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Outside The Lines logo provided by ESPN
Inside "Outside The Lines":
The Skinny on ESPN's Hour-Long MMA Documentary
By Loretta Hunt

      On Thursday, December 5th at 7:00 PM, there is no doubt where the majority of the MMA world will be. They will be sitting on their couches watching ESPN's Outside The Lines hour-long episode on mixed martial arts. Two years in the making, the show has been a collaborative effort among numerous producers and their crews, with filming spanning from November 16, 2000 all the way up to late November 2002, when cameramen will record their last moments of footage at UFC 40. Outside The Lines, a weekly show for the juggernaut sports network, focuses on lesser-known aspects of the sports world. Shows in the past have included subsets of the major sports or certain elements of them that have not necessarily been exposed to the public. On occasion, OTL has even had the opportunity to introduce something completely new to its audience. It would seem that MMA's turn has come.
      No one I spoke with at ESPN is quite sure how this came about, but in the beginning, early seeds for the show were planted when the words "extreme fighting" appeared on a topic board at an ESPN producers meeting for future shows. Discussion on the topic was strong and warranted a little field research, so ESPN producer Jon Fish was dispatched for some reconnaissance work in the trenches. An opportune phone call from then-manager Dana White (he managed fighters Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell) led Fish to the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey and UFC 28. When Fish returned to ESPN headquarters with excited descriptions of his experiences at the event, the folks at ESPN knew they were on to something. "Our objective at Outside The Lines is to not do the most obvious thing," explains Mike Cambareri, who joined the project as head producer last March. "This was an opportunity to show the public something they normally wouldn't see." With company approval, the wheels were set in motion to produce an entire OTL episode exploring the intriguing world of MMA. Producers were assigned. Meetings were held. Topics were introduced and then scratched. Camera crews were fanned out across the country. As the team dug deeper into their subject, Cambareri says they dedicated more of their time to work on it. Now, two years later, and months and months of phone calls, road trips, live interviews and beta tapes later, ESPN's OTL will be ready to unveil the fruits of its labors.
      The show itself will attempt to cover a wide range of matter. Cambareri confirmed that the episode's format will consist of possibly 4 to 5 major segments of yet to be determined length, while the remaining time will be sprinkled with smaller pieces. What will these main stories consist of? Apparently a lot. One segment will focus on "MMA's attempt to carve a niche in America's sports culture", and most specifically, the Ultimate Fighting Championship's quest to get into the mainstream. OTL has been following the popular promotion since November 2000, and, in addition to interviews from UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta and UFC president Dana White (among others), footage will take fans behind the scenes the day of a UFC event to get a first hand look at the preparations and emotions leading up to fight time. Cambareri also added that the piece will touch upon the improvements the sport has enjoyed since Zuffa Sports Entertainment became a part of it.
      Producer Jon Fish's segment tracks the UFC heavyweight champion and will most likely revolve around former champion Randy Couture's story. Fish was there when Couture made his triumphant return to the organization at UFC 28, besting Kevin Randleman for the heavyweight title. Fish was also there when Couture lost the belt to Josh Barnett at UFC 36 in March, and most recently observed Couture unsuccessfully try to get it back at UFC 39 in September. Expect the piece to offer a closer look at the 2-Time Champion's life through those that know him best. The segment will also cover Josh Barnett's fall from grace via charges of steroid use. Being the first ESPN representative "on the scene" two years ago, Fish has been an influential figure for the show, as his reports on the sport have helped the other producers in their own planning and research. For Fish, doing a piece on MMA was an appetizing prospect from the beginning. "I like boxing and I like Olympic wrestling. My impression going into this was one of excitement to see this up close and personal."
