OBJECTIVE:
If you’re an MMA fan, by now you’ve probably read 5 or so different accounts of how Kimbo Slice and Brett “The Grim” Rogers nearly came to blows. Like so many on the forums and in the media, Rogers’ was unimpressed with Kimbo’s performance. However, Rogers actually told Kimbo his performance was “garbage” to his face. But Slice and Rogers weren’t the only ones who left the press conference agitated.
The chatter among the media was that EliteXC President Gary Shaw made it very hard for them to do their job at the press conference (audio download available below).
No, it wasn’t a credentialing issue, like the one blogger/ writer experienced with the UFC. It had more to with the style of press conference, or “press lecture” delivered by EliteXC President Gary Shaw.
Nearly forty minutes went by in the press conference before a reporter was given the floor to ask a question. In addition to Shaw’s comments, he gave each fighter from the main card an opportunity to address the media. The fighter remarks ranged from Kimbo’s “Wussup?” to a pre-scripted speech by Phil Baroni, who sincerely broke down as he began to thank UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman for helping him through the darker parts of his career.
And after each fighter spoke, Shaw gave his comments on their comments and then introduced the next fighter with a lavish description for each.
Even UFC superstar Matt Hughes was getting impatient. After a night of cornering fighters, he was trying to catch Robbie Lawlor’s attention from the sidelines, pointing to his watch and quietly expressing his desire to go home and prep for UFC 85.
Unlike Hughes, who made the subtle attempt to escape, many journalists withheld their desire to ask questions and leave so they could write their stories and meet their deadlines.
The one minor exception to Shaw’s “listen now, ask later” format was when James “The Colossus” Thompson came in to address the media. Thompson was about to be whisked to the hospital because of troubled breathing, but came in to give his statement. One reporter quickly managed to ask, “Did Kimbo tap?” to which Thompson responded Kimbo didn’t tap, but gave The Colossus a nasty rash from his bristly beard.
ANALYSIS:
After a long night of fights, journalists have a job to do and they have a basic obligation to their audience. That obligation is to ask questions of those who were involved in the event (mainly the athletes) that the audience cannot be there-in person to ask.
Gary Shaw spent a lot more time talking than his fighters did. However, it did not seem to be out of ego. Instead he came off as the proud new father chewing off the ear of each colleagues and friends about their super-fantastic offspring.
In fact, most of Shaw’s soliloquy was a chorus of thank yous. He opened by thanking the media for their coverage, thanking Showtime and CBS for believing in him and the sport, he thanked his wife and family for their support, talked about the journey to a network deal, and gloatingly introduced each of the fighters as if they were his own offspring.
Shaw even threw in a public service announcement for colon cancer awareness, having survived the disease himself. Like so much of his banter, it was well-intentioned, but outside of this blog about the “blunders of the press conference,” it will probably never reach its intended audience as a “message brought to you by Gary Shaw.”
Even with the best of intention’s Shaw’s pre and post-event soliloquies could end up falling on deaf ears if they become habitual. Those who have covered EliteXC events before left me with the impression that they already the rule, rather than the exception.
If anything, reporters are quite creative and will find other ways to get what they need, and if they can’t get their post-fight interviews with athletes at the post-fight presser in a timely manner, they’ll get them somewhere else, or pass them up altogether.
Also uncharacteristic of a typical press conference was the amount of applause with which the fighters were greeted. While some younger reporters might have felt compelled to join the fray, it led me to believe that a large contingent at the press conference were not press at all. And there’s no problem with “non-press people” being at the press conference, until it begins to turn into a pep rally.
Having attended press conferences held by the UFC and IFL, Shaw’s overly chatty approach is rather unique. Typically, Dana White will open up a press conference with a few comments, maybe a trademark f-bomb or two, and then put the spotlight on his fighters, unless he is asked a question.
The IFL’ Jay Larkin has not been at post-fight press conferences since taking over as CEO. This forces reporters to focus the league’s rising-stars.
Of those involved in Saturday night’s presser, the only one who seemed to get the idea of how to run a press conference was Kimbo. When Shaw introduced him, the mass of a man stepped up to the microphone and in a deep rumble of a voice said, “Wussup?” and was then quiet. Shaw asked if that was all he had to say, and Kimbo said, “Whatever they want to ask.”
NOTE: The audio from the press conference has been posted for download. However, it is not the whole press conference (just the first 53 minutes). It includes the tense moments between between Kimbo Slice and Brett Rogers and a few questions thereafter. The audio levels are is a bit uneven, as it was adjusted it throughout the recording.
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