MMA Espn

Episode 4 of ESPN.com's MMA Live is another good one:

The crew started, of course, talking about the EliteXC show on CBS. Although analyst Kenny Florian did note that the quality of EliteXC's fighting was "sub-par," he bucked the UFC company line by saying, "Overall, I think it was a success. ... Any time we get more people watching mixed martial arts I think it's a good thing."

They then turned their attention to WEC 34, especially the great technical fight that Urijah Faber put together, and had Faber on as a guest. Faber said that he injured both hands against Jens Pulver, but that neither is broken and that he thinks they'll heal completely.

Matt Hughes then joined the show to promote his upcoming fight at UFC 85. Overall, yet another solid episode of MMA Live.

After EliteXC had its debut show on CBS, UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN to put EliteXC into what White views as its proper context within the sport of mixed martial arts:

"Mixed martial arts didn't put its best foot forward," White said. "What happened on CBS was horrendous."

The appearance was set up as a debate between White and St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell, who hates MMA, but Burwell really didn't have much of an answer for why he thinks it's OK to show violent entertainment programs like 24, and show sports like football, but not show MMA.

The closest Burwell came was when he said of football, "The object of the game is not to kick somebody in the head." True enough, but then again, MMA never has a 200-pound man getting drilled simultaneously by two 300-pound men. I have a hard time understanding how anyone who wants to ban MMA doesn't also want to ban football.

I continue to be impressed with ESPN's MMA Live. Here's episode 3:

The show started with an examination of Kimbo Slice, and it was refreshing to see that even though Slice is the cover boy on the most recent ESPN Magazine, they didn't pretend that he's a great mixed martial arts fighter. Kenny Florian pointed out, correctly, that Robbie Lawler -- not Slice -- is EliteXC's best fighter.

They also went over some UFC 84 highlights, looked ahead to future UFC events, discussed the Randy Couture contract situation and previewed this weekend's WEC show and the July Affliction show.

I enjoyed ESPN.com's first MMA Live show, and I enjoyed the second as well:

They started with a good look at the UFC 84 main event, Sean Sherk vs. B.J. Penn, and analyst Kenny Florian had some interesting thoughts about the fight, as well as the possibility that he'll take on the winner if he beats Roger Huerta at UFC 87.

They also discussed the silly notion that Kimbo Slice might fight Mike Tyson, and Randy Couture's continuing legal battle against UFC. Overall the 30-minute show is very much worth a look for mixed martial arts fans.

On yesterday's post about which fight various MMA writers most want to see, FanHouse commenter Drew asked, "MDS, you watched ESPN.com Original series MMA Live???? discuss it after viewing it."

Thanks for asking, Drew. I will discuss it, but first, here's the video:

So there you have it, the premier episode of MMA Live, a 30-minute show that appears to be taped in an ESPN studio in Bristol, just like SportsCenter and ESPN's other studio shows, but that is shown only on ESPN.com, not on television.

I liked it a lot. Host Jon Anik and analysts Kenny Florian and Franklin McNeil offered good analysis of all the major issues -- Fedor Emelianenko's upcoming Affliction fight, Tito Ortiz's upcoming final UFC fight, whether Randy Couture will ever have another fight, and so on.

I also like the fact that this is ESPN covering mixed martial arts as a sport and not as a spectacle. That is a very good sign that there are people at ESPN who "get it" when it comes to MMA.

Will the show succeed? Will it ever move off ESPN.com and onto TV? I don't know. There are three commercial for Toyota Trucks during the show, so I assume it's bringing in some revenue, but I also assume we're a long ways away from actually seeing regular MMA coverage on ESPN. Still, this is a big step in the right direction.

One of the best things ESPN.com does is post a lot of videos related to mixed martial arts. That's particularly surprising because ESPN doesn't televise MMA, and fans of other sports, especially hockey, have complained that ESPN simply ignores the sports it doesn't televise. But here it is, the latest ESPN MMA video, a rundown of the world's Top 10 pound-for-pound MMA fighters, according to Sherdog:

I think we've reached the point where it's obvious to anyone who follows the sport who the No. 1 fighter on the list is going to be, but what about positions 2-10? For those who don't feel like watching the video to find out, the list is after the jump.

ESPN's LZ Granderson has an interesting column this week about Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson who got somewhat famous by posting his street fights on the Internet and is now getting even more famous for fighting in legitimate mixed martial arts competitions.

And Granderson writes that he thinks the fact that Slice is going big-time is a big problem:

I don't know if he's necessarily stupid, because I've never met the man, but he certainly seems to be misguided. Why else would Slice disregard all sense of honor, pride and history to project an image that can best be described as a cross between Lil' Wayne and Kunta Kinte -- a runaway slave with a mouth full of gold teeth playing up every single stereotype of an African-American male in exchange for short-lived adoration from a soulless media with ADD. ... I find what Slice is consciously doing downright disgusting.

I think Granderson is one of America's best sports writers, and I share some of his concerns about the way Slice is sometimes portrayed. But I also think it's important to remember that Slice can't control how others portray him, and he demonstrates in all of his interviews that he's an intelligent and articulate person who takes his sport seriously. I think people who watch his first CBS fight will come away thinking highly of him.

UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra will fight Georges St-Pierre at UFC 83 this month in a bout that will get hundreds of thousands of pay-per-view buys. But in a sign of how far he has come, take a look at just how small time this 2000 fight featuring Serra was:

From fights in dimly lit VFW halls to selling out the Bell Centre in Montreal. Serra has come a long way.

And while we're on the subject of old-school Serra fights, I didn't realize ESPN had ever televised mixed martial arts until I stumbled upon this YouTube of an MMA match featuring Serra from several years ago. Some nice color commentary there by Frank Shamrock, back when ESPN2 was espn2 -- all lower case -- and they were trying to be "hip" and "edgy" and appeal to young people. Good times.

A treat for UFC fans, as the great Brian Kenny takes a break from boxing to interview Joe Rogan about Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson:

It's always a pleasant surprise to see Kenny talking about mixed martial arts, and the fact that he does so knowledgeably is another reason to hope ESPN puts together some type of deal to show MMA.

As for Rogan's commentary, he said, of course, that the Silva-Henderson fight will be great, but he deserves to be commended for bucking the UFC company line on the potential for a Randy Couture-Fedor Emelianenko fight taking place outside UFC.

Rogan said of Mark Cuban, "having him involved in MMA is only a good thing." Somehow I don't think Dana White agrees.

I wrote this morning that UFC 82 has been almost completely ignored by the mainstream sports media. But one exception is Jim Rome, who did this tremendous interview with Dan Henderson on ESPN's Rome Is Burning:

Rome was impressive in the interview, coming across as well-prepared and knowledgeable about the sport of mixed martial arts, and not treating it like a sideshow the way that many in the sports media do. The most interesting part of the interview came when Rome asked Henderson -- who joined UFC when UFC purchased his contract with Pride -- about the claims from some quarters that UFC doesn't treat the fighters well.

"They've been great -- I've got no complaints whatsoever," Henderson said. "They take care of me. As far as I know, some of [the other Pride] fighters as well, they do a good job taking care of the other fighters as well."

As for the upcoming fight with Anderson Silva, Henderson said, "I'm not afraid of his hands. He's definitely more technical than I am, I'm not arguing that fact, but I have a little more power."