In his final blog post on The Fight Network’s (TFN) website, “Big” John McCarthy announced early yesterday morning that he is leaving the Canadian combat channel. While McCarthy offered nothing but praise for many of his fellow co-workers, he was clearly unhappy with the new direction and management team at TFN, having this to say:
“To all of the higher ups that have taken over the Fight Network over the last year I only have this to say………….. Shame on you………………”
The MMA community cannot help but view McCarthy’s departure as yet another sign of trouble at TFN. In addition to the rumoured problems with upper-level management, the 24/7 combat channel is also said to be under considerable financial duress.
Perhaps the most unfortunate element of this on-going situation is the fact that The Fight Network remains a cherrished and integral part of the Canadian MMA community.
Many small organizations have or once had distribution deals with the network, which represented small, yet vital sources of income and exposure for their brands. Furthermore, the channel provides 24/7 content, much of it MMA-related, to the growing MMA fanbase in Canada. Without TFN those fans would be left with few other options for MMA coverage aside from SpikeTV, Sportsnet, and TSN broadcasts of Zuffa events and some select programming from The Score.