UFC Vegas 40: Isn't the Job to Cover Everything?
This weekend's fight card is being panned and pushed aside just a few weeks after another boxing circus garnered tons of coverage
I thought the job was to cover everything?
That’s what I was told when people felt the need to validate investing time and resources in previewing and reviewing the last Triller boxing circus where 58-year-old Evander Holyfield unsurprisingly got knocked out in ugly fashion by Vitor Belfort and Anderson Silva slept Tito Ortiz.
But now, just a few weeks later, an injury-ravaged, shallow UFC fight card is on the horizon and it’s being panned and pushed aside, discussed as yet another fight card devoid of meaningful fights or anything of real substance.
“Nothing to see here. No need to cover this one.”
I’ve seen writers talk about reducing their coverage of Fight Night events because there aren’t enough quality fights on the card to merit committing more than basic resources to them, given how little traffic they generate.
While I completely understand the “just following the numbers” approach here, it’s also frustrates me to no end because this sport and these athletes deserve more than having media members and outlets that are almost exclusively focused on the biggest names and stories, showing little to no interest in anyone that isn’t already a star or generating a bunch of buzz, dismissing any event that doesn't have the requisite number of established names and critical fights on the card.
To me it’s like a beat reporter covering an NBA team or a media outlet covering The Association at large saying, “I’m not going to write anything about this game tonight or this team because in the grand scheme of things, it’s not important and not enough people are going to read it anyway.”
It doesn’t happen.
They find a story.
They explain why it matters, how it can impact things going forward, the takeaways from what transpired, and the elements to think about heading into the next game or series.
Yes, some players and teams get significantly more coverage than others, for obvious reasons, but Zach Lowe and Howard Beck and Chris Herring aren’t out here telling folks to skip next week’s opening slate of NBA games because it’s early in the season and there aren’t enough big-time rivalry matchups on the slate.
They’re not completely unaware of the ninth man in the Sacramento Kings rotation — who is somewhere between the 225th and 270th most impactful player in the league, depending on where you think the Kings fall in the overall NBA hierarchy — the way many prominent voices in MMA are unaware mid-pack bantamweights or the unheralded newcomer at welterweight that has already earned a pair of UFC victories.
And they’re writing about more than just the biggest stars too.
They know that every game matters because there is something from every game that can cause a ripple effect throughout the rest of the team or the rest of the season, the same way every fight card has one or two fighters (at least) that could be in the early stages of building to something bigger and how this weekend’s show could be when they take that next step.
For instance, the fight this weekend between Manon Fiorot (pictured above) and Mayra Bueno Silva could be the bout where the streaking French striker shows she merits consideration as a future contender in the flyweight division — the same goes for Sijara Eubanks — but that’s not worth discussing.
What adds to this frustration is that the people dismissing this event and those like it are the ones that constantly berate the UFC for failing to create new stars and tell the stories of these athletes, and act like those fighters have “come out of nowhere” after they win three or four consecutive fights (or more) and reach a level where they have to pay attention.
Why pay attention to Fiorot or Eubanks now when you can shout about how terrible it is that no one was talking about them or paying attention to them when they were stringing together victories 6-12 months from now when they’re in the championship mix and you’ve finally been forced to know who they are?
And listen, everyone can cover whatever they want and say what they want and all of that — just don’t stand there and say the job is to cover everything or criticize the lack of coverage of some of these athletes and events while you’re not doing the actual work because I can tell you with 100% certainty that someone is telling these stories every week, without question.
Acting like because the loudest voices in the sport haven’t been talking about these athletes means they haven’t been getting covered is wildly disrespectful to the people doing the actual work and creating the content far too many people seem to think doesn’t exist.
Whether it’s the crew at UFC.com that literally cover every inch of every UFC event, profiling damn-near every fighter on every card, week-after-week or those grinding out content about athletes competing beyond the biggest stages, there are people trying to cover every inch of this sport, at every level, and I have to tell you, as someone that puts a lot of hours into trying to cover everything when it comes to the UFC, it’s a real kick in the nuts seeing/hearing people constantly lament the lack of coverage these athletes received on the way up once they pop or acting like the vast majority of these events and these athletes don’t matter.
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If the job is to cover everything, then cover everything.
If the job is to cover the stuff that generates the most traffic and represents the best use of your time — which is 100% perfectly acceptable and understandable — just say that and be done with it.
And please remember:
Just because you don’t have any interest doesn’t mean that others don’t.
Just because you weren’t paying attention doesn’t mean that others weren’t.
And just because you didn’t see it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.
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Shout out to all the people busting their asses trying to cover everything.