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SMG: An interview with Kevin Iole

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Lucas Wiseman, Jun 26, 2007.

  1. Lucas Wiseman

    Lucas Wiseman Well-Known Member

    Sports Media Guide talks with Yahoo! Sports boxing and mixed martial arts writer Kevin Iole.

    Iole says: "My job is to deliver personal and personality insights into my sports, which are the most individual sports compared to others out there. They are made up of very unique individuals. I don't get caught up in who has the best look hook or who is the better body puncher. I'd rather tell how they got there and who and what they are. That's what I do – I find out things and write about people who are putting their lives on the line to making a living."

    http://www.sportsmediaguide.com/smg.asp
     
  2. henryhenry

    henryhenry Member

    is mixed martial arts a sport?

    does anybody have the cockfighting beat?
    is there a cockfighting writers association?
     
  3. Yeah
    Whitlock and Lupica are members.

    Oh. Oh. Wait, cockFighting? Fighting. Um, That I'm not sure about.
     
  4. Barsuk

    Barsuk Active Member

    Yeah, because MMA and cockfighting are one and the same. ::)
     
  5. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    Paging BlondeBomber. BlondeBomber, please report to this thread immediately.
     

  6. Let's see, it has been on the cover of SI and ESPN mags, all the big national sports websites regularly cover it and most have their own dedicated MMA pages, the LA Times and the Washington Post cover major UFC events. Sounds like the people in power have decided it is a sport and it merits coverage. But god bless you for going down with the ship, henry.
     
  7. Mighty_Wingman

    Mighty_Wingman Active Member

    If the cover of ESPN magazine helps determine newsworthiness, may God have mercy on our souls.
     
  8. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    At the APSE convention, AP's Terry Taylor was constantly asked about MMA coverage. I suspect we'll see more coming from the AP in the coming months.
     
  9. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    We've been down this road before, of course, but the bottom line to me is this: you can ignore MMA all you want on a personal level -- I'll admit, it's not on my TiVo list -- but you can't complain about newspapers missing the boat with young people and then completely ignore MMA, which plays to packed houses and ridiculous PPV audiences for males 18-34. Debate about whether it should go on your sports front, sure, but it's not debatable on whether or not it belongs in your section, at least when the show comes to your city.
     
  10. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    I don't think the major metros where UFC cards are held are ignoring it. The problem is the thousands of smaller papers that can't afford to fly a guy to Vegas to cover a PPV. We need the AP to step up the coverage.
     
  11. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    So newspapers and publications should continue the fruitless pursuit of people who have no interest in reading the printed word and have already found numerous dot-com outlets for their ultimate fighting fix? Don't we gripe when idiot higher ups tell us to pursue the "young readership" instead of strengthening the relationship with those who actually WANT to open a newspaper or magazine?

    This, to me, would seem to be a perfectly rational reason not to cover ultimate fighting. You guys want to read about a buncha savages knocking each other around, knock yourself out going to sites you were going to visit anyway.
     
  12. henryhenry

    henryhenry Member

    momentarily depart from the 'coverage' issue:

    the real problem with MMA as a 'sport' is that it's dull.
    few clean punches. lots of grappling on the ground.
    and its relatively devoid of toughness and grit.

    these super-macho guys actually 'submit' - which is to say, they quit. roberto duran's career was tainted when he quit - no mas - just once. these MMA guys quit - 'submit' - all the time, and nobody thinks it at all dishonorable. i don't get it.

    boxers, in a good 10-round bout, give and take more solid blows than MMA guys in a career.

    ask yourself why no MMA champion ever will be a global icon like Ali: because there is a dignity and universal manhood expressed by boxing. what does MMA express? empty theatricality? useless and dubious martial techniques? (anybody with a gun or lead pipe will make the best MMA guy 'submit')

    and these MMA guys, with their tatoos and fierce visages and macho posturing - whoa - straight out of a video game. a National Lampoon parody of Mulletville, USA.
     
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