Spoiler Alert: Fans Upset That ESPN Scrolled UFC 120 Results Before The Event Aired

SI’s Josh Gross points out that we probably shouldn’t be complaining. (4th item)

Search “espn ufc” on Twitter to get a sense for the reaction White prompted. Yes, this is the UFC president, with more than 1.2 million followers, telling people to COMPLAIN to ESPN for publishing MMA news. It’s mind numbing. Maybe next time they’ll just choose not to cover it at all. How quickly we forget where the sport was five years ago. To be offended by ESPN or SI or any mainstream sports news outlet considering MMA relevant enough to publish results in real time is asinine.

Personally, I’ve always hated the tape-delayed shows. I love watching fights live at 3 in the afternoon. On Saturday, I stayed away from blogs and didn’t refresh Twitter because MMA bloggers were spoiling the shit out of UFC 120. That’s there job. I’m completely with Gross on this issue. You don’t have to read the scroll. It’s that easy. Fans should be happy that ESPN is scrolling results. They’ve done it for previous shows and hopefully they keep doing it.

People have to grow up and avoid spoilers.

Earlier this summer I went to a wedding the night that Fabricio Werdum shocked the MMA world by submitting Fedor Emelianenko. The bar we were celebrating in after the wedding didn’t have Showtime so I had no way of watching the fight live. I made sure to record it and stay off Twitter so I could watch the fights when I got home on Sunday. It was as easy as exhibiting a little self-control.

Of course, Clown texted me as soon as the fight was over so I ended up gluing myself to Twitter and finally watching a grainy YouTube version of the fight on the hotel’s courtesy computer at 2am. Conclusion – clown sucks.

Gross also pointed out that people might want to put some of the blame on SpikeTV. They are the ones that are showing us the card on tape-delay. Sporting events aren’t meant for tape-delay. I know going against college football isn’t the best idea, but who cares? Why can’t Spike just show the fight live in the afternoon and then the replay later that night? It seems like an easy fix, right? Or ESPN could just add *SPOILER ALERT* to the news scroll. There seem to be a lot of simple alterations that can make this better in the future. However, as MMAjunkie points out, the fixes aren’t going to come from SpikeTV.

I guess we’ll see how ESPN will handle UFC 122 in Germany. That show will also air via tape-delay on SpikeTV. Will ESPN be annoyed and just leave the results off the ticker? The one thing that is certain is that people will still find a way to ruin the fight for themselves.