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Tue Apr 19 11:35pm EDT

UFC’s marketing might not enough to get Murray EA Sports NCAA Football ’12 cover

By Steve Cofield

The UFC did what it could to push DeMarco Murray past former Heisman winner Mark Ingram, but the efforts to get the Las Vegan the cover of EA Sports NCAA Football '12 fell short.

After 140,000 votes were cast, Ingram beat out Murray along with future NFL draft picks Nick Fairley and Jake Locker for the cover.

Why did the UFC care if Murray landed the prestigious spot?

The former Oklahoma running back has ties to the UFC's owner Lorenzo Fertitta and president Dana White. Murray attended Bishop Gorman, the same Las Vegas high school, as the UFC powers.

During a video campaign on UFC.com and mentions on the promotion's Facebook page, White pointed out that Murray is a longtime MMA fan, who supported the sport in its infancy during live events in Sin City.

Murray's also a fan of MMA training.

"It's definitely a lot different than what I do on the football field, but some things you can translate into your game. I spent three, four weeks in Las Vegas training with [striking coach James Gifford] at Lorenzo's gym, and that definitely helped me out a lot with my hand coordination and speed, along with working muscles that I've never worked on in football," Murray told UFC.com.

According to MMAjunkie, Murray plans on wearing something with the UFC logo during next week's draft.

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