News and notes from around the MMA world …

- UFC and HBO deal is dead for now.

- Clay Guida vs. Roger Huerta gives The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale a top notch main event.

- Why Kimbo Slice vs. Tank Abbott didn’t happen last weekend.

- There is room for both boxing and MMA.

- Dave Meltzer joins the Yahoo! Sports team.

Talking Points

I have to admit that I’m disappointed that the UFC and HBO weren’t able to work out a deal to have MMA on the premium cable network. Actually, I ordered HBO earlier in the year because I figured that it was just a matter of time before UFC was going to be covered on HBO. HBO covers sports in a way that most networks don’t. It’s classy with very high production values. If you watch how HBO covers sports and then see how a network covers sports, it’s easy to see why the UFC would want to be on HBO. It would further legitimize them as a sport, showing them in a classic light. Boxing fans understand this as HBO has covered boxing in a way that is not comparable, for the last few decades. At this point, it seems to be that Dana White and company don’t want to give up some of the control of their product. White also says that he thinks the deal will eventually get done, and though he’s been saying that for months, it seems like they were close several times and that it would be easy to open up negotiations again.

Dana White has mentioned recently that they have other television opportunities. The UFC carries the cable network and the chance to have fighting on cable television helped pave the way for their current success as a sport, especially with The Ultimate Fighter. It seems hard to believe that the UFC would want to leave Spike TV, but if they were able to secure a deal with ESPN, it could be worth it. Though, they wouldn’t be the top dog on ESPN, who has the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball, which would be higher on the totem pole. Hopefully we’ll see something about this in the near future.

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Thanks for reading,

Garrett M. Gonzales
MMA.Consumerhelpweb.com

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Labels: Clay Guida, Dana White, Dave Meltzer, ESPN, HBO, Kimbo Slice, Roger Huerta, Tank Abbot

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