The UFC returned on Saturday night in Jacksonville, Florida, for its first live event since the coronavirus pandemic forced all leagues to pause activities, and made a change to its typical broadcast presentation that fans seemed to universally dislike.
Throughout the broadcast of the prelims on ESPN, a stream of tweets would be displayed on screen, so fans can read what fighters watching the event at home are saying about the bouts. This continued even mid-round, with tweets popping up in the bottom left corner of the screen while punches were flying in the center. Many fans found the tweet distracting, and according to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, the tweets will continue all the way through the main card.
UFC broadcast has added live pop-up tweets during fights for the first time. I'm told these will be a part of the broadcast all night, including the PPV main card.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) May 9, 2020
@ufc I respect all UFC fighters and their opinions but it is disrespectful to the fighters currently fighting in the octagon, officials, and crew to continuously take up 70% of the screen with tweets #UFC249
— Mar Mar (@MarMarCaps) May 9, 2020
The tweets popping up mid-fight is dumb.
— UFCStatsđź’ (@TheUFCStats) May 9, 2020
i don’t even want to read tweets on twitter please stop showing them to me on the UFC program
— home of sexual (@djtranquilo_) May 9, 2020
The tweets in the corner of @espn's broadcast of #ufc249 are SUPER annoying. Adding nothing to the viewing experience and distracting from the product. @ufc
— Andrew Hart (@AndrewHart21) May 9, 2020
Can we piss off these on screen tweets. I can’t help but read them on screen no matter how menial they are @espnmma @ufc #UFC249
— X BÆERBOY A-12🍺🦠(@beerboy182) May 9, 2020
Hey @ufc stop blasting tweets up in the bottom left hand corner of the screen DURING the rounds, super distracting. @danawhite
— Joey (@Yung_torso94) May 9, 2020
Are @espn and the @ufc seriously putting tweets on the screen DURING fights now? I hate this trend, please stop, super distracting #ufc249
— Jordan (@Fifth_Opinion) May 9, 2020
For the love of god, @ufc remove the dumb tweets off the screen, people are here to WATCH the damn fights.
— Adam Mitchell (@DrYoloNuggets) May 9, 2020
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