Dana White’s least favorite reporter lands at ESPN
ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, has significantly upgraded their MMA coverage, adding the sport’s best reporter, Josh Gross, to…
ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports, has significantly upgraded their MMA coverage, adding the sport’s best reporter, Josh Gross, to their team. Gross has covered the sport of MMA for more than a decade, traveling all over the world to bring fans the stories no one else could, or in some cases were, willing to. First for the beloved Full Contact Fighter and later for Sherdog and Sports Illustrated, Gross fearlessly reported the news of the day, with bylines time stamped from Japan to North Dakota, all in search of MMA excellence.
Gross is one of a handful of reporters on Zuffa’s enemies list. He’s barred from events and any official media coverage and bringing up his name can elicit profanity from the UFC brass. That wasn’t always the case. In fact, Gross was once so respected by UFC President Dana White that he was offered a job running the editorial portion of the official UFC website. How did Gross go from a job offer to a blanket ban? The answer is complicated.
Before entities like ESPN were interested in MMA, news, rumors, and information were carried to a small but loyal group of hardcore fans by independent websites like Sherdog, MMA Weekly, and publications like Full Contact Fighter. It was a true grassroots movement and UFC owner Dana White seemed to appreciate the effort of these groundbreaking reporters and fans. At the UFC 52 press conference White gave a shout out to many of the stalwart few who had followed the UFC through the good times and the bad. Mere months later, things had changed.
