MMA Weekly News: Kimbo Slice saga continues, or hopes to continue, with Ken Shamrock

EliteXC was bleeding when they inked a deal with CBS and came away spectacularly with their first telecast (first MMA telecast on network TV) May 31.  Everyone agrees that headlining that event with Kimbo Slice was the best thing they ever did for that momentous event.  However, some didn’t like an MMA nobody like Kimbo Slice to be the poster boy of an event as important as having MMA introduced to the mainstream (network) TV audience for the first time.

Kimbo Slice, a backyard brawler who won fame and popularity from internet denizens, proved to be EliteXC’s golden boy as the succeeding telecast with “real” MMA gladiators barely tipped the rating scale of network TV.

EliteXC continues to bleed they need more Kimbo Slice headlined events to stay afloat, hence the Kimbo Slice Ken Shamrock bout on October 4 in Ft. Lauderdale for its final show (with their present contract) on CBS.

Hardcore MMA fans have said it before, and they’re saying it again:  Kimbo Slice is just your internet sensation that fits the “freak show” requirement to make the EliteXC-CBS concept work.  Hardcore fans just don’t like Kimbo Slice representing MMA to new MMA fans as he would surely give a different picture of what a Mixed Martial Arts warrior really is.

MMA gladiators are finely-tuned, scientific fighters that have trained for years, are masters of at least one martial arts discipline (tae-kwon-do, kick-boxing, wrestling, judu, etc) and have risen from the ground by fighting real MMA warriors.

On the other hand, Kimbo Slice’s handlers (EliteXC) have to gingerly pit him against has-beens or those who equally have his crowd-drawing powers without posing  a real threat to Kimbo’s hand being raised by the referee at the end of the bout.  Kimbo staying a winner is the only way to make this internet sensation a marketable MMA product.  That’s economics my friend.

Kimbo Slice badly needs to win this bout more than ever.  If he does, he goes further at legitimizing his mettle as an MMA fighter by defeating a legitimate and named fighter such as Shamrock.  If he loses, he gets exposed as who he really is: a street brawler that’s even no match to someone with a long streak of loses as Ken Shamrock.  He will be exposed as someone posing as an MMA warrior used by Elite XC and CBS to drum up viewership.

Kudos to EliteXC and CBS for coming up with a formula as this.  This would really be another TV blockbuster, and this is going to be a good fare for the new MMA fans.  Hardcore MMA fans, just grit your teeth.  For your consolation, this increase of new MMA fans is going to be good for the growth of MMA in the long run.

That is, if the EliteXC-CBS formula of a Kimbo Slice headliner does not backfire.