If losing could be anything but bad, this could be the best defeat Kimbo has ever had. By losing, Kimbo Slice won the hearts and acceptance of a lot of haters…and that includes Kimbo-thrasher Dana White.

Days before the airing of the September 30 edition of the reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” over Spike TV, MMA fans were already raving about it like it was the Lesnar-Fedor match finally taking shape. The reason: after Kimbo crashed and burned under Seth Petruzelli (and after losing to a worm in that Norton Security ad) this is going to be the first time we will see the bearded one slug it out in the cage again.

Kimbo Slice, whether you like it or not, has done in a few matches what Dana White has been trying to do for MMA – and barely succeeded: that is to draw more attention to mixed martial arts. Whether you like it or not, the much maligned, overly belittled and scathingly thrash-talked Kimbo is one of MMA’s biggest crowd-drawers. He drew the biggest TV viewership (at 7.281 million viewers during the Kimbo vs. Thompson bout) for an MMA fight in American TV last year. To top this, two of the three most viewed MMA fights last year are Kimbo Slice headliners.

Most of the hardcore MMA fans hate him, for good reason. Kimbo Slice is not a mixed martial arts fighter, but the amount of hype and attention (and huge pay scale) he gets does injustice to real MMA fighters. He gives the new fans the wrong impression of what real mixed martial arts is. An MMA poser he is, and it didn’t take long before some obscure MMA-fighter-turned-Smoothie King-franchisee Petruzelli showed the world what a fake he is – in just 14 seconds of the first round.

But still…Kimbo Slice was a crowd-drawer.

Now, Dana White struts him off on “The Ultimate Fighter.” And we say, “Good call, DW!” It means Kimbo’s crowd-drawing magic would rub off on the show. And it did – it’s first two episodes raked it’s highest ratings ever. So it came as a shock when White announced that a Kimbo fight was slated as early as the third week of TUF 10 against the much experienced Roy “Big Country” Nelson. If Slice loses, just like any contender who loses, he gets kicked out of the show

What was White thinking? There’s not an iota of doubt that Kimbo would lose.

And Kimbo lost.

But wait…

After losing to “Big Country,” haters started to feel differently about Kimbo. Even “real” MMA fighters and coaches on the show who sneered and swore and mocked him when he was first introduced on the first episode started to warm up on him. They started to praise him and his efforts.

And Dana White is keeping him on the show despite the loss.

…. and he can continue rubbing off his crowd-drawing magic on the show, on UFC, and on mixed martial arts in general.

Kimbo Slice lost this particular battle, but he seems to be winning the war.

The question is: is Kimbo Slice’s victory a loss for MMA?

MMA warriors, get a hint from that “little Filipino” pugilist.

Manny Pacquiao, who has just cemented his slot to becoming one of the the greatest boxers in history, must be today’s most popular fighter.  What makes him so?  It’s not the number of fights he won, it’s not the number of championship belts he collects – it’s how he fights.

The thoroughness, the intensity, the power – the heart! Now, that’s what we’re talking about.

It’s the process. It’s how you do it.  It’s how you win.

I heard my little girl sing this song from whoever-she-is-montana-hanna.  It goes something like this:

“Ain’t about how fast I get there/Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side/It’s the climb.”

Yessir! It’s the climb.  It’s the experience you give the audience.  It’s the spectacle.

We don’t want to go see two “intelligent” fighters dancing around the octagon thinking the fight out, and whoever outhinks the other wins.  Leave that to chess players.  Otherwise, I’d rather watch my son play Kung Lao in Mortal Combat – it’s more exciting.

What is MMA?  It’s a bloody fight!  Remember when it was still in its heydays, when it was still an underground (legally banned) sport.  It’s a bloody brutal fight.

No, we’re not saying that MMA gladiators kill each other.  No, we’re not saying MMA warriors should all be brawn with no skill or intelligence.  Au contraire, we’d love our fighters bright, with style… heck, we’d love them fighting with flair and class.  Do that Silva, and MMA fans would multiply overnight like twitter users.

