Move over American Idol. You're about to get KO'ed! The TV Networks are always hunting for the next big idea. Lucky for us they have MMA in their sights.
EliteXC's president has struck a deal with CBS that will televise MMA fights as early as April of this year. This deal is about giving the people what they want to see on TV, specifically "MMA's typical audience of 18-to-34-year-old men" (per the LA Times).
Until a few years ago, MMA was thought to be somewhat of a brutal freak show of sorts. Nowadays with the advent of rules such as no kicking in the groin, MMA is rapidly becoming a widely accepted mainstream sport where its competitors thought of true athletes as opposed to sadistic bloodmongers.
The EliteXC deal must be frustrating to UFC president Dana White, who had been trying to strike similar deal, albeit unsuccessfully.
EliteXC will retail control of matching the fighters and the fight's production, according to mmaweekly.com, however, CBS will be doing the announcing for the fights. According to the LA Times, "onetime street fighter Kimbo Slice headline the first CBS show." Kimbo may not be the posterchild for MMA, but he is sure to draw a big audience!
JP aka MMA Commentator
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1 comment:
CANT WAIT!!
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