many options for fights that make sense for Renzo in the UFC.

 

Speaking of Hughes and Serra, Serra said he'd consider coming back for the right fight and said specifically "I'd take that fight in a heartbeat" in reference to a Hughes rematch.

 

Matt-Hughes-vs-Matt-Serra-mma-6399656-550-367.jpg

 

I wanna see that. There's still bad blood and the first fight never really settled it, it was a highly disputed decision and I really though Serra won. Both guys are winding down and this fight makes sense for both at this stage in their careers.

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According to the hype tonight's UFC fight with Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen has been hyped as the biggest of all time. It's got huge worldwide interest but yet is the UFC still too niche and not mainstream enough for places like Sky Sports News and BBC sport to cover the event?

 

The reason for my post is I have hardly seen any UK media coverage for the fight on any TV station. There is a lot of UFC fans in the UK yet the fight hasn't been talked about on Sky Sports News or BBC Sport.

 

Is the reason being the fight is on ESPN that Sky won't acknowledge it as its not on one of their channels therefore they won't cover it?

 

Is another reason that MMA and UFC is seen by the mainstream media as being too barbaric and violent to cover during the day for mainstream press channels to cover it?

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It's just simply not big enough of a concern. I've been pushing it to all my mates/family for the last two weeks. Only the MMA die hards are paying attention. Even then they won't make the effort to stay up and watch. Some of these are very knowledgeable on MMA too. Much more so than I am. I despise apathy and ignorance.

MMA has its fans yet it is still not mainstream. No matter what Dana says. Until it is BBC or Sky won't cover it. People do not understand it.

Mike Tyson made an interesting point on MMA hour with Ariel this week. He was saying that MMA has not attracted the scumbags yet. Hopefully it doesn't. Plus Mike is a bit mad.

 

Here's a link to the Mike Tyson interview.

 

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According to the hype tonight's UFC fight with Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen has been hyped as the biggest of all time. It's got huge worldwide interest but yet is the UFC still too niche and not mainstream enough for places like Sky Sports News and BBC sport to cover the event?

 

The reason for my post is I have hardly seen any UK media coverage for the fight on any TV station. There is a lot of UFC fans in the UK yet the fight hasn't been talked about on Sky Sports News or BBC Sport.

 

Is the reason being the fight is on ESPN that Sky won't acknowledge it as its not on one of their channels therefore they won't cover it?

 

Is another reason that MMA and UFC is seen by the mainstream media as being too barbaric and violent to cover during the day for mainstream press channels to cover it?

If the UFC ever make the jump to Sky you'll see the coverage on the sports news channels change in a hurry. ESPN simply doesn't hit that much of an audience.

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Sky have had UFC though. It's not as if they are in a major hurry to get it back. Simply not big enough for it to register on their radar. Not with the people who make the decisions anyhow. It is quite baffling for the people that do get it.

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It used to do big ratings on Bravo, so plenty know what it is, ESPN has a much smaller reach but it still does really well in the ratings for that channel, i'm pretty sure only the football beats it on that channel.

 

The UFC have their own page on sky sports website, like the WWE does and the BBC seems to hate "cage fighting" because they probably deem it too violent but will cover stuff like taekwondo and Judo on their website just not MMA.

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I'm selfish so I hope the UFC doesn't get any bigger, I love the fact I can watch a UFC show a day (or even 2, 3 or 4) after the event took place and not fear running into any spoilers whilst watching the TV or watching the news. Unless UFC moves to free TV and the time they air the fights change (never going to happen) then my opinion won't change.

 

EDIT: I guess my opinion would change if they were close to going bankrupt.

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People are generally un educated about MMA. The same way most people will tell you wrestling is fake. It won't become huge until it manages to capture the publics attention. It just hasn't done so yet. Mike Tyson may have been talking some sense.

I can't stand the likes of Big Brother and X Factor. Yet they are massively popular. MMA isn't even sniffing at that level of interest from Joe public yet.

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Thanks a lot for the Tyson MMA Hour link Jag. I'll watch that tomorrow. As barmy as he is, I think Tyson is actually very intelligent. I always enjoy listening to what he has to say.

 

As for media coverage, yeah there isn't much. Bunce used to mention UFC on that late night Inside Sport show a few years ago on BBC but that's about it. Really, the BBC/ITV etc rarely even cover boxing these days either, unless a Khan, Haye or Froch is fighting. I don't even remember them mentioning the recent Pacquiao or Mayweather fights.

 

I miss the days when Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank could sign a contract live on ITV and the country was swept up in it. Everyone from the local postman to your Nan knew about that fight. Same with Bruno. And Tyson fights were always a big deal in my house.

 

If the UK mainstream media doesn't bother with boxing anymore then it's gonna be a while before MMA gets a look in.

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Very true. Boxing is barely covered. So why should MMA be. Personally boxing can get lost. Not a fan of it at all. We as MMA fans need to educate people as much as possible. Starting with that shirt Rogan wore at the weigh ins. I want one.

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It's just the cost of things, X Factor isn't going to cost that much to produce besides the judges contracts, you will get a full series out of it and get about 10 times the audience every week. ITV probably get similar numbers putting on an old movie rather than a decent sized Boxing fight and it costs a hell of a lot more to put on, they also don't want to produce fighters that just move to Sky or HBO, when their contracts expire either.

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Where does Buncey stand with MMA anyways? Is he a fan?

 

He seems to like it. Well he likes the UFC but he's not a fan of the smaller shows. His loyalty is obviously to boxing but he does like a bit of MMA. I remember him getting all excited on Setanta when the presenter said that Royce Gracie was in the studio for Ultimate Talk.

 

Steve Lillis can be a right fat little cunt towards MMA though. The fat little cunt.

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