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MMA / UFC Coverage
MMA FEATURE: Penick's Countdown to UFC 91 Series - Part Five - The Media Coverage Nov 14, 2008 - 8:12:10 PM
This is part five of my Countdown to UFC 91 series. Come back every day for a new article covering some aspect of this historic main event bout between Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Today I'm looking at the media coverage of this event and what it means for both this event and the sport as well. Once again, please take advantage of our new comments feature to interact with other readers and staff on the articles and audios.
Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture is just over 24 hours away, and every aspect of what may happen in the cage has been covered exhaustively over the past weeks. This is, quite simply, going to be the biggest fight in this young sport's history. It's one of the most intriguing matchups we've ever seen, and will be the next chapter in one legendary career; or the start of a new legend's book.
We as fight fans have been all over the big fights and the big match-ups that have come and gone in this sport over the last decade and a half, and yet, we're seeing something different coming into this fight. Mixed Martial Arts as a whole has not been covered well by the mainstream sports media, although that trend has started to change over the last year, and it's never been covered with the seriousness and fervor with which we are seeing in this match-up. Brock Lesnar, bringing his massive size and history with pro wrestling and an attempt to get into the NFL, has brought with him a lot of attention heading into this fight. Randy Couture, being one of the most well-known names the sport's ever had, has done the same with his return.
The two combined have made it so that the UFC has not even heavily promoted this fight for tomorrow. They haven't needed to; it's been making it's rounds and everyone who knows anything about the sport knows this fight is going down. As Dana White commented this week, "this fight sells itself." And while that alone may not lead to it being the largest Pay Per View grossing event in MMA history, the coverage from major outlets across the globe will certainly do so.
ESPN, the most well known sports programming station in the U.S., has been on the pulse of this fight from it's announcement. The morning after the media conference call that first announced this fight, both Lesnar and Couture were in studio with ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning show. Speaking through a few segments with the pair, both Couture and Lesnar gave their match up a much more important feel than many fights in the past. Following the radio show, they also had a segment on Sportscenter that day as well, with both of them being interviewed in studio across from each other.
This is the type of coverage that we haven't yet seen for this sport, and was already a gigantic leap in coverage less than 24 hours after it was announced. As we've now come close to 24 hours before the event, the media coverage has only increased.
Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar are being mentioned in publications and outlets from USA Today to NBC Sports. These are not areas that the UFC or MMA have been reaching on an event by event basis, and the success of this weekend's show may change that. These are also not just flippant "this event is happening" articles, these are full on breakdown analysis type articles that you'd see for what are considered the "normal" sporting events in this country.
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