Solid Debut for ESPN.com's MMA Live - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

On yesterday's post about which fight various MMA writers most want to see, FanHouse commenter Drew asked, "MDS, you watched ESPN.com Original series MMA Live???? discuss it after viewing it."

Thanks for asking, Drew. I will discuss it, but first, here's the video:

So there you have it, the premier episode of MMA Live, a 30-minute show that appears to be taped in an ESPN studio in Bristol, just like SportsCenter and ESPN's other studio shows, but that is shown only on ESPN.com, not on television.

I liked it a lot. Host Jon Anik and analysts Kenny Florian and Franklin McNeil offered good analysis of all the major issues -- Fedor Emelianenko's upcoming Affliction fight, Tito Ortiz's upcoming final UFC fight, whether Randy Couture will ever have another fight, and so on.

I also like the fact that this is ESPN covering mixed martial arts as a sport and not as a spectacle. That is a very good sign that there are people at ESPN who "get it" when it comes to MMA.

Will the show succeed? Will it ever move off ESPN.com and onto TV? I don't know. There are three commercial for Toyota Trucks during the show, so I assume it's bringing in some revenue, but I also assume we're a long ways away from actually seeing regular MMA coverage on ESPN. Still, this is a big step in the right direction.