I got to sit down and interview Dana White ahead of UFC 140. The event takes place on December 10th in Toronto, Canada and like every UFC event, heavily hyped via social media. Over the past 3 years, Dana White and the UFC have built a very strong social media presence. I wanted to speak to the president of the UFC himself and get some more detail on what he thinks of Twitter and other social media tools. Dana talks about how he got into Twitter, how he uses it to help his business, what are the pitfalls and benefits.
He’s a huge fan. “Twitter is the greatest invention in the history of marketing,” he tells me. Watch the video. → Read More
You knew something like this was coming as soon as Microsoft announced the Kinect way back when. It’s UFC Personal Trainer, and it’s exactly as you’d expect: flail about in front of your TV while an on-screen avatar carries out the moves. THQ says the National Academy of Sports Medicine helped design the game, and pro fighter gave their input as well. Hearings before the California State Athletic Commission are not expected to be included. → Read More
UFC has a tricky relationship with the Internet. The company’s president, Dana White, has said time and again that he believes it will be the future of television and pay-per-view distribution. Sooner rather than later, goes the theory, that instead of calling your cable or satellite provider minutes before the beginning of a pay-per-view you’ll instead go over to your computer (or other Internet-connected device à la Roku), and a few clicks later you’ll be watching the likes of Brock Lesnar, Georges St-Pierre, and newly crowned light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones compete against each other in perhaps the world’s fastest growing sport. Its recently relaunched UFC.tv is only further evidence of this. At the same time, the company has been hard at work fighting online piracy, going so far as to bring streaming video site Justin.tv before a Nevada judge, where it hopes to convince the court that the site is regularly “exploited by users to broadcast illegally uploaded content, including UFC events.” Given that pay-per-view revenue represents such a massive percentage of the company’s overall revenue it’s not hard to understand why it’s so keen on eliminating the piracy threat as quickly as possible. → Read More
UFC has joined the growing list of sports organizations that have gone 3D. This Thursday’s event, broadcast live on the Versus network from Louisville, will be the company’s first 3D broadcast. It’s headlined by Diego Sanchez (seen here looking menacing) and Martin Kampmann. → Read More
NeuLion announced a deal a few days ago to bring “a brand new service for UFC offering the most interactive, far-reaching digital experience yet.” Last night’s UFC 126 was the first pay-per-view event to receive the NeuLion treatment, so I decided to check it out to see what all the fuss was about. Fair warning: There will be spoliers. → Read More
It would appear that several popular streaming sites are being taken down as we speak. One that I’m familiar with, Roja Directa, has a note on its front page saying that its main domain, rojadirecta.org, has been taken down by its U.S. provider. (Dot-org now displays a scary-looking notice from the U.S. Homeland Security Department, while other domains, including dot-com are up and running just fine.) This, despite the fact that the site was deemed by Spanish courts (the site is based in Spain) to be 100 percent legal. Hm. → Read More
UFC has continued its fight against copyright infringement by filing a lawsuit against Justin.tv, the video streaming Web site where, UFC alleges, people can watch its events for free. UFC takes issue with “Justin.tv’s repeated and ongoing failure to meaningfully address the rampant and illegal uploading of video of live Pay-Per-View UFC events by members and users of the Justin.tv website.” UFC had previously subpoenaed Justin.tv (and Ustream) for the names of people who had streamed events illegally. → Read More
A friendly tip to all the UFC fans in the crowd. Spike TV won’t be showing the preliminary fights from tomorrow’s GSP-Koscheck II event. But worry not! UFC itself will show the fights for free on ufc.com. → Read More
“There is definitely going to be an EA Sports MMA 2.” That’s the big news coming out of yesterday’s Figure Four Daily interview with EA Sports MMA producer Jeff Ecker, who said that it’s not “if” but “when” there will be a sequel. So, hooray! → Read More
I’m actually not here right now. I wrote this yesterday while listening to Kanye West’s new album, which I’m still deciding if I like or not. I think my opinion right now is, “Meh, I can take it or leave it.” (I think Big Boi’s album is better, and I’ll never say a bad word about The Roots.) Nicki Minaj’s verse on “Monster” is pretty dope, but beyond that? Whatever. Maybe Kanye can go back in time and ask Eric B. and Rakim to teach him how to rap. That would be cool. → Read More