And only then would you see the day where you earn by the millions of dollars, PER FIGHT.

MMA Weekly just can’t help noticing that, judging from this year’s top 10 American Pay-Per-View Rates as published by Yahoo! Sports, the young mixed martial arts industry is fast catching up with its elder brother, professional boxing’s popularity.

See for yourself:

1. Boxing: Oscar De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao, Dec. 6,.

The “Dream Match” was a much talked about event where pundits cried, “Mismatch!” The fight turned out to be less than what it was expected to bed. Legendary Oscar De la Hoya came up the ring like an old stiff retiree who was hugely overwhelmed by the Pinoy Pride Manny Pacquiao from round 1. Freddie Roach was right on the money when he said the Pretty Boy doesn’t stand a chance that he could even pull the trigger against his Filipino ward. It turns out, De la Hoya came to battle leaving his pistol at home. It was a mismatch alright. De la Hoya was no match against the much smaller Mexican Destroyer.

Views: 1,250,000

2. UFC: Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture, Nov. 15.

It showed that the Ivan Drago vs. Rocky Balboa story is only possible in Hollywood scripts. The older battle-scar riddled Couture just didn’t make it against the much younger and bigger MMA newbie.

Views: 1,010,000

3. Wrestling: WrestleMania, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Paul “Big Show” Wight, March 30.

No shame here. What a man does for $20 million. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. isn’t called “Money” for nothing.

Views: 670,000

4. UFC: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch/Lesnar vs. Heath Herring, Aug. 9.

This also earned St.-Pierre and Jon Fitch additional $60,000 each for the Fight of the Night award; Demian Maia and Rob Emerson also earned an additional $60,000 each for bagging the “Submission of the Night” award and “Knockout of the Night” award respectively.

Views: 625,000

5. UFC: Lesnar vs. Frank Mir, Feb. 2.

What can we say? Lesnar has been a crowd-drawer since he started with MMA.

Views: 600,000

The other top-rating shows were:

6. UFC: Quinton Jackson vs. Forrest Griffin, July 5 with 540,000 views;

7. UFC: St. Pierre vs. Matt Serra, April 19, 530,000

8. Boxing: Felix Trinidad vs. Roy Jones Jr., Jan. 19, 500,000

9. UFC: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans, Sept. 6, 480,000

10. UFC: B.J. Penn vs. Sean Sherk/Tito Ortiz vs. Lyoto Machida, May 24, 475,000

MMA Weekly says Mixed Martial Arts as a mainstream sport has finally arrived!

And they say boxing is dead….

Not quite.

The crew of MMA Weekly News believes boxing has to thank Manny Pacquiao and his fighting heart.  Thanks to Freddie Roach for his grudge against Oscar de la Hoya and starting this crazy idea of pitting his smaller pitbull fighter against a legend.  Thanks to Bob Arum for riding on with this "crazy idea."  And special thanks to the Golden Boy for biting into this crazy idea of a "mismatch" in favor of the lure of the Benjamins offered by PPV.  It turns out to be a real mismatch — Golden Boy was no match for the world's number one pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

They say, mixed martial arts has taken over boxing as the most scientific game on the mat.  Manny Pacquiao proved them wrong.  Boxing's number one pound-for-pound fighter displayed a spectacular level of discipline and technicality in his game plan never before seen in his earlier fights.  Pacquiao has been known as a brawler, someone who doesn't mind getting hit while he delivers his bone-crunching blows.  This was not the case with his fight with De la Hoya.

With utmost agility and cunning, he controlled the fight from start to finish–never giving in to the temptation of pouring all his blows even when De la Hoya already looked so helpless.  You can clearly see that Pacquiao, while delivering his jabs and straights and upper cuts with surgical precision, never forgets about De la Hoya's lethal left hook.  He knew that one small window, one small lapse in his defense, and the Golden Boy's left hook could change the direction of the fight.

