Tuesday, July 16, 2013

It is time for Invicta to upgrade their announce team

As I said the other day, now that Invicta is on PPV, they need to change their approach to draw in casual fans. The faithful won't pay the bills. So I made a few suggestions. But I wanted to save this suggestion for its own column. I think they need to make some changes in their announce team. Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer criticized the current Invicta announce team for not mentioning on air when the crowd is booing and why they are booing. It must be mentioned because casual fans watching on PPV won't know why fans in the arena are booing. I don't know if this is something the announcers are doing on their own or if they are being directed by Invicta management to not acknowledge that kind of thing. Either way, it needs to stop. I'm talking to fans on Twitter about poor judges decisions and that's not even mentioned on air. So the current broadcast team is Mauro Ranallo, UFC fighter Julie Kedzie and Bellator fighter King Mo Lawal. First, I don't like three person broadcast teams because it turns into a traffic jam. But I think Mauro does a good job of directing traffic. And I know he loves the sport and always works hard. My problem is with the other two. First, I don't believe that an active female fighter should be a commentator for a female MMA promotion. And Julie Kedzie comes with a built in conflict of interest because she is Greg Jackson's assistant at Jackson's MMA. So she can't comment on any fight that includes a Jackson fighter. I'm sure some fans will be upset with me for suggesting that Invicta should replace Julie. I'm sure she's a very nice person. I don't care. The conflict of interest makes her presence on the broadcast inappropriate. And you can be sure that if Invicta signed a deal with a network tomorrow, she would be gone anyway because all these networks are public companies and the conflict of interest would not be acceptable. So when Julie is unable to comment on a fight because of conflict of interest, that puts a lot of pressure on King Mo. And though he has improved, he's just not very good. He mumbles too much. I don't know what made Invicta think he could be a broadcaster. And like I said before, objectivity during the broadcast seems to be a problem. So I would replace them with someone who has a more critical eye. And it would only be one person. The first person I would suggest is UFC legend Pat Miletich. Pat has worked with Mauro in the past and they have great chemistry and he knows his stuff. And he will criticize when it's appropriate. I don't know if he is available. So my other suggestion is Jordan Breen of Sherdog. Jordan has broadcast in the past and he is as knowledgeable about women's MMA as anyone I know. And he will criticize when it's appropriate. The time has come for Invicta to become a more professional organization and that includes changing their announce team.

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