Ultimate Fighting coverage

I was wondering how some of you have covered Ultimate Fighting in the past. I realize it's gaining ground on other sports such as boxing, but when it comes to town, do you ignore it, or welcome it like a pay-per-view boxing match?

 

This question came up a few days ago.

We've had three events here since January. Basically, it's a bunch of local and state thugs battling it out. The last two events, the promoter hasn't even bothered to notify us of what's going on. We've basically ignored it.

 

Coverage? In a word, no.

 

Right, joe. I mean, why would a newspaper cover a sport people actually watch?

 

I think local events are probably not worthy unless they're drawing big audiences, but UFC itself is drawing strong numbers for PPV events, so it warrants some type of attention.

 

Yeah, I wasn't talking about a few drunks battling in a makeshift boxing ring. I was talking about the real deal.

 

When usually put info about the fight in the briefs column the day before the fight. We've never covered it.

 

So should cheerleading competitions be covered too?

So nobody bites my head off, cheerleading and UFC aren't sports. Both are events/competitions.

 

So is boxing not a sport, either?

 

I covered a toughman competition a long time ago when butterbean was all the rage. Instead of covering who won and who lost -- nobody cares -- I turned it into an enterprise piece on a random guy I picked at the weigh-ins and followed him the whole day and night. Turns out, his buddies at work ponied up some money to dare him to do it. talked to his skanky girlfriend, work buddies and family.
It actually was a hell of a lot more interesting than some "real" sporting events I've covered.
The trick is to turn it into something people will read, not so-and-so knocked out so-and-so.

 

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with you, but say there are 10,000 people at at UFC deal, but only 1,000 at the minor league game down the street? Sure the baseball game happens some 40-plus times a year, and the UFC once or twice per year — at best. I guess I am simply trying to judge how others have dealt with this in the past.

 

Are we required to have a thread about covering the UFC every week? Hell, I started a thread last week when I got an invite to attend a dinner thrown by Dana White and UFC during the APSE convention in Vegas.

Speaking of ... there's also a dinner/cocktail hour being thrown on the same night by a couple of boxing promoters. The UFC event is at its training center. The boxing event is at Pure, a hot nightclub in Caeser's Palace. First round, based solely on venue, goes to boxing.