Yahoo! Sports has an MMA section on it’s main page, which is unique, kinda. Yahoo! and UFC has an agreement that let’s internet users buy their pay-per-view events and watch them online. They heavily promote UFC events on its website and they seem to have an interest in the UFC doing well. That being said, Yahoo! Sports writer, Dan Wetzel, is calling EliteXC’s primetime event on CBS an “entertaining disaster.” He went on to call the event things like “a circus act” and “an absurd exhibition.” His article is full of back-handed compliments and in-your-face criticisms. I’m not saying that Yahoo! told Wetzel to write a trite article about EliteXC, but you have to think that after covering many UFC events and promoting the heck out it, he is showing his bias.

I took enough journalism classes that I can read an article and usually spot bias when it is there, especially when it is blatant. Knowing that Yahoo! and the UFC are in bed together makes it even easier to spot.

I know EliteXC isn’t the UFC, it’s probably like comparing the WWE and TNA Wrestling. UFC is the pinnacle of MMA and EliteXC is an up-and-coming fighting league. EliteXC does have something that the UFC has attempted to obtain, but never been able to, a network television deal. UFC could have had a deal, but when it came to money, they were in different tax brackets. Dana White, the president of the UFC, has to think that EliteXC’s network exposure will give them a leg up that the UFC never had when they began. It will be interesting if UFC will try to steal a few of their big names away if EliteXC starts to grow.