It was mostly hit and disappear to De la Hoya's left, rendering the Golden Boy's lethal weapon useless.  De la Hoya and his high-profile handlers must have prepared for Pacquiao's 1-2-3 combos which is characteristic of his being a brawler, and they got stood up on their ambush plan.  There were no Pacquiao flurry of punches on the early rounds, just surgical precision straights to the face of De la Hoya.  The Golden Boy could barely counter as the Pacman would disappear after each hit to the right, apparently De la Hoya's blind spot.

The brawler has turned into a precision fighter.  With Manny Pacquiao, the world can start looking at boxing with a better perspective.

We could not blame anyone for thinking that boxing is losing its appeal, what with allegations of corruption and with the diluting of the term "champ' with all these alphabet titles.  Manny Pacquiao simply brought back the heart, the gritting discipline, and the nobility of the sport back into the front page.

Proponents of mixed martial arts have more reason to be glad with this development.  The death of boxing could mean the waning of the public's interest in full-contact sports.  Boxing is MMA's elder cousin.  And whatever demise boxing would suffer could conversely affect mixed martial arts.  On the other hand, keeping boxing alive speaks so much about the future of mixed martial arts as a mainstream sport.

Fans of Randy Couture (including some of us here at MMA Weekly) were devastated. Sometimes, watching too much Hollywood flicks could be bad for the mental health of fans of mixed martial arts.

This is not Rocky Balboa fighting the humungous Russian Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in Rocky IV. Only in Hollywood would a Stallone vanquish a Lundgren. Fact is, while Stallone destroyed Lundgren on the widescreen, he was actually flown to a hospital and stayed in the intensive care for eight days when Dolph Lundgren hit him in the chest during one of the fight scenes. Even Carl Withers (who played Apollo Creed—a character based on Mohammad Ali) announced that he was quitting after a having too much of Lundgren’s punches during one of the shooting! Simple physics tells us about mass and the force that goes with it. The bigger the mass…

Now, this is mixed martial arts—the real thing. And we have our MMA hero Couture facing that large mass of muscles from a guy who hailed from another planet…planet WWE. We thought it was Hollywood, and Couture would always prevail. We were dead wrong.

Brock Lesnar is not your regular massive 265-pounds, 6 foot 3 MMA warrior (as if there’s anything regular about such size) he also moves swiftly in a manner that defies gravity. No baggage in that hulk of a physiology, baby, just pure unadulterated working muscles powered by equally huge doses of adrenaline of the octane kind.

Most of us must have this foreboding at the first seconds of the fight when we see how Lesnar’s size dwarfed Couture inside the octagon. It’s different when you compare stats, where you just play with figures of the fighters’ size and height in your head. Reality has a way of slapping us back to reality once we see the massive Lesnar hover over Couture. It wouldn’t have made any difference if only Lesnar doesn’t move with the agility of a 200-pound warrior.

Couture’s plan was to stay on his feet, perhaps to deprive Lesnar of the weight and size advantage if they grapple on the mat. However, this plan simply gives Lesnar more opportunities to land his power punches. It’s a conundrum. You avoid your opponent’s weight and size but as a consequence, you expose yourself to his power punches with a stand up game.

And one of the power punches hits its mark.

Lesnar just made the world of mixed martial arts more exciting with his colourful demeanor and demeaning bulk. We at MMA Weekly say, he’s bringing the showmanship and drama that mostly accompanies the then highly patronized WWE.

UFC, and MMA in general, may not be Hollywood, but it can learn from the way it promotes itself.

Check out the MMA weekly table below, we could clearly see that this is an ultimate test for “The Natural.”  Lesnar’s time will come, but this bout is all about Couture.   All the drama of Stallone’s surprise “Rocky” reprise, and the bloody breath-taking grandeur of Russel Crowe’s “Gladiator” fight scenes COULD all be rendered puny by UFC91 on November 15, 2008 (barring any repeat of the Kimbo-Petrucelli 14-second letdown).  That’s just five days from the day we posted this!

This is quite an intriguing scenario: is Randy Couture’s superior skills, brought about by his more than a decade of fighting experience, going to be more than enough to compensate for the wear and tear his body must have been enduring from more than a decade of punishment?

