UFC and Fans, A Love-Hate Relationship

by: DarthMolen 1 year, 5 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 15 hours, 44 minutes ago 7

Plain and simple.

Komikazee sees the online news sites centered around MMA as advocates for the fan. Granted, we are an online news site so there is some bias with that opinion. These sites are closely connected to the community, spend huge amounts of hours following and pumping the MMA product (i.e. free publicity), and are quite vocal.

And the UFC hates them. Won't give them the time of day. If you aren't a major player, such as the Houston Chronicle, Boston Herald, etc., then you aren't worth their time. I have talked with various inside sources and it is a policy set from the top down and set in stone. I have been told specifically by a very prominent coach of various popular UFC fighters that if you are a fan site and don't know somebody personally way up there in management, then YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED ACCESS TO UFC RESOURCES.

Case in point. Komikazee MMA is based out of Houston, Texas. When the UFC came to Houston we thought it would be a perfect time to cover the event. Not an absurd request. Komikazee was present at IFL Houston and was the only press media allowed back in the locker rooms during the fights. We brought a professional camera crew along and shot plenty of footage behind the scenes. (here, here, here, and here for examples)

We had been warned by the same person mentioned previously that we would be summarily denied. Our thought were nothing ventured, nothing gained and that if we showed our previous quality of content that maybe something would happen. The process was started 2 months in advance of the event to make sure we could try every angle if a road block came up. After many emails, phone calls, surrepticious inquiries, Komikazee MMA received a rejection letter. We then involved our backer, Fred Lundgren who is CEO of the largest radio station in L.A. and an NBC affiliate, who sent a personal email and called the UFC's PR person. Here is the email received after this ultimate inquiry.

Fred,

I received the message that you had called to follow up on the rejection of 2 reporters to cover UFC 69. Per their application, they had applied for Komikazee.com and as reporters for KCAA radio. We took both of these outlets and the type of media coverage that Steven and Derek would be providing into account when myself, the promoter, and the venue went over media credential applications. The amount of media seating that we have available is extremely limited, so that is always a factor as well. If you want to send me additional information, in writing, to be reconsidered I can share it with the rest of the PR team.
Diann Brizzolara
Brener, Zwikel, & Associates
Account Executive

Did they really look at both sources? KCAA reaches 5 million people in the L.A. area and has hosts on their station like Roseanne Barr. They also are a national syndicate experiencing rapid expansion. Not even the UFC can ignore something like that. Steve Sievert, who works for the Houston Chronicle which reaches about that many people, can call Dana White and interview him personally. No, what she really meant to say was that there is a policy in place that will not allow online news site access to the UFC as standard press personnel.

To add salt to the wounds, when you talk with their PR personnel in person about the raunchy treatment, they tell you that something must have been mistaken and to contact them personally via email and something will be done. Of course those same emails never get answered and when inquiries to same person happen again, they then state that their firewall blocks a lot of emails and that the plaintive's must have been lost and to try again.

I understand that you can't cater to every Tom, Dick, or Harry that claims to have a website but you can at least pay attention to the ones that are spending extreme amounts of man hours and their own money pumping your product, delivering quality content, and provide a value-add for your company at the grass roots.

Now they are publicly moving against a fansite because they choose to spend money on the UFC product and help out a fighter that isn't getting paid enough to make it normally?

The UFC has been brilliant with their business model so far but rejecting their grass roots is not a very smart move on their part. It alienates a very vocal advocacy group that could be used to benefit their company. Komikazee would rather write positive material about the UFC but instead their actions have brought about this article.

There have been rumblings in the small online news community for awhile now about the atrocious treatment but most are afraid to publicly say anything for fear of reprisal and a black-balling. Dana White is vindictive when it comes to naysayers. No more. Until we speak up and bring the problem to light, nothing will ever change and it will continue to be status quo. Komikazee will continue to cover our quest to get inside the UFC as it progresses.

Hopefully things will change but until those policies get abolished, the online news sites will continue to peck at the UFC bread crumbs, continue to find creative ways to involve themselves in the premiere league of MMA, and continue to be treated as second class citizens.

Steven Molen
Editor-in-Chief
Komikazee MMA