Lindsay Czarniak and Mel Kiper Jr share some nice awkward silence
New SportsCenter anchor Lindsay Czarniak and NFL Draft guru Mel Kiper Jr had a bizarre moment at the end of their interview on SportsCenter. After Czarniak ended the interview, the camera didn't cut away from the dual pane view of the duo. Awkward silence ensued and Czarniak then proceded to hold a smile on her face during six hard seconds of dead air while Kiper looked off camera in acknowledgement that the interview was over.
It almost seemed like a rib on Czarniak after the camera finally cut away, and her co-anchor started laughing about it. To her credit, Czarniak laughed it off and didn't have a massive emotional breakdown. But man, that initial tight-lipped smile on her face before the dead air began was actually kind of scary. Hopefully no small children were watching.
[h/t: Ride the Pine]
espn is still run by old white men who still believe in boxing. that is why they keep taking shots at the ufc whenever they can.
Just because neither group pays their low level participants particularly well doesn't mean one of them is right or wrong when they point it out about the other. The end result is still low level participants that are not paid particularly well.
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The UFC is the top-tier MMA organization in the world and its events are the biggest events in all of the sport. Friday Night Fights are not where the top-tier fighters practice their craft.
Scott Christ at Bad Left Hook notes that if a fighter earned less than $500 for a fight, it was likely a four-round affair -- and so a fight at the very bottom of the food chain in boxing. More akin to someone fighting in a regional MMA promotion than in the UFC.
Fertitta is comparing apples to oranges here.
@fbihop On the one hand, you're right - all the biggest fights in boxing go to HBO and Showtime, and outlets like ESPN, NBCSN, and FSN are fighting for scraps (and the occasional Klitschko fight). On the other hand, I've never seen an FNF fight shorter than eight rounds, though admittedly I don't watch much FNF.
I love what the UFC did here. ESPN sucks up to all the major spors but since they don't have a stake in MMA, why not investigate here?
Love how he answers "That's above my pay grade" and how the UFC taped this knowing ESPN wouldn't cover this aspect of the story so that they could show how hypocritical ESPN is.
It's great to see an organization not in bed with ESPN for once and not afraid to speak up about it.
