Ferguson gives a lousy interview.

As PTI goes, I didn’t think that was much worse than any of their other interviews.

Other than actual sporting events themselves ESPN is the only thing on my TV. I must admit this was not the smoothest interview. Tony Kornheiser in very opinionated, and has an outlet to voice that opinion. PTI is in fact an editorial type program. If you compare this interview with the 2 Lesnar/Couture pieces previously done on ESPN, i think you would find that the interviewers were both competent and informed. ESPN could easily sweep MMA under the rug and pretend it doesn’t exist (think WWE). They don’t, for the most part they give decent coverage and even give us a fantastic 40 minute MMA show every week.

That said, EVERY time that there is a MMA topic on PTI, I put the tv on MUTE.
Kornheiser and Wilbon have always said they are hardcore BOXING fans and they see MMA as human cockfighting.

ESPN should know better.

Its as if their joking when they say they dont know anything about the sport. Its just very hard to fathom. Like one time they were saying something about groundgame and the PTI guys were like “huh?” Its just really strange to me.

is this the face we want for mma on espn? Brock does a better job at interviews and he has a much bigger upside he is fighting for the title in the biggest org in the sport why isnt he on PTI doing a interview or not Randy Couture? why is it when espn talks about mma kimbo slice name is not too far behind.(ps i know about the stuff randy and brock did on espn for 91 but still they always hype kimbo fights and i think its bullshit

I heard the interview was terrible from Dan LeBatard himself. Moments after he wrapped up taping of PTI he went back to his radio show in Miami(on 790am) and he talked about how terrible of an interview it was. What was more interesting is that LeBatard told his listeners how Kornheiser was acting off air. Dan was saying that Tony was complaining to his producers and director about having to interview Kimbo. The guy didnt want anything to do with Kimbo and he wanted to make sure everyone in the studio knew about it. You could say he was acting like a diva, in that he felt too good to be doing an interview with Kimbo. I guess it has do with the fact he’s a boxing purist and he’s old. LeBatard then got into a discussion about how Tony is one person on air, and completely different off air.

I’m just glad no one is ripping LeBatard. He’s a big MMA fan and he’s a big fan of Kimbo(the person, not the fighter). I’ve talked to him a few times about MMA and he’s pretty knowledgeable about it. He used to be a casual fan and he used to think Kimbo was the baddest man on the planet but he got more into MMA and realized that wasn’t true, but he still supports Kimbo because he’s a local guy.

I don’t think the interview was that bad, it was less a sports interview and more a “lets talk to this character” interview. I find it funny when Slice has to try and hype up his previous opponents, in that regard I feel sorry for him but it’s a position his team put him in and he should have probably handled it differently (“I didn’t pick who I fight, they put them in front of me and it’s my job to take them out”)
It was more of a casual interview, they tried to make it more legit by asking him a few tough questions but by the end it might as well have been EliteXC asking him the questions.

I dvr’d this interview so I have not had a chance to see it, but the other times I have seen “Fergie” he seems to come off as genuine at least. I think that Bas has had a positive affect in his life and at least he is not street fighting for money any longer. Even if he is never able to compete at the top levels of MMA I give him props as it seems he is taking his training seriously because I do not believe that Bas would waste his time on a guy that was not serious. Maybe if he got away from that porn company crew he has been associated with it would give him some credibility.

I just watched the interview expecting something awful.. That was a PTI interview. What’s the big deal?