MMA: Is the MMA Media Acting Like Fanboys and Hurting the Growth of the Sport?

Mixed martial arts has had a huge gain in popularity over the last few years, obtaining more fans—and more media coverage—in the process.

But this jump in notoriety comes with a price, as the MMA media is still a relatively new sector of the sports journalism world and has not created a set of standards for the various journalist in the community.  Lacking the decades of experience that baseball, football and other sports journalists rely on, the MMA media has to get its act together if it ever wants to be taken seriously.

This does not mean that the editorial commentary that's found throughout the internet is bad, that aspect of the MMA media is actually quite revolutionary as the myriad of sites and blogs available allow a diverse discussion filled with many opinions.  But the people who need to be held to a higher standard are those in the field, getting the scoop from fighters and attending live press conferences.

Too often, various members of the MMA media will ask irrelevant or obviously biased questions in an attempt to rile up their interviewee and get fantastic reactions.  Rather than trying to find the facts and get the hard news, certain MMA "journalists" would prefer a crazy quote, a la any number of Chael Sonnen interviews.

This does not mean that these folks are bad at their jobs or doing anything wrong, because let's face it, the zanier a quote they get out of a source, the more traffic they'll receive.  The problem is that only a few people are getting the real facts and putting out pertinent stories other than just the latest claim made by a washed up former champion.

Say what you will about ESPN and its Outside the Lines report of fighters' pay, but despite some possible factual errors, at least they attempted to put out a story on MMA that wasn't just about trash talking or how great a fighter is.  They wanted to do a story with weight, a story that had a real impact on the sport, from the fans to the fighters all the way up to the promotion's brass.

If MMA is ever going to rise up to the level of the NFL or MLB, it needs to have more people asking the tougher questions, meaning more real journalists, not just fanboys.

Be sure to "like" Matt on Facebook or follow Matt on Twitter @MattJuulMMA.