Dana White sics UFC fans on ESPN
@danawhite: You guys needs to e mail and tweet ESPN for f***in up the results not me. Josh Gross: Stunning….
@danawhite: You guys needs to e mail and tweet ESPN for f***in up the results not me.
Josh Gross:
Stunning.
Search “espn ufc” on Twitter to get a sense for the reaction White prompted. Yes, this is the UFC president, with more than 1.2 million followers, telling people to COMPLAIN to ESPN for publishing MMA news. It’s mind numbing. Maybe next time they’ll just choose not to cover it at all. How quickly we forget where the sport was five years ago. To be offended by ESPN or SI or any mainstream sports news outlet considering MMA relevant enough to publish results in real time is asinine.
A better suggestion, as pointed out by a lucid observer via Twitter: How about directing complaints to UFC’s TV partner, Spike TV?
Geno Mrosko adds:
Dana White told fans on his Twitter to complain to ESPN for rolling spoilers across the bottom of the screen on their ticker on ABC during college football games and on their channel. He actually told his 1.2 million followers to complain to ESPN. Whether it’s a good thing or not, White has a great deal of influence on people. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if quite a few of his followers actually took his advice and sent in some form of complaint. I’m not sure what could have been going through his head when he tweeted this. Does he not want them to cover the UFC? How dare they report news, either. That’s just unacceptable.
While I think the spoiler thing is nice if fans get consideration, it shouldn’t be a be all end all kind of thing. Fans know when events are. If they want to see them when they air live, there are plenty of ways of doing so. Maybe White needs to get with Spike about airing the fights live, when they actually happen. That would solve this whole mess.