Besides that, Couture hasn’t seen a real fight for the past 15 months, while Lesnar has been busy with two bouts this year alone, the latest being barely three months ago.  Ring rust!

Couture says, he’s got his own gym, his stable of warriors (Forrest Griffin, et al) that he can pick to fight with every week.  He might not have gone up the octagon with all the klieg lights, but his gym’s ring is just about as real as anywhere in the world–with or without the cameras and ring announcers.

Couture’s buddy, Matt Lindland believes that if Couture would just keep Lesnar’s power puches in early rounds at bay, he could make use of his ground and pound stopping power.  Those pro-Couture say he toppled Sylvia, so he can demolish Lesnar just the same.  However, let us not forget that while Sylvia’s kickboxing was no match to Couture’s ground game, Lesnar could give a better match considering that he too is a wrestler—and a bigger one at that.

That could make all the difference in the world.

  

 

Less than two weeks and the mma weekly team will all go the biggest fight in UFC history, the Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar face-off.  And don’t you start grumbling about not having the Couture vs. Fedor fight.  It’s a dream fight alright, but Fedor still has to settle contract matters with Affliction.  And, if Dana White is to be believed, it won’t be long now.  White said, “I would be horrified if Affliction was still in business by January.”  That settles it then.

Now back to the Couture vs. Lesnar dream fight.

It’s going to be held on November 15, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.  That’s less than 3 weeks before the biggest boxing event featuring boxing legends Oscar de la Hoya and people’s champ Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.  Another event that’s sure to burn a hole in my pocket!

OK, back to the Couture vs. Lesnar dream fight.  This time…really!

Dana “it’s good to be” White is rubbing his palms now as he counts millions, “The thing is going to do over a million pay per view buys” as fans would jockey for the best view of the 5-found UFC heavyweight championship.  The eventual winner will take on the winner of the Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogeira tiff which is also expected to be a great bout.  Sorry dudes, no matchup with Fedor yet.

The Mir-Nogueira fight is for the UFC Interim Heavyweight championship which will be held in December.  If we get lucky, we may have the Couture-Fedor dream fight early next year—that is, if Couture doesn’t suddenly decide to succumb to old age.

We can never tell.  He may get some heavy beating from the largely larger foe in Lesnar who 13 years younger,  and  is 40 lbs bigger than Couture’s 224 lbs when he goes inside the octagon less than two weeks from now.

However, “The Natural,” who has been away for quite some time, was actually busy retooling his game.  Remember  March 2007?  When people said he just couldn’t make a win happen with someone as big as Tim Sylvia, and he proved everyone wrong?  Today, the same story is being rehashed, but with a different character.  This time, it is with a much younger, more formidable-looking phenomenon called Brock Lesnar.

“The Natural” has actually been very busy sharpening his skills.  He has been simulating his fight with Brock Lesnar,, “I brought Josh Hendricks in:  He’s actually fighting on the same card against Gabe Gonzaga…He’s a 245-pound guy with a wrestling background…. I’ve got guys like Mike Whitehead and a bunch of other guys that walk around 240, 250 with good, solid wrestling backgrounds… We’ve got a good crew.  They’re pushing me and ganging up on me.  It’s hard to find guys like Brock that are that size and move the way he moves.”

Now, this is going to be exciting.

 

 

It seems like it was only yesterday when MMA Weekly first witnessed Gina Carano slugging it out with Julie Kedzie.  If it were your first time to watch a mixed martial arts fight, and one of the first fighters you’d see inside the octagon was Kimbo Slice, you’d surely have a very different idea (humungously different from the real deal) of what real mixed martial arts is all about.

Conversely, it was my first time to watch women mixed martial artists to actually fight, and Gina Carano was the first woman I saw slugging it out inside the octagon.  The result was a very positive impression of what women mixed martial arts is all about.  The two women, Gina and Julie were simply dynamite!  I would even say that they fought better than some of the male MMA gladiators I’ve watched all these years!

