It's nice to be reminded that MMA is still a low-tier sport

If anyone ever had any doubts that MMA and the UFC brand in particular are still a niche in this world, then let me remind them of the events in two sporting events that took place this past weekend. At the Strikeforce Diaz Vs Daley event, we're all aware of the UFC refusing to credential Loretta Hunt and the Sherdog reporters and the subsequent fallout. Let me reiterate that with the proper emphasis, we're all aware of the UFC refusing to credential Loretta Hunt and the Sherdog reporters and the subsequent fallout.

We know. Because we're the hardcore demographic. We're the niche. The world at large?

Want to know what the big media vs. sporting institution broohaha actually was? A female reporter from the Bergen Record (Franklin McNeil's home paper, for those who like coincidences) was denied access to the locker room at the Masters after Rory McIlroy's historic collapse in the final round. This breech of protocol, which was apparently the security guard's fault and not a policy of Augusta National, made news cycles across the nation for a brief blip. It made the evening news, it hit USA Today, got mentioned on ESPN, etc. etc. It's a non-issue even - a security guard they hired screwed up because of poor communication, A.N. apologized and said it would take steps to make sure it never happened again.

Meanwhile Zuffa has outright banned people it does not agree with, leading to a major outlet, CBS, essentially dropping its coverage of the sport. And no one outside of this inner circle is even aware of it, much less cares.Think about that, a HUGE media giant with ties to numerous UFC partners is giving the UFC quid pro quo when it comes to telling each other to jump in the lake and you're not hearing a peep of it outside of our own small section of the internet.

This is the portion of the article where I simply put in some facts for interesting digestion. Feel free to skip if a dull recitation isn't of interest to you. Here's what CBS owns, for the record: CBS and its networks of 28 TV stations and 114 radio stations across the country; the CW network; Showtime; Simon & Schuster publishing (Free Press, Pocket, Scribner, Touchstone, Aladdin among other publishers); Bnet; ZDnet; TV.com; etc. etc. Here's the list, if you're interested.

This is the interesting kick however, a company called National Amusements, owned by Sumner Redstone and his daughter, Shari, has a controlling interest in CBS. They also have a controlling interest in another company, Viacom. Viacom owns BET, MTV, Comedy Central, Logo, Nickelodeon, Rhapsody, VH1, Paramount Pictures... and oh yes, Spike TV. Click that above link and flip down to Viacom to see more of what they own.

Getting back to the point at hand, no one cares. Why? MMA is a niche. A small market that not a whole lot of people still care about. Combat sports have a ceiling on potential viewership: not everyone likes the visceral nature of a fight. It's still human cockfighting to a lot of people, and it isn't like they're boxing fans that we can convert either - they think that boxing is barbaric as well. Some of them aren't sports fans at all, but a good chunk of them probably do care about other sports that already have worldwide appeal: baseball, soccer, golf, tennis, even some of the contact sports enthusiasts who love say, football, don't care for the fighting. There's only so much growth to be had, even amongst sports fans.

We're still a niche. Beach volleyball. Motocross. Poker. MMA. We're a bigger niche than most, but we're not even close to the same tier as freaking golf when it comes to what the average person knows or cares about. It's great to pretend otherwise sometimes, but this weekend was a nice reminder about how little we mean to the world at large.