Congratulations to Sherdog.com. ESPN officially announced their partnership with Sherdog this morning. You can read the full press release below. This is a pretty big deal for MMA fans as MMA content will now be featured along side other sports on ESPN.com and ESPNRadio.com. Congrats to Jeff Sherwood and all the guys over at Sherdog.com.
ESPN.com Announces Agreement with Mixed Martial Arts Sherdog.com Site
BRISTOL, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ESPN.com (http://espn.go.com/) has entered a cross-promotional and content integration agreement with Sherdog.com (http://sherdog.com/), the largest Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) site on the Internet. Sherdog, a part of CraveOnline.com (http://craveonline.com/), a leading male lifestyle destination for young men, draws millions of visitors a month and features a global assembly of contributors covering the sport from MMA hot spots around the world. The site, launched in 1997, provides up-to-the-minute news, information and analysis about every fight and athlete involved in Mixed Martial Arts. The collaboration between Sherdog.com and ESPN.com will debut in advance of the highly anticipated Chuck Liddell-Quinton Jackson Ultimate Fighting rematch on May 26.
As part of the agreement, ESPN will highlight exclusive, in-depth Sherdog content contextually within ESPN.com, including news, interviews, videos, event listings, and more. ESPN.com’s new Mixed Martial Arts section index will also feature Sherdog’s Fight Finder module, which allows users to search the largest fighter database online for stats and personal information. Sherdog’s weekly online Radio show will be offered at ESPNRadio.com and for download via the ESPN PodCenter.
“Interest in Mixed Martial Arts continues to grow,” said John Kosner, senior vice president and general manager, ESPN New Media. “Our mission is to serve sports fans and collaborating with Sherdog.com made sense for both of us. We can tap into the resources of some of the best Mixed Martial Arts experts in the business - delivering a level of dedicated, expert coverage that fans expect from ESPN.com.”
Garrett Poe, Sherdog’s co-owner, added, “Partnering with ESPN.com will enable us to expand our audience, develop the Sherdog brand among new users, and, ultimately, grow the MMA fan base.”
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I wouldn’t have a problem with this if I considered Sherdog a straight news site. However in the past, Sherdog has shown a very anti-ufc biased in some, including giving “opinions” in what should be a “news” post.
Not sure why I typed out “in some”, probably cause I’m at work and drained…haha.
@gatties
So how is that different from any other “news” source today?! LOl! the media is biased, you of all people know that Jason…
I’m just saying. Look at MMAWeekly.com or even MMAFighting.com…both great news sites with very little bias. Opinion columns don’t count. What I don’t like is to read what is suppose to be a news post with personal commentary attached.
I just think ESPN could have picked a better site to partner with.
I agree with you somewhat Jason. I would have liked to see this deal make with MMAWeekly instead of Sherdog.com, but I think ESPN is only concerned with how much of an audience they can grab. And Sherdog is a larger traffic site than MMAWeekly and thats all ESPN cares about. They don’t care about the actually MMA reporting integrity and stories, they just want the readers.
@ Dr J
So any news from the Wand camp online lately, rumors? Or are the Pride fighters pretty much in limbo due to the acquisition or lack thereof of their organization?
@MMAK,
Still no news on Wand or really any Pride fighters. Everything is just up in the air right now.
LOL WANDERLEI SILVA
LOL PATRICK ..
I think the deal is greta for MMA in General. I hope more MMA ladies show up on these pages so they can penetrate the larger men’s audiences.