UFC president Dana White has recently set his sights on sports media giant ESPN via his (in)famous Twitter account.
White tweeted (sic):
“ESPN always hated us and now they hate us more now that we are on FOX. They canceled my int next week for UFC Rio Fuk ESPN”
Cursing varying entities out via Twitter is nothing new for the outspoken White, but this may be the first time he has gone against such a large force in sports.
ESPN is the most widely known and watched sports network in the world, and it’s likely that their coverage of UFC events and MMA as a whole will drop from the incident. If what White said was true, then ESPN already began to cover the UFC less because of the deal with Fox.
ESPN is owned by the Walt Disney Corporation, who also owns ABC, one of Fox’s rivals. It is clear that the UFC’s move to Fox was taken as an aggressive move by the people at the helm; why would they promote a competitor’s venture into MMA via covering UFC events on ESPN if they don’t have to?
What will this mean for the sport?
It’s difficult to tell now, but the more distinct possibility is that the whole incident doesn’t negatively impact the sport at all. The UFC brand has made it to a deal with Fox without extensive ESPN coverage, and fanfare and will continue to grow without it.
In the future, it will be the UFC that is accepting ESPN’s apology.
Matt Saccaro is a Bleacher Report featured columnist and avid fan of MMA. For more articles like this and for 140-character insights into MMA, follow @mattsaccaro.
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