A dramatic shift for the UFC, plus results on a Burrow vs. Mahomes poll

New York Times

20 hours ago

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Good morning! Make your Venmo private today.
A cage fight is happening behind your TV screens, over the world of combat sports. It's directly related to the future of sports broadcasting in general. Streamers like Amazon, Apple and Netflix are rights holders now. This isn't fringe. These are NFL-level rights holders. Meanwhile, ESPN is molting into something new, too.
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This point in sports business makes Paramount's deal for UFC — every broadcast of it — captivating. Gone are the pay-per-views that fueled UFC from a wily background player into a fringe mainstream product. Now, $7.7 billion later, every UFC event will be on Paramount+ and/or CBS.
The deal, frankly, shocked me. Two points before we get some outside analysis:
Local sports media ace Andrew Marchand wrote a great column about this yesterday, and I asked him about the move at this juncture in UFC's history:
'The Paramount deal will make UFC more mainstream than ever before. A barrier for casual fans is pay-per-view that cost $80 per night. That's an effort and a serious dent to the wallet. Now, many of the biggest events will be on CBS, while anyone with Paramount+ can just watch the fights for $60 per year with commercials. Meanwhile, TKO, UFC's owners, receive more than double what ESPN was paying them at $1.1 billion per year. All and all, leaving it is hard to see it not as a win.'
I also asked Mark Puleo, our in-house combat sports writer, how the news struck UFC's closest watchers:
'It felt like a throwback in the best way. Dana White built the UFC by being brash and innovative. Moving away from the archaic PPV model felt like the risk-taking UFC of old, and I think that's great for the sport. With ESPN, the UFC's event schedule became a bloated monstrosity, rolling out near-weekly cards full of names that hardly mattered. With the PPV model dead, and the allure of 'marquee' events being broadcast on CBS, could we be returning to the days of the regularly stacked, must-watched cards? And what would that mean for the never-ending angst over fighter pay? Those are the impacts waiting to be seen.'
The new deal starts next year — and a potential July 4 card at the White House will be part of the deal. Let's keep moving:
Ohtani, agent target of lawsuit
Two real estate developers have sued Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo, alleging that Balelo had them fired from a $240 million housing venture in Hawaii. The developers claim they had been working on the project for over a decade, and sought Ohtani's involvement for marketing purposes. Ohtani's representation fiercely denies the allegation. See more in our full report.
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Mateer calls Venmo descriptions 'inside jokes'
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer denied betting on sports after screenshots emerged this week of Mateer sending money on Venmo to someone in November 2022 with the caption 'Sports betting.' In a statement yesterday, Mateer claimed these were inside jokes between friends. Just set all your Venmo transactions to private, kids. Read Mateer's full explanation here.
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I expressed surprise yesterday at Joe Burrow's near-consensus inclusion as T-QB1 in the NFL according to Mike Sando's QB Tiers poll. Burrow is a superstar, yes, but Mahomes is still on pace to possibly be the most accomplished quarterback in NFL history.
Most of you agreed with that general understanding, with the large majority saying you'd take Mahomes over Burrow if you're building a team from scratch. But that's not a 90-10 margin … 65-35 isn't the blowout I expected it to be. That's a lot of love for Burrow.
Two thoughts here:
Still, here's my favorite Mahomes quote: 'Criticizing him is like walking into the Sistine Chapel and saying, 'I like Michelangelo's drawings, but his sense of color is off,'' a defensive coach with AFC West experience told Mike.
I just hope these two get to play each other in the playoffs again. Almost done:
📺 LLBWS: Puerto Rico vs. Latin America
1 p.m. ET on ESPN
Consider this listing a placeholder, as the official Little League Baseball World Series starts this afternoon and runs through the 7 p.m. ET window on ESPN. I'll be watching for funny kid intros. Enjoy the change of pace tonight.
📺 WNBA: Liberty at Aces
9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
A banger game between the past two WNBA champs, who are jockeying for playoff position. Plenty more storylines in our latest Power Rankings.
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📺 MLB: Dodgers at Angels
9:30 p.m. ET on MLB Network
Shohei Ohtani is pitching against his old team on the road here in what has been an intriguing L.A. series this year. The Angels, somehow, are 5-0 against the NL West-leading Dodgers this year. Fascinating. Oh and the Angels turned a triple-play last night:
Get tickets to games like these here.
The next story in our stalking series: on the woman who has stalked former NFL superstar Aaron Donald for years, and a bigger question about the burden of protection in these cases. Make time for this today. Terrifying stuff.
I thought Dennis Lin's story about Padres closer Robert Suarez tipping pitches — and the tech battle behind the notion — was great. Read it here.
The Premier League season starts Friday, so you should read our predictions file. We'll have plenty more on Friday, too.
The Little-League bat flip that made it all the way to a courtroom has now become a collectible pin. What a story.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: The haunting opener to our athlete stalking series this week.
Most-read on the website yesterday: ☝️
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