Issue 045

January 2009

Back in late 2006, when I decided to trade in a career of covering professional baseball for one reporting on MMA, my choice of a delivery method was a no-brainer. For as long as MMA has been around, the Internet has been the best – and sometimes only – way to share the news.

Mainstream outlets shunned MMA up until just a few years ago. The niche sport was too small to sustain any but the most dedicated of print publications. Aside from Spike TV, the television networks and cable stations were quite sceptical of MMA, to say the least. But on the Web, MMA has always thrived.  

Back in the 1990’s, when ‘ultimate fighting’ was still considered more spectacle than sport, a whole community of supporters had banded together online (ad keep in mind that this was during the days of painfully slow dial-up modems, and years before the concept of high-speed Internet access existed). It wasn’t easy to surf the Web, yet a whole underground community existed.

I first learned this after watching an old videocassette copy of the UFC’s ‘Ultimate Ultimate 1996’ event during my freshman year of college. I had heard about the UFC before, but until I watched that event, I had never really watched or even understood it. I was completely mesmerized by the viewing experience, but my story is hardly unlike those millions of other fans who found MMA in a similar fashion.

It’d be a few years before that piqued interest would turn into a full-fledged obsession. As I devoted myself to a career in baseball with the Cincinnati Reds and Major League Baseball, fellow fight fans were nowhere to be found. On the Web, though, I found salvation and my fellow fans.

With that knowledge, and as my interest became fandom, I launched MMAjunkie.com and joined the small band of media outlets that covered the sport. I launched the website, filled out the staff, and within a few weeks, began drawing a couple of thousand readers to the site every single day.

I marvelled at how easily everything fell into place for us. It was a true testament to just how popular MMA had gotten. Looking back, I now realise it was just a matter of perfect timing. ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ had proven a hit and opened the door for live UFC events on cable television, a quickly approaching rematch between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz finally had the mainstream press taking notice, and new fans were finding the sport everyday with the booming popularity. Through word of mouth and organic searches, they were finding their way to MMAjunkie.com. 

More than two years later, after all the blood, sweat and tears – and nearly 100,000 miles of travel across the continent – all of our hard work has led to the unexpected and completely humbling honour of being named the 2008 winner of the World Mixed Martial Arts Awards “Best Media Coverage” award.  

When we consider the competition and the very many worthy MMA news outlets out there, the MMAjunkie.com team realizes just how special this inaugural award is. While we strive to be the one-stop spot for all things MMA, we must acknowledge our competitors and friends who both support MMAjunkie.com and push us to do our best. Our friends at Yahoo! Sports have proven great content partners, and when in a pinch and needing advice, I know veteran combat-sports writer Kevin Iole has the answers I need. Fellow writer/editor Sam Caplan from fiveouncesofpain.com is a true confidant and one who understands the demands and hurdles we face in the online media. And I can always count on Mike Chiappetta of NBCSports.com, Ron Kruck of ‘Inside MMA’, Ryan Harkness from Fightlinker.com, Tracy Lee from CombatLifestyle.com and so many others who unselfishly put friendship before competition.

So, on behalf of co-owners Tom Cummins and Eric Foster, lead writers John Morgan and Steve Sievert; our MMAjunkie.com Radio team (George Garcia, Brian Garcia and Frank Trigg); Bruce ‘PhyteGuru’ Huckfeldt, Dr. Johnny Benjamin, Jon Lane, Kelly Crigger, Paul Larkin and our other contributing writers; MMAjunkie.com Espanol administrator Karime Gaytán; and our many celebrity freelancers (which started with Sean Salmon and have now included countless fighters, agents, promoters and broadcasters), I thank Fighters Only and its devoted readers for your consideration. I promise we’ll work tirelessly to live up to this great honour in the year ahead. 

Dann Stupp is founder and editor-in-chief of MMAjunkie.com. He is also the MMA beat writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News.  

BEST MEDIA COVERAGE

MMA Junkie

As voted by the fans

“I just want to say how proud we are to accept this and how appreciative we are to the readers of Fighters Only and MMA Junkie.com for voting for us.  

I promise we’ll work our assess off for the next year to live up to this great honour.”