      The UFC was not the only American promotion the OTL team covered. Along with footage from King Of The Cage and Gladiator's Challenge (among others), an entire segment will focus on the lower-level fighting promotions, the "minor leagues" of the sport as ESPN Bureau Producer Leah Siegel affectionately refers to it. Siegel has been researching her piece tentatively titled "Going Through The Ranks," since early this year. Based out of Texas, she has attended and shot tape on numerous shows in her area, including Extreme Knockout's No Holds Barred Fighting and Texas Kickfighting Organization's Martial Arts Fight Night. Siegel also traveled to the East Coast for two New Jersey events -- Reality Fighting 2 and SportFighting. "We're trying to convey to the audience who does this and why," she explains and says she has discovered there is no typical type of person that is attracted to the sport. Siegel's segment will contain numerous interviews with novice and up-and-coming fighters, ranging from fighters that do it for the love of the sport to serious competitors hoping to work their way up the ladder to the "big shows." Knowing nothing about the sport and having never seen a fight before, Siegel says she had no impressions or expectations as to what she might find. "When they put 'Extreme Fighting' up on the board, I said, "Hey, I'll do that. It sounds interesting. It turned out to be a lot more structured than I anticipated."
      Other major segments in the works include a look at the Gracie family, including interviews with Royce and Helio, as well as a perspective on their training and their ties to the UFC and the sport as a whole. "When I pitched the story ideas," recalls Cambareri, "I said 'what the Kennedys are to politics, the Gracies are to MMA.'" The segment will also touch upon the interesting cross-section of students the Gracies train including celebrities and FBI agents. Curry Kirkpatrick, a former Sports Illustrated writer and now a prominent journalist for college football, will host this slot.
      No study of MMA would be complete without a look at the opposition to the sport, a task that ESPN producer Steve Delsohn must tackle in his piece of the puzzle. In the final planning stages, Delsohn says his segment might include a study of the individual states and their athletic commissions that are still resistant to MMA and its intricacies. New York might be an area of focus, where MMA has been completely banned for a number of years. Illinois and California have also been mentioned as possibilities.
      In addition, Cambareri says the show will have some "elements of fun" as well, documenting MMA's brief brushes with American pop culture. A clip from that Friends episode where Monica's boyfriend wanted to become an Ultimate Fighting Champion will probably make the final cut, along with a recent interview with actor Jon Favreau explaining his involvement with that episode. ESPN is also working to get clearance for some footage from Jet Li's upcoming film "Cradle To The Grave," which depicts an extreme fighting tournament in one of its prominent scenes. Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, and Chuck Liddell were involved in the project this past year.
      For a forty-four minute time slot (one hour minus the commercials), the greatest challenge for the ESPN team, says Cambareri, was trying to figure out just what the show would focus on. "When you take on a topic like this, he explained, " Imagine trying to fit that into forty-four minutes? How do you boil down something that's not that simple in such a short amount of time?" Things will not become easier for the crew as they move into their final editing sessions in the coming weeks, but Fish was confident that they will somehow fit it all in. "We've shot a lot of tape and this show will have a good representation of that."
      What might be on most people's minds come December 5th, is the way the show will actually portray this sport -- a sport that has dealt with the negative attacks from mainstream press since its inception. Cambareri seems well aware of these fears. "What we're trying to do is get the best representation of what we feel and have culled from our experience into the world of MMA. I think the concern of everyone who loves the sport is will we portray this properly or in the fairest way possible. That's our goal for the show." Adds Fish, "We strive as never positive or negative. Just fair."
      What impressions have these producers been left with as their experiences around this episode come to a close? "There's some serious athletes out there and you realize the extent of their artform," explains Cambareri. "There's this proficiency in the many forms of martial arts they actually use. That was surprising to me as I watched the fights." For Jon Fish, connecting with the close-knit community of the sport as been his favorite part of the process. "We went and saw some tremendous athletes. To meet randy Couture and realize he's a former Olympic hopeful -- you get pretty amazed by that. Randy, Pat Miletich, Josh Barnett, Maurice Smith, John Lewis -- I enjoyed my time with all of them."
      It remains to be seen how the episode will play out, but one thing is for certain, ESPN's Outside The Lines has spent a solid amount of time, money, effort, and manpower to bring this show to the air. With a potential audience in the millions, it is hard to say what effect it could have on the sport, but at this point, the old adage "any publicity is good publicity" comes to mind. Shot mostly in documentary-style, the show should be a specific and detailed journey into the world of MMA. Is the rest of the world ready for it?
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