Pirates may have had a hard time finding illegal streams of UFC on Saturday night, and that’s because UFC has decided to strike at the heart of the beat: Google. Zuffa, the parent company of UFC, sent Google a notice of copyright infringement (under the DMCA) the other day, asking Google to remove links to sites hosting illegal UFC streams. That way, once 10pm rolls around, it’s not as easy as typing into Google something like “free ufc stream” and watching the fights for free. → Read More
EA Sports MMA went on sale last week. The first week’s sales? Not too good, which furthers the idea that it’s not mixed martial arts (MMA) that’s hot right not, but rather it’s UFC that’s hot right now. A Cowen & Company analyst has called the game’s sales “more or less DOA at retail.” Ouch. → Read More
On the left, Fedor Emelianenko, probably the greatest mixed martial artist to ever live. I don’t want to hear any arguments on that point, either. On the right, Randy Couture, the UFC star who appears in the game courtesy of a short lived dispute with UFC brass. Throw in some Alistair Overeem, Jason “Mayhem” Miller, Fabricio Werdum, and Nick Diaz (and more, of course) and you have EA Sports MMA, EA’s response to the incredible sales of THQ’s UFC Undisputed 2009. (UFC Undisputed 2010 didn’t sell too well, and now THQ has moved it from a yearly release to a once-per-18-months release. THQ now has the UFC license through 2018, by the way.) But, given that it’s very much “UFC” that’s hot at the moment and not necessarily “MMA,” will EA find an audience with a game the predominantly features Strikeforce fighters?
Paul Heyman will certainly try. → Read More
UFC‘s war against piracy continues, with word that Zuffa, the promotion’s parent company, has filed a lawsuit against an English fellow who is alleged to have provided an illegal stream (~!) of UFC 119. No, it’s not the first time UFC has gone after pirates, and it sure as heck (gotta keep in PG) won’t be the last time. → Read More
Last night was the first big test for the stream police after Zuffa, parent company of UFC, had subpoenaed Ustream and Justin.tv last week for the IP addresses of its users caught illegally streaming pay-per-view events. A quick look around the Internet during last night’s UFC 117 event showed one thing: streams haven’t gone away. → Read More
A few days ago we learned that the UFC had subpoenaed Ustream.tv and Justin.tv for the information of people who had ilegally streamed pay-per-view events. Having spoken to these people in the past, I knew they weren’t sitting around in their offices, rubbing their hands together as intellectual property was being violated all over the place. No, these are legitimate businesses looking to cooperate with companies like UFC whenever necessary. → Read More
If this were the AP, the following would be the lede to this next story: “UFC President Dana White wants to put pirates in a kimura.” (That, of course, assumed the AP funny lede guy even knows what a kimura is!) Man, those soft ledes are terrible. Moving on… yeah, Dana White is upset at pirates. The promotion has subpoenaed Justin.tv and Ustream.tv, demanding to know the names of people who stream UFC pay-per-view events. → Read More
Hopefully THQ has learned that you can’t release UFC games like you would Madden. For one, there’s not enough year-over-year change in UFC to warrant a new game. The same fighters who were main-eventing last year (Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, etc.) are main-eventing this year. There’s no excitement of seeing, I don’t know, Brett Favre put on a Vikings jersey. → Read More
Word on the street (Wall Street, that is) is that UFC Undisputed 2010 didn’t sell nearly as well as the previous game. There could be a few reasons for that, chief among them that people already had their UFC thirst quenched, so to speak. It was genuinely exciting to play a game with the modern roster (the last game before UFC Undisputed 2009 came out in 2004). The question now becomes, is the world ready for yet another MMA game? I speak not of EA Sports MMA but of Supremacy MMA, a game being developed for the Xbox 360 and PS3 by Kung Fu Factory, published by 505 Games. → Read More
UFC President Dana White believes the Internet is the future of television, so this Roku deal makes all kinds of sense. Beginning with next week’s pay-per-view, UFC 114, Roku owners will be able to stream live UFC events right to their TV. It’s in HD, too. Nothing but the best for you guys! → Read More