With the folding up of Elite XC, Gina Carano’s fate as a fighter hangs in uncertainty.  This should have been a great opportunity for her to hop on to a bigger, more respected MMA organization: the UFC.  Unfortunately, Dana White have expressed reservations about female MMA warriors.  He must share what most of us guys think about women in MMA.

The first time I heard about female mixed martial artists, I thought, “Phooey! If I want to see a catfight, I’d go to some underground sleazy joints that feature mud wrestling.”  Truth is, I am somewhat against the idea of seeing women’s faces getting beaten, bruised, and bloodied.  Hey, they’re supposed to be supple and soft, right?  Besides, Americans, and the world in general may not want to see women (warriors or not) beaten down the mat.  

Seeing that fight between two women a couple of years back made me change my opinion.  The women–real women, not the hulky muscled type with masculine faces only their mothers would love—fought like real fighters that they are.  Watching them fight would make you change your old-fashioned perception of women as the weak, lesser specie of the humankind.  No, no, no.  Gina and Julie were real fighters.  Women MMA fighters have to thank Gina Carano and Julie Kedzie for giving the female version of the sport a very good first impression to the world.

It’s a shame that the possibility of seeing Gina Carano fight again remains an uncertainty.  Unlike in her case, Kimbo Slice seem to have a better chance of getting on the UFC bandwagon.  Dana White just made a turn-around about his stand about how to deal with the internet sensation.  While White previously said Kimbo is not an MMA artist, he said Kimbo can fight in the UFC.  “The offer’s out there if he wants to take it, (but) he won’t win it.”

If ever, there’s still the issue about Kimbo’s and Gina Carano’s contract with Elite XC to deal with before they could consider a UFC fight.  With Gina Carano’s popularity now, a trip to Hollywood tinseltown may be a lot easier.

 

 

We were a bit saddened by Kimbo Slice’s demise.  OK, the guy just got his 15 minutes of fame, and like a shooting star, Kevin Ferguson shone so bright everyone wanted a piece of his ass—for different reasons.

Some wanted to fry him and expose who he really is: “a punk-who-beats-lame-punks-in-alleyways who thinks anyone, even a punk like him, can be a mixed martial artist.”   What were they thinking?  Everyone knows who he is!

On the other hand, some just love the appeal of his story—a Cinderella story.  And these people were not rooting for him for his skills (or the lack of it) in mixed martial arts.  They were rooting for the person—the underdog.  Everyone loves an underdog (or at least a lot of people do).  You will be surprised to know that even hardcore MMA fans (there were a large number of ‘em!) rooted for this internet sensation.

Kimbo Slice was a spice to the otherwise almost faceless warriors from these MMA stables.  Oh yes, we have the MMA big names but you will be totally dishonest with yourself if you’d deny that not a single one of the lot have grown as big as Kimbo’s in terms of popularity.

Kimbo Slice did to MMA what MMA warriors failed to do.

Kimbo Slice have increased the number of MMA fans in a matter of months when true-blue royal-blood warriors failed to do it in so many years.  Heck, MMA has just even barely risen from the underground image it has as a blood-sport of…well, blood-thirsty spectators.

The Fertitta brothers and Dana White may have done so much in the improvement of MMA as an industry but it took a cash-strapped Elite XC (with their poster boy Kimbo) to bring the sport to a broader fan base.

White has done a lot to bring where MMA is right now.  However, we suggest that he should reconsider his position about identifying MMA as more of a sport of ground games, and driving away those who prefer standup fighting to kick-boxing events.   Let’s face it, outside of those true-blue MMA fans, not many spectators  would relish the prospect of naked men hugging each other on the mat.

Now you have MMA in prime time TV (at least for three shows).

Kimbo Slice was a TV producer’s dream.

Kimbo Slice was a marketing gold find.  He was a marketer’s dream, offered in a silver platter, with all of his YouTube fans in tow.

Kimbo Slice was a marketing masterpiece that Elite XC, and CBS mishandled.

