Fame MMA’s first UK event was a total disaster – but it still broke the internet

There are many perks to working as a sports journalist at The Independent. There are also a few drawbacks. Liveblogging a celebrity MMA card (that's mixed martial arts, for the uninitiated) late on a weekend falls into the latter category.

On Saturday night, one of our reporters was tasked with covering Fame MMA’s first ever event in the United Kingdom. It was staged at the Newcastle Arena and featured the likes of Joel “JMX” Morris (a YouTuber), Joe Henderson (a professional freerunner) and Wojtek Gola (alleged star of Polish TV show Warsaw Shore).

No? Me neither.

Predictably, the action was far from compelling. One fight saw the rapper Harvey from So Solid Crew batter the professional misogynist Daniel “Dapper Laughs” O’Reilly. Another saw a YouTuber beat up a late replacement that weighed 29lbs less than him. But perhaps the most farcical was internet comedian Mike Fox’s 30-second defeat to freestyle footballer Andrew Henderson, which ended with the former “calling out” the disgraced former footballer and convicted paedophile Adam Johnson. “I think everybody would like to see that,” he bellowed, presumably as the concussion began to kick in.

The event was a disaster. But that doesn’t mean the interest wasn’t there. In fact, the liveblog was one of our most-read articles of the weekend, outperforming the likes of Premier League football, European rugby and international cricket.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. 2019 has been the year when the worlds of sport and entertainment have collided so comprehensively that it is now becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between the two. That has raised some interesting journalistic questions: namely, when does a sporting event cease to be sport? And who covers it? On this occasion, the sports desk took one for the team by covering the event in all of its infamy.

Next time? I’m not so sure.

Yours,

Luke Brown

Football writer