TheUltimateFighter.com Publishes Media-Friendly List of "Best Coverage in the Sport"

Someone is getting their credentials taken away for those kind of remarks (sarcasm)

MMAfighting and MMAJunkie are two really good sites for MMA news, but I do agree that the only one’s mentioned are 100% Zuffa shill sites. You don’t need to mention Sherdog or BE but at least mention sites with some parity with coverage.

Winners:

- MMAjunkie.com

- Fightmagazine.com
(full disclosure: Ben Fowlkes writes for UltimateFighter.com)

-MMAfighting.com
(full disclosure: Ben Fowlkes writes for UltimateFighter.com, Helwani for Versus WEC)

-MMA Live on ESPN2
(UFC’s Kenny Florian and Rashad Events are co-hosts)

- Fighting Words with Mike Straka
(Mike Straka also writes for Ultimatefighter.com)

- Yahoo! Sports

- BleacherReport.com
It’s a one stop shop for anyone who’s a fan of hard-hitting analysis, in-depth interviews, or our own Elliot Olshansky, who can get hard-hitting and in-depth with the best of them. It’s not to be missed.

- UFC.com

- UFC Unleashed

- Countdown to UFC

I am shocked…no, not really.

now one can tell which media is PR BS and look for others when wanting real substance

Well Luke, with this little “editorial” you just got you taken off the list of people who will receive a Pinkberry gift basket from Dana White.

Yeah…how about that.

I’mma let you finish, but Snowden and Nate or the BEST haters on BE.

To the best of my knowledge, MMA Junkie has never said one critical word about Zuffa. That’s most likely why they’re in the top slot.

I like MMA fighting.

is pretty awesome.

Really surprised FightLinker didn’t make the list…

I’m trying to figure out how critical eyes even came across this “list” in the first place. I really can’t see Luke Thomas getting his TUF.com fix over his morning coffee.

Its annoying, but its not surprising. It almost felt like you were just going through the motions here Luke. I’m glad you wrote it, but isn’t it getting old writing about this? This is your Sisyphean task.

I guess it just posts enough suckup articles to get in…

I too have compiled a list of my closest supporters.

1) My mom. She says I’m handsome and that any girl would be lucky to have me.
2) That dude outside my work that I give change to.
3) My dealer. I’m probably putting his kids through college.

Bleacher Report being on there cracked me up, but this part did stick out to me:

Other Notables:

MMAweekly.com, Fightopinion.com, Fighters.com, and for the East Coast fighting scene, Tristatefighter.com.

I don’t see Fight Opinion as a pro-Zuffa site at all. After seeing the list I was surprised they made the “UFC shill websites” list. Wonder what Zach Arnold thinks about his site being mentioned?

I am surprised to see Zach Arnold’s site FightOpinion.com there at the very bottom with “Other Notables”. He never pulls any punches with Zuffa and it’s a great site for some fantastic insight and opinions, but I would of never imagined them acknowledging him. Pretty cool to see.

that this is a really well written piece. Luke, you are clearly an educated man. I’d like it if you posted more often.

Shocking!!! What next? The UFC Hall of Fame… isn’t a real hall of fame? McDonalds.com’s list of the top 10 hamburgers of all time is biased? I tremble at the thought of the mind-shattering Lovecraftian revelations that may yet be to come.

Take it like a confirmation then.

Here’s the thing. I’ve heard of and seen about 95% of the sites listed on there and the ones everyone is mentioning. I honestly never knew there was theultimatefighter.com. I always figure ufc.com was it. As much as I like UFC, do you really need two web sites. And do you need to boost up your other websites with each other. That is the equivilant of me say “let me tell you how great my brother is” and my brother replying with the same answer. It would be more credible if they didn’t pat themselves on the back

so espn mma live is good but inside mma is definitely a better show for mma. more fun and more mma coverage. kenny florian is clearly ufc biased.

Why didn’t they list “Commenter AboveThisFire on BloodyElbow.com”? This is clearly the question we should all be asking ourselves and the UFC.

I don’t think the role of TUF, the media climate in Washington or BE’s exclusion from the list is all that relevant. This isn’t about conforming to a certain opinion of things as much as it is about Zuffa’s unethical attempts to own the media that covers them. I don’t know if UFC/Spike employees like Ariel Helwani and Ben Fowlkes are being given cues as to what they should be talking and writing about, I just know they’re way too close to their subjects for comfort.

Since BE is on the outside looking in at this UFC media cabal, I’d like to see someone do some digging on this story. What are the specific economic relationships between Zuffa and AOL, Yahoo etc.? How do these relationships affect the editorial directions of these outlets and how they select staff? What benefits do connected media members like Helwani get out of these relationships that the non-connected don’t? What are the drawbacks? And perhaps most importantly, how are the media consuming MMA fans affected? And do they even care? An earnest discussion of these aspects of the story is important. If you just gloss over the systemic aspects, it only invites and encourages a smug outlook, e.g. “Oh, this is just Zuffa doing what they always do. LOL at anyone who finds this noteworthy or at all deserving of any discussion! KEKEKEKEKE”

Is like saying Emmitt Smith is very articulate. But…BUT!!! He is athletic and explosive.

BE is my favorite for MMA coverage though.

I won’t lie… I like Sherdog too, but I read it for the article.

*MMA News

but I live in DC too, and those so-called beta males are, you know, running the free world.

If MMA Junkie or MMA Fighting were more similiar to Facebook, fans could have their own community website that’s just for mma fans with their own customized profile. Instead of having to keep refreshing pages throughout the day, fans could simply get text messages to their phones whenever a new story gets dropped or if someone replies to a comment you made. (would have made my life much easier for me that’s fo damb sho :) Although it’s been fun wanting to be the first to know when big news drops, i’d much prefer to just get a text on my phone that reads ‘The war is over. Strikeforce signs Fedor’ and not have to be scrambling computers for weeks. Everyone could have their own profile with their mma pics, favorite fighters, org’s and they could customize their profiles to be updated to whatever they choose- org’s, fighters, and friends. that’s the PipRock who makes good points every once in a while and actually a good sense. I should patent that shit right there.

And here’s the PipRock who just likes fucking with people. For those of you who want to be the biggest Fanboy in the history of all Fanboys, it could be really easy too! They could have a ‘EZ Fanboy’ feature when creating your profile that automatically puts your profile into ‘UFM- Ultimate Fanboy Mode’. You wouldn’t know anything about anything except ufc. That sounds like a great website. But if ufc didn’t approve, then they would just get sued for using the name ‘Ultimate’. And eventually we’d be stuck with just Yahoo Sports after ufc is done waging war on everyone non-ufc owned. -And hopefully I don’t get sued for this. I saved my old cable bills with the ufc ppv’s on em just in case. Maybe they won’t press charges when they see I was buying ppv’s when the sport was just starting. I should just patent the word ‘hello’ to help raise money for my legal fees so I don’t go in debt for writing the word ultmate in a non-ufc context. But no, seriously I always thought the word ultimate was kinda cheesy. The Ultimate Fighting Championship. That sounds so ‘Extreme Combat’. Just something about the name, I always though it was weak since day 1. It was fitting back then I guess, when I assumed the guy with the biggest arms would win by murder. :D I honestly like the Strikeforce name. IFL was good, but a little too generic. Too Major League Baseball’ish. King of the Cage is a good name.

404

Sherwood needs to know.