We’re not fooling anyone here.  Kimbo Slice  is a not a mixed martial arts fighter.  Anyone who thinks he was, we pity them.  Kimbo Slice was a marketing gimmick that brought that much-needed ingredient to a young and thriving MMA industry.

Even a marketing bit-player could tell you that an exciting sport such as mixed martial arts could not make it to the big time if it lacks an attraction.  Call it the “freak show” element, call it the Gina Carano appeal, you would need a package that anyone could visualize.  Heck, this is what World Wrestling Federation personalities used to succeed.  You have the Mr. T magic, you have the Undertaker, you have the most obnoxious personalities.  These “actors” became popular (as much as the body-slamming WWF was) not because of their wrestling skills but more because of their colourful (dark, ugly, or nice) personalities.

It’s all about the drama.

Hardcore MMA fans should continue talking about skills.  But we should not neglect talking about marketing the sport too.  We need it—even the gimmickry.

For anything to prosper, including MMA (which is still in its infancy) it should not be afraid of change.  That’s how entities turned out to be in their superior forms now—by evolving.

Those who refused have joined the dinosaurs.

 

 

 

What a letdown. 

Official records say it was 14 seconds, but that was just the record.  The spectators swear it was impossibly…and shockingly shorter than that.  The Kimbo Slice circus top has folded….on all fours!

They may deny it but the Kimbo Slice formula (keeping the Kimbo Slice franchise a hot item by pitting him with “beatable” but interesting opponents – “tomato can” is too much of a term, we don’t want to dishonour the warriors with this derogatory term–uhurm!) is becoming more a fact that urban myth.

They had the dinosaur-old Ken Shamrock fitting the bill for this formula.  Elite XC couldn’t be happier with the prospect that this Kimbo Slice vs. The 44 year-old Ken Shamrock could bail them out of their tight financial fix.  After all, this match is the last telecast of their contract with CBS, and we do not know yet how CBS is feeling with this partnership with cash-strapped Elite XC.  What happens after this bout?  After the Elite XC – CBS three-show contract?

With the way things were going, there was no indication to the negative, as far as the CBS contract is concerned—until that accidental cut that Ken Shamrock inflicted on his eye while doing some light training.  “Oh, he’s so old, he’s brittle!” 

They should have sued that Shamrock sham for letting this accident happen to him!  Oh, how they must all have hated Ken Shamrock for letting them down.  Why didn’t Elite XC do a UFC85 “Chuck Liddel-Mauricio Rua” dancing-chair repeat? 

Remember?  Rua was injured so Evans was brought in.  Liddel hurt his hamstring so Irvin was brought in..and so on and so forth.  The match was altogether scrapped, and both Evans and Liddel have to consummate their unfinished business on UFC88.

Why didn’t they just “injured” and excused Kimbo so he could live another day to face a more suitable (read: defeatable) opponent?  Or maybe a Slice-Shamrock at another date—with or without the CBS contract?  But they didn’t!  And Kimbo was sliced!

What a letdown.   

After that 14-second flash-in-the pan (not unlike the Kimbo fame) tussle, true MMA fans rejoiced.  Newbie MMA curiousity-seekers incredulously asked, “That’s it?!!!”  and the suits of CBS rushed back to their boardroom to brainstorm another show– perhaps a reality show about community organizers, or about old guys wanting to take a shot at becoming a president?  Meanwhile, EliteXC employees start scanning the morning paper’s classifieds for job vacancies.  Oh, how they all hated that Seth Petruzelli pizza, or something.

Elite XC have banked all its rolls on the Kimbo Slice franchise.  It played a hangman’s game and they played till the noose was wrapped around its neck.  What’s next?

Some wise-ass suggests that with Gina Carano’s fame still alive and hot as hotcake, Elite XC could concentrate on becoming the world’s women-only MMA organization.  Or perhaps, they should get Chuck Norris as their new poster boy.

(We are not fans of Kimbo Slice, to set the record straight.  We just love the way he helps turn things out for MMA.  We’re sure a lot have the exact opposite opinion on this—they just HATE how Kimbo Slice turn things out for MMA! Har! Har!)