The UFC won its war on the media
Whether Dana White reflected fan sentiment or created it, he got what he wanted.
Editor’s note: Apologies to those who hoped to see the prospectus return this past week. I got it all set and prepped to write, and then fell very ill. So much so that I couldn’t even record an episode of the Depressed-us and have been scraping myself back together slowly day by day until I’m now finally sitting down here on Sunday to put some new thoughts to paper.
The Prospectus will continue. It’s my fun passion project. But it simply couldn’t happen over these past several days.
Lately I’ve been on the hunt for a little extra part time writing work. I honestly enjoyed the grind of day to day media coverage for MMA and even though I’m not entirely sure I ever want to go back to managing and editing a whole site day to day, writing the news is a job I enjoy.
So I’ve slowly begun hunting for a new gig, as one does in the media world, knocking around familiar faces and places and looking to see who might need a little something done here and there.
I already knew the landscape had changed since I first started this job a decade ago, but I think it’s only striking me now just how fundamentally the whole landscape of fandom—and thus coverage—around mixed martial arts has changed.
One of the more surprising and (much like the rest of MMA history) forgotten aspects of this industry is that MMA was the first ‘online’ sport. Starting in its earliest years, the UFC work hard to develop and foster a presence on the internet, with a website, live forums, and chances to chat with famous fighters. Out of those roots, cagefighting boomed in the sphere of ‘new media’. Fans weren’t just trading tapes and renting UFC DVDs at Blockbuster, they were getting online to talk about it all.
The more they got to talking about it, the more they wanted to learn about it. Websites sprung up everywhere, seemingly overnight. The UFC encouraged their fighters to speak to the media openly and easily, and would give just about anyone with a laptop a press pass—meaning that access to a fast growing world of combat sports was practically unprecidented.
It wasn’t boxing, where the publishing old guard and entrenched fans where so hidebound to guarded camps and a magazine industry where only the very biggest fights and the most revered writers could gain any traction. This was a wild west where even the opening bout on a card might feature someone fans were champing to hear more from or know more about, and who would gladly sit down for an hour with anyone who took the time to look them up.
I’d say MMA probably hit its peak as a ‘cool’ growth brand back in the late 2000s/early 2010s—around the time of Brock Lesnar’s title run—but even when I jumped on it was still very much a growing industry where jobs were being created at a constant rate.
For years I would get DMs and emails from people telling me they (or often their sons) wanted to be an MMA writer, like me, and were wondering how to break into the business.
My response was always to tell them to try getting a real job first and see if they can do this as a hobby that might become supporting in time. But, I’d often also talk to people about the necessities of surviving in a media sphere like this one. How it’s most important to be a good, strong writer first and foremost, because that would always play a part in whatever they do, but also to consider finding a niche. Do they want to be an interview guy? A technique guy? A video guy? Do they want to podcast, cover a region, etc. etc.
This was an industry that made room for creative passion and finding a way to make that passion unique could take someone a long way.
Somewhere along the way, however, the UFC’s interest in media changed. Once an open book,i t became distinctly antagonistic and hostile. Obviously, given the kind of outsider publication the Bloody Elbow was, I’d like to think we played a big part in that. But the turth is it was pretty reflective of a broader shift in American culture, and that many of the core gripes that UFC executives have displayed in public over the years were only opaquely connected to BE.
Dana White’s infamous COVID hit piece video focused more on bigger names, higher profile publications. He might have been pissed at us for saying that it was foolish to hold these events, but only as part of a big sea of other people he was also pissed off at. Even with BE for all purposes dead and gone he’s still constantly threatening a group of media reporters so uncritical of the promotion that Jon Jones’ P4P debate has been the most obvious point of pushback in the industry for the past 6 months.
The gutting of media is complete, the jobs are gone, the war is won. In the couple years ahead of BE’s collapse, nobody asked me about working in MMA media anymore. Websites started cutting staff, and have steadily been closing left right and center. It’s not just a job nobody has, it’s a job nobody wants.
There are still a varitey of people doing fun content on individual YouTube, Substack, and Patreon accounts out there. From technical brakedowns to critical analysis, editorial work, and even the rare bit of deep dive reporting. But it’s less present in the fan community than ever before. Replaced instead by influencer led content, talking up rumors and social media beefs, or creating them when good enough quality can’t be found.
More reports of fighters charging for interviews have cropped up. Big name talent wants a carefully manicured media experience if they’re going to sit down and talk to someone. The only room for new vocies to step in and make a career for themselves is if they’re more willing to become the story than to tell it.
It is, all told, a dead scene. Exactly what the UFC has been striving for in at least the last 5 years. That’s a shame, not just because it’s harder to find work, but because it makes everything about being a fan less fun.
It’s all too true. In the gap between when I was at Vice and BE I looked at all the MMA sites and was able to gauge their tone and editorial objective, and know where I fit in. There aren’t even sites to assess anymore, it’s dozens of little boutique ideas and some are great: The CME, the Prospectus and your pods, Luke Thomas Live Chat, but there’s no platforms anymore for thoughtful work. Maybe Uncrowned will become that place but I burned that bridge already. Now that I live in a different country I’m going to develop an IRL career.
What the majority of casual UFC fans wanted was not independent media scrutinizing the powers-that-be but rather media that reinforced their justification on wasting so much time watching fight sports. Same thing in other sports and political venues.
No one wants to feel like a sucker or made to feel bad about supporting something they shouldn't be backing.