To have a mixed martial arts fight on CBS was one big step, and after tonight's fight, it was one huge step. Former "street brawler" and YouTube legend, Kimbo Slice, took on James (The Colossus) Thompson in a fight that had more than a few people murmuring and usually to the tune of "I want to see that fight, badly". Before the fight even began everyone had the same question on their respective minds "can Kimbo Slice win an MMA fight against real competition?", well folks that has been answered.
As the fight was beginning I immediately was excited for the simple fact that Gus Johnson was calling the fight. I would later find out that I wouldn't hear much from Johnson because I, along with everyone else in the room, was freaking out from every blow of the amazing fight. After seeing the specs on these two fighters I began to have a little doubt creep into me as to whether Slice could win this fight. Thompson had two inches and 20 pounds on Kimbo and was also an MMA fighter who knew what he was doing. Kimbo isn't used to fights like these and admitted after the fight that he had a lot to learn. For those not familiar with this fighting there are 3 rounds of 5 minutes each with few rules in between. One thing that caught my attention and everybody else's in the room was Thompson's horrifying case of cauliflower ear. The picture linked is just an example of cauliflower ear, it isn't actually Thompson's ear, Thompson's was worse.
The fight began and I immediately moved to the edge of my seat because really there was no sitting back in a fight like this. I felt like the fighters more or less wanted to see what the other had to offer in the first round and there weren't many big blows. Thompson did demonstrate his dominance on the ground however and this - as a Kimbo fan - worried me. In round 2 Kimbo nearly won it. He delivered huge blows to Thompson and you could see him begin to stumble, but when Kimbo missed on a giant uppercut Thompson showed us the fight wasn't over. Thompson took Kimbo to the ground and delivered countless elbows and punches to Kimbo in the final minute and many began to think Kimbo was done for. I really didn't think the blows were that hard though, and sort of felt that Kimbo was conserving a little energy and would come out huge in the third round. Sure as the dickens I was right and that cauliflower ear paid for it.
I've never tied a butterfly to a string and watched it struggle to get loose, but I would imagine that it would look a lot like Thompson's left ear on every blow that Kimbo connected to his face. The ball on Thompson's ear shook wildly on every punch and you could just tell that it wasn't going to last as long as Thompson, and then with two straight punches to the ear, it was over. Blood began to gush out of Thompson's ear like water through a crack in the Hoover Dam, and Thompson seemed to be too dazed to even tell. The referee called the fight and pushed and held Thompson to the fence telling him the fight was over, Thompson slapped him and said he was fine, that's when the referee let him know that his ear was nearly gone. Kimbo acknowledged afterwards that it was a good thing the referee called the fight when he did, because he was just going to continue to go after Thompson's ear.
What does this fight mean to MMA? It means a lot, and the fact that this fight was some of the most entertaining 15 minutes of television I have seen in a very long time will definitely make me want to watch Kimbo's next fight to see if he can improve to 4-0. Kimbo has a very interesting story, a guy that was once homeless is now the face of an underground sport that is starting to peak its head up more and more. It's a sport that everybody knows about yet still isn't very popular. All of the MMA fighters despise Kimbo. He gets all of the attention, gets paid more than them, gets the primetime fights on network television yet has only proven himself to regular guys on the street displayed on YouTube. But Kimbo has something to him that has made the American public infatuated and the league officials or whoever knows that it's fantastic for the sport. It's his name, it's his appearance and it's his story, and what it's done for MMA already is incredible. A network fight in near prime time (prime time really for a fighting audience), a cover-story on ESPN the magazine and the publics interest on a rope.
Similar to Freddy Adu when he played in the MLS, other fighters may not like Kimbo but they have to recognize the wealth of good that he's doing the sport. Many soccer players didn't like Adu because he was only 14 and he was getting paid more than double what they were but they had to appreciate him at the same time because he was giving the MLS great publicity and giving ordinary fans and haters of the game a reason to watch. Substitute inexperience for age and you have the story of Kimbo Slice in MMA.
Whenever his next fight is you have to watch it folks. Kimbo Slice is incredible and is very easy to root for. We all love Cinderella stories and the story of a former homeless man and limo driver succeeding - and in a big way - is one that we can all grab on to and root for.
2 comments:
First let me say I found your site on Awful Announcing. I too am a UK fan and thus I was intrigued enough to check out the site. Nice by the way.
Now for my comment on the EliteXC event. I really don't think it is all that good for the MMA sport. For several reasons. Most of which you can read on my blog.
One big reason is the WWE style in which they came out to fight. Rappers and dancers and silly dances by one fighter (who got knocked out).
But more than that the action wasn't all that good. The Lawler fight was just getting good when they called it for a poke in the eye. A fighter has 5 minutes to rest for a poke in the eye or a shot to the man region. Yes he did say he couldn't see but he also asked for his 5 minutes.
They should have honored that and in turn I think we would have seen the best fight of the night.
Each fight including the Kimbo fight was stopped way to quick, EXCEPT for the girls and they in turn had the best fight of the night.
Kimbo was getting beat in both rounds and had it gone to the judges he would have lost. Even Kimbo recognized that he has a long way to go in MMA.
Listen Kimbo is a freak and is unbelievably strong, but at his age he it is going to be tough for him to fight some legit MMA guys because of his lack of a ground game. Punching wise he is right there with them and might be one who can take one better than anyone but he struggles at best on the ground.
Thompson isn't even an average ground guy (IMO) yet he was a good test. One thing in Kimbo's favor is that he IS so strong that it will be tough for the average guy to submit him.
Had the fights been more about fighting than show and had it not been a 2 1/2 hour show with less than 25 minutes of fight time I would have liked it better.
But truth is the WEC the following night was 100 times better than what CBS did. The trick for them is to come up with some fights to bring back the 6 million plus viewers because many of them were true MMA fans that didn't like the show and probably won't watch the next time unless there is a killer bout or unless Gina Carano fights again...she is just a pretty girl that will knock the snot out of ya.
I appreciate the words about the blog, blackhawk.
I too think that Kimbo has much to improve upon in his fighting (esp. his ground game) and perhaps the fight was called early, but honestly, Thompson was looking like he was about to drop any second and had they continued it I think he would have. I believe a large number of those fights were called early because it was on network television. This is certainly something that CBS will have to work out because it cannot continue to like this.
As far as people watching it again, I think that the American people are intrigued. I think the true hardcore MMA fans still don't buy Kimbo's act and have a desire to see him lose, and the casual fans are simply curious to see more. Either way, I think whatever fight Kimbo takes next, the people will want to see, whether for him to win or lose.
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