One aspect of the growth of MMA I'm trying to follow more closely is when and how the sport gets coverage in small, local or regional press outlets be they print, radio or television. Florida media, and the national Tribune Media company, have traditionally been more favorable towards MMA and last night's UFC Fight Night was further evidence of that. Both the St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune ran complete and what I would describe as unintentionally favorable. That is, the paper didn't feel the need to editorialize about what MMA is or isn't and they merely described the event as it was. Both articles not only described the event, but they covered the action of the event on a fight by fight basis including some undercard action.

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Meanwhile, White, the UFC president, was so pleased with the turnout that he announced the UFC will return.

"We'll definitely be returning to Tampa early next year, and it'll be a pay-per-view," White said. "We wanted to come here and test the market. With all the other (events) going on and we draw this kind of crowd? This area is going to be a big market for us."

This was the fifth time UFC held a card in Florida and the first since June 2007. Three were in Hollywood and one in Miami.

"We just keep our heads down and keep charging forward and making this thing bigger and better," White said. "We haven't even scratched the surface on how big this thing is going to be in the U.S., let alone the rest of the world."

Now, notice the similarity in the Tampa Tribune piece:

"We're very happy with the turnout," White said, sitting ringside. "We brought a Fight Night here first to test out the waters, to see how a pay-per-view would do and we're very happy with the turnout, especially with all the other stuff going on here."

As much of Tampa recovered from Gasparilla celebrations, UFC Fight Night, which aired live on Spike TV, drew 7,596 mixed martial arts fans to the University of South Florida Sun Dome Saturday night.

More on Gasparilla here.

White and the UFC are not only able to accomplish their goal of testing the market as the suggest they were doing, but they are now able to more effectively use local media for honest coverage as well as tease local fans about larger shows that are set to hit their market in the likely not too distant future. Most importantly, getting local media on board with UFC operations without editorializing standards events will help in their efforts of educating interested parties and the MMA-uninitiated. None of this is new or began with this event, but its noteworthy that as large media shrinks and cuts budgets of press offices across the country there is both the growth of MMA coverage as well as maturation.

Veach got some local albeit sparse hometown coverage as well.