Word: channelized
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...sport that, just 10 or so years ago, was roundly derided as "human cockfighting." At first, the caged bouts were fought in the shadows, since the sport was banned in almost every state (it is now sanctioned in 33). But MMA now draws strong ratings on the cable channel Spike TV, and is a money-maker on pay-per-view; in 2007, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, MMA's dominant promoter, secured over $200 million in pay-per-view revenues, up from some $40 million in 2005. Still, scoring a prime-time network audience will expose the sport to a whole...
...says Melissa Henson, communications director for the Parents Television Council. "It's not appropriate for children." These MMA critics get Kimbo's blood boiling. "I would rather have my son watch MMA and learn to defend himself from a bully," he says, "than have him watch the hunting channel and see some guy blow a deer's head...
...What's more, by exposing MMA to kids who are channel surfing, the network, and advertisers like Burger King and Miller, are risking a backlash. "Anyone who thinks CBS will not come out of this with some kind of black eye is fooling themselves," says Marc Ganis, president of SportCorp, a consulting firm. "Just wait for the first news report about two eight-year-olds that went after each other because of something they watched on CBS. It's going to happen." Kahl scoffs at such fears. "I find that statements like this come from ignorance, from a snapshot...
...Fortunately, Slice can channel his anger for the match. Thompson, his main event opponent, is talking plenty of trash, and looking to crush Kimbo's legend. "Obviously, Kimbo hasn't been tested," says Thompson. "No one, not the best MMA fighter in the world, will be able to live up to that hype." Thompson promises to go on the offensive, but Kimbo brushes the tough talk aside. "If he comes with aggression, that's like gasoline igniting a fire," Kimbo says...
...there is another port, across the continent from L.A., where things look a lot different. Stand on River Street in the old Georgia city of Savannah, and the big ships you see squeezing out to sea through the narrow river channel actually float lower than the ones coming in. They're full of exports...