Before the Action

This week was interesting when I came across a video clip with BJ Penn talking about trash talking in the UFC. Unfortunately I will not be able to give a link, as the video was quickly taken down. In the clip however, Penn talks about his upcoming fight with a man by the name of Nick Diaz.

Normally before fights in order to hype them up, the UFC will put on interviews of fighters either trash talking one another or explaining how they plan to win. In this clip Penn tells us that he does in fact respect Diaz as a mixed martial artist, and wants the best for him. He also claims that the UFC told him to trash talk, in order to hype the fight, and he did end up saying some things hence the reason he released his own video explaining it wasn’t true.

This concerns me because the “prefight interviews” are the only thing that a large amount of people see. When they watch these interviews they are bound to believe that mma is a group of violent, angry fighters. It seems to me that the organization should allow competitors to express their respect for an opponent. With that said, violence sells. People will look at the interviews and decide based upon how much the two seem to dislike each other, whether or not it will be a good fight.

My question is: Is this a safe marketing move? I understand that yes, the added violence will sell pay-per-views, and tickets, but will it damage the nature of the sport? If mma is perceived as a disrespectful, violent sport, it will likely never be widely accepted.