Planet Tapout 11.06.07: The Allure of Kimbo!
Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 11.06.2007
Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson makes his debut this Saturday on EliteXC's Renegade card in Texas. In the latest edition of Planet Tapout, 411Mania's Lotfi Sariahmed delves into Kevin Ferguson's allure and his future prospects in MMA. All that and more in the latest edition of Planet Tapout!
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the party that never ends…on Tuesdays at least. It's Planet Tapout and you know me as Lotfi Sariahmed. No mailbag this week because lets face it, you were all so captivated watching the IFL. Right? Either way, the email address remains the same. It's PlanetTapout@gmail.com . Lets commence the festivities.
The evolution of MMA has only just gotten underway. But in that time span of less than 20 years, who would have thought that evolution would include this guy?
***WARNING—VIDEO CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE***
Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson is the latest incarnation of MMA's sideshow trying to make it big in the sport. He debuted by beating up an old and decrepit Ray Mercer in his MMA debut at CFFC 5 in Atlantic City. A fight with Tank Abbott went by the wayside after an investor backed out of CFFC 6. Then Gary Shaw and EliteXC decided to jump on the opportunity and signed the man nicknamed Kimbo to an exclusive multi-fight and multi-year deal. This Saturday he'll make his debut on Showtime taking on Bo "Redrum" Cantrell.
Kimbo's a fighter that, if nothing else, brings a lot of intrigue. Is he a mixed martial artist? No. He beat up a 95-year-old boxer and has a plethora of street fighting knockouts. A mixed martial artist he is not. Does that mean he can't be? Of course not. But Kimbo has received so much hype for doing nothing more than street fighting and it boggles my mind. Among my group of friends I'm the MMA nut. People are afraid to talk to me about MMA or boxing. They're afraid to be sucked into a half-hour dissertation about the sport when all they wanted to know was who I thought would win the Gonzaga v. Couture fight. But more and more, people have come up to me, MMA fans and non-MMA fans alike, telling me about this bearded guy they saw on YouTube that beat the hell out of some other guy. There's a very violent nature in people and for some it's stronger than others. And like Tank Abbott before him, Kimbo satisfies that bloodthirsty desire in a lot of people.
There are a few streams of thought here when it comes to Kimbo. Of course there's the business side. Then there are the fans that have been drawn to the freak show fights in MMA that you primarily saw in PRIDE and the violence that came along with it. Then there are the fans that were drawn to the sport because of the competition. I've talked about the business side of things before when it comes to Kimbo. EliteXC has tried to break into that MMA market in virtually any way it can since its inception. Now in a move that screams, "Any publicity is good publicity," they've signed Kimbo in hopes of bringing in more subscribers and more eyes to their broadcasts on Showtime. From strictly a business perspective, it's hard for me to fault the move. People are going to pau attention. Heck, I'm writing about it. But publicity for publicity's sake doesn't do anything for a promotion. Also, what about the idea of being taken seriously and having any sort of credibility? That isn't any statement on Kimbo as much as it is EliteXC. They brought him in because of how popular he is through his street fights on YouTube.
It's interesting how some MMA fans are drawn to this guy and to the idea of a freak show in MMA in general. Ikuhisa "The Punk" Minowa, Giant Silva, Bart Gunn, Zuluzinho and "Butterbean" are just some of the names that have attracted people to a fight like the accident to a Nascar event. Why that is I have yet to get my mind around it. I guess there's always this question of what the really fat/huge/slow/powerful/crazy guy could do in a fight. The extremes tend to always be more interesting than your run of the mill fighter. It's interesting how we all work like that. Think about it. As a society we love the train wreck, the accident waiting to happen or the blood waiting to be spilled.
And I guess that's the draw here. It's Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson who's about to beat the hell out of Bo Cantrell. To be fair, he's been taking his training seriously with Bas Rutten, Shawn Tompkins and the LA Anacondas. Rutten actually said today on Beatdown Radio on Sherdog.com that he believes Kimbo could be a top 10 fighter. Of course that certainly remains to be seen but if he doesn't get there it won't be for lack of trying.
If you haven't guessed yet, it's hard for me to get behind this Kimbo push from EliteXC. I've never been a big proponent of just fighting to fight. In other words, I don't think Kimbo will ever be a Top 10 fighter. While I'm more than willing to give him a chance, it's a bit off-putting that there are legitimate fighters who have yet to get their shot on the big stage. All the while this Internet street fighter is getting that shot because he came with a loud entourage and beat guys up. What happened to fighting for the competition of the sport? After EliteXC's Renegade, I'll either be eating crow or we'll still have the same questions. But right now I can't help but feel a bit slighted when a street fighter makes his way into MMA on Showtime with almost no MMA experience and even less credibility.
Miscellaneous Musings!
●So the IFL Grand Prix has come and gone…did you watch it? Well, did you? In that one hour of live television you had a knockout in a dominating performance (Radach over Beauparlant), a close split decision (Horodecki over Palaszewski) and a title fight (Matyushenko over Schoenauer). Outside of maybe the title fight, what more did you want out of the IFL?
●As for that Grand Prix, the Horodecki v. Palaszewski rematch was great. But if Horodecki can't deal with Wagnney Fabiano's ground game, it'll be the Brazilian that walks away from Connecticut with the belt and all the glory.
●I don't know if Roy Nelson can simply take over for Ben Rothwell as the IFL's face of the heavyweight division but he certainly has a lot of skill. But if could fight for the duration of an entire fight that would be fantastic.
●Why Jake Shields is getting third billing on this EliteXC card behind Nick Diaz and Kevin Ferguson boggles my mind.
●If you're Cung Le, is a fight against Sam Morgan really that big of a "next step" after fighting Tony Fryklund?
●I'm definitely missing something here and I need someone to explain this to me. In Brock Lesnar's first fight on the UFC's SUPER BOWL CARD, instead of easing him into competition he's going to go from Min Soo Kim to Frank Mir? I know I said this was a good bout but not right out the chute. For as fat, slow and unimpressive as Mir was post-accident he still has too much skill to just be a guy to "feed" Lesnar.
This Week in Fight Picks!
EliteXC: Renegade
Seth Kleinbeck over Kyle Noke
Antonio Silva over Jonathan Wiezorek
Jake Shields over Mike Pyle
Kevin Ferguson over Bo Cantrell
Nick Diaz over KJ Noons
That's it for this week on Planet Tapout! Emails are always welcome and you and I both know you want to tell me what you think. The email address remains the same at PlanetTapout@gmail.com .
Make sure you come back next Tuesday for another edition of Planet Tapout! This week in MMA gives us EliteXC's Renegade show on the 10th but there's also a Rio Heroes card and a Shooto card before that as well. Enjoy the fights everybody.
