The Prophet’s mea culpa….or how I was wrong about Kimbo Slice

I was wrong about Kimbo Slice…

One of my greatest character strengths has been an ability to admit when I was wrong. I’ve always despised people who can’t just come out and say that they were initially incorrect about something, or that they’ve changed their mind based on further research or new information. Maybe that’s why I despise most politicians–they have a genetic inability to just say that they made a mistake or they changed their minds, relying instead on spin or prevarication. Here’s a couple of bipartisan examples–of course George W. Bush’s Iraq policy is a classic example refusing to admit that he was wrong about WMD’s or that he doesn’t have a clue about how to achieve victory there which is probably because there’s no clear definition of what “victory in Iraq” is. And Democrats are no better, as evidenced by John Edwards, who tried to convince us that he took a job at a hedge fund to “learn about poverty”. This may be one of the worst rationalizations ever, and isn’t too far removed from taking a job in a whorehouse to “learn about celibacy”. He should have just said that, like anyone, he took the best paying job he could find instead of trying to spin it awkwardly to fit into his campaign meme of “two Americas”.

So in the run-up to last night’s Kimbo Slice v. Ray Mercer fight I had dismissed Kimbo as a bizarre creation of the Internet age taking the opportunity to get his 15 minutes of fame and put some money in the bank. I’ll admit that I hadn’t watched his endless collection of YouTube street fight videos in any detail, though I was familiar with the basics of his resume. And I’ll admit that I had become something of a snob, thinking that a fighter had to have the legit boxing pedigree of Mercer, the amateur wrestling background of a Brock Lesnar or the martial arts foundation of a Karo Parysian to be any good. I reacted to Kimbo Slice based on snobbery alone, much like close minded scolds like John McCain once called MMA “human cockfighting” based strictly on ignorance.

I began to think I should at least do a little research on the Kimbo phenomenon when I was exchanging emails with an associate of mine in Costa Rica. If you’re one of my clients you’re probably familiar with the guy and he’s considered by many to be the best boxing handicapper on the planet and consults with a number of sportsbooks on setting boxing lines. I had said in passing that based on my knowledge of Kimbo he was a total fraud as a fighter, to which my associate–who has forgotten more about boxing than I’ll ever know–responded “Bullshit! Have you watched his videos? He’s got great balance and center of gravity. He comes in real low and his power punches pack a wallop. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him use a jab, but its not like the guys he’s fighting are Larry Holmes so he doesn’t need to. He’s tough as shit, shows good conditioning and is intimidating as hell. He’s raw, no doubt, but he’s got a lot of natural ability that could make him an excellent professional fighter.”

My opinion didn’t change with his demolition of Ray Mercer last night, which I didn’t get a chance to watch live. I read a play by play, assumed that it was simply because Mercer was old and didn’t train seriously. I started to think about what my boxing genius associate had said and figured I should do a little more “due diligence” on Mr. Kimbo Slice.

I started by watching the video of his “streetfights” that have made him a huge Internet phenomenon, sort of a testosterone heavy version of the ubiquitous “LOLcats” pictures. It’s initially hard to get over the production of the videos and the way the fights are contested to evaluate Kimbo’s skills as a fighter. It’s part gangsta rap video, part “Bumfights”, part amateur porn. And its not like Kimbo is fighting Josh Barnett and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira–his opponents are big, tough though slightly goofy looking inner-city dudes with names like “Afro Puff”, “The Bouncer”, “Rasta” and “Chico”. There’s no Michael Buffer, no Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant, and no real pageantry at all–Kimbo and his entourage roll up in a Hummer, they get out of the vehicle, Kimbo takes off his shirt and hands his bling to his crew and the fight begins with little buildup.

And more often than not, Kimbo destroys his opponents in a matter of minutes. He’s a big, strong, intimidating dude but like my boxing associate said he’s got a lot of intrinsic upside as a fighter. I also noticed that he’s not a garden variety “headhunter”, but uses his punches to set up other punches and actually throws combinations. And the man has hellacious power. What impressed me is that even at this rudimentary level, his superior tactical skills, balance, footwork and technique do as much for him as just being a big, tough scary SOB. These fights have little groundfighting or kicking, which means that he could be potentially limited in kickboxing or MMA. On the other hand, he’s a powerful and tough guy with the same kind of barbaric charisma of a Mike Tyson and is obviously a great self promoter, so you could definitely understand why promoters and the “money people” would be anxious to get him into the sport.

