Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole Criticizes UFC’s Response To Tanner’s Death
September 11, 2008 at 7:07 am by Jason Hatcher in NewsKevin Iole is one of the few mainstream sports writers who has been writing insightful articles about mixed-martial-arts for quite some time. And in recent months Iole has been criticized by a small percentage of readers as a mouthpiece for the UFC due to his heavy coverage of the MMA organization.
One can only guess that those critics of Iole are blind to the fact that the UFC is the world’s top MMA promoter and the only organization broadcasting at least one solid fight card per month. This is not even mentioning SPIKE TV’s “Ultimate Fighter,” live fight nights on SPIKE, as well as the WEC events.
On Tuesday, Iole took a a rare stab at the UFC with criticism over its response and handling of Evan Tanner’s recent death. If anything, Iole’s article proves he is no propagandist on the Las Vegas payroll.
Kevin Iole: “I feel compelled to call out the UFC for its lack of response to Evan Tanner’s death. As of 12:30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, there was no official statement from the UFC on its Web site for its one-time middleweight champion, whose body was discovered in a mountainous area near San Diego after he went missing on a camping trip. I contacted UFC president Dana White on Monday for a response and didn’t receive an answer. Though UFC.com has a story by Thomas Gerbasi announcing Tanner’s death, there is no comment in that story from anyone connected with the UFC. When ex-light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was arrested in July, White was on a plane to Southern California within an hour of learning the news. UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta or White (or both) should have acknowledged Tanner’s death with a statement on Monday. They look very bad for having seemingly ignored the tragedy.”
The fan reaction to Iole’s statements is a mixed bag as with anything else in this sport. Some agree completely while others defend Dana White and company as busy people devoid of the time to micromanage articles on the company website. Personally, I side with Iole on this one. Not as boldly but in reasonable agreement nonetheless.
Dana White is most certainly a micromanager. That’s why the UFC is even alive these days in light of the struggles the organization endured throughout the early years. But White’s direct control of the company’s operations seem oddly vacant in this matter.
In a perfect world, the UFC would have placed a photo or video memorial along with the article by Gerbasi at the top of the main page of the website. After all, drops of Tanner’s blood, sweat and tears are part of the foundation that the highly successful UFC now stands upon in 2008.
Read Iole’s entire article here.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:14 am
I have to agree with Iole on this one. The UFC was too slow with their response to the tragedy of Tanner’s death. Although yesterday UFC.com added an articles listing Tanner’s greatest UFC moments.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Hello. Trying watching UFC Unleasehed and you will see a silent memmorial prior to the show starting. They did do something.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I agree with Kevin I. as well. It seems the UFC dropped the ball in a big way. That’s great that they did a silent memorial before UFC Unleashed, however something on the website would have reached more people faster and would have saved them the nasty gram/damage control.