I then watched the Ray Mercer/Kimbo Slice fight from last night, and it was then I changed my mind about the “street fighting” legend. Kimbo Slice is for real. Kimbo is still raw, but he shows a few things in addition to his obvious strength and toughness in his quick victory over Mercer. In fact, he actually showed me more in a short fight than Brock Lesnar did a few weeks back, so regardless of how he got in the sport you got to give him props. What impressed me is that for a guy without much formal martial arts background he did a nice job at integrating some of the new things that trainer Bas Rutten has taught him with his natural talents–his strength, size and striking power. A lot of guys who come to MMA from other disciplines have a hard time building on their strengths, instead over-relying on them and becoming a one-dimensional fighter. Karo Parisyan in the UFC, who’s legit one of the best judoka in the world, has done a nice job of adding striking and BJJ submissions to his ungodly judo skills. He’s an example of a guy who’s done it right. The jury is still out on Lesnar, though I think he’ll be very good. There’s nothing wrong than immediately going for the shoot and taking the fight to the ground if that’s your strength, particularly if you’re one of the best amateur wrestlers in US history.

If you do what I did by watching Kimbo’s street fight videos and then watching his fight against Mercer you’ll immediately notice how he’s actually learning to be a professional prizefighter under the training of Rutten. My concern was that he’d go in looking to “headhunt” with some power punches to the head like he was in a street fight with a wino and not a former heavyweight champion. Yet he almost immediately did everything he needed to do to neutralize Mercer’s strengths–he pushed him to the cage (and guys who’ve never fought in a cage before always say how hard it is to not panic the first time you get backed up into the fence so this was a big tactical advantage), he tied him up so Mercer couldn’t get spacing to establish any kind of boxing-style punching rhythm or movement and he started to maul him. Clearly this is something that a guy who’s spent his life in a boxing ring wouldn’t react well to instinctively. Kimbo then starts to unload his power from inside, while throwing a few of the Muay Thai kicks–and Mercer’s biggest problem in the MMA fights he had prior to this was his vulnerability to body and leg kicks so I’m sure this was by design. He then gets the takedown and chokes him out with a guillotine choke, even remembering to hook Mercer with his legs.

In other words, he didn’t fall back on his instinctive fighting style. He executed a perfect fight plan that immediately turned his opponent’s strength–his extensive standup training as a boxer and his lifetime of instincts at how to defend and slip punches–into weaknesses as he exploited Mercer in just about every way that a boxer wouldn’t react well to instinctively. He mixed up his attack, and he didn’t mess around and went for the kill when it was presented to him–important since even for a guy past his prime Mercer had trained all of his life to fight 36 minutes as opposed to 15 so the longer the fight went on the better it was for the boxer. And he did a better job of this than at least 75% of the guys who go through the “Ultimate Fighter” TV series and are come from a “serious” fighting background.

I’ve done a 180 on Kimbo since last night–he’s raw but he’s more of a legit fighter already than Bob Sapp was when he went to Japan, that’s for sure, and Sapp became a huge star before Mirko “Cro Cop” smashed his eye socket into several pieces. Actually, he’s still a big star but doesn’t fight much any more. Kimbo ain’t’ ready to step into the ring against Fedor Emelianenko, but he’s at the point where he’ll destroy Tank Abbott if they fight as was intimated in the Saturday postfight interviews. Like LeBron James, he looks a lot older than he is–he looks like a 50 year old death row lifer but he’s only 31 and since his entire fighting career has been in YouTube clips he’s still a “young 31″ in terms of being a professional fighter.

Assuming that he continues to devote himself seriously to training, he could easily be in the top 10 MMA heavyweights in the world within the next year or two. And like it or not, he’s going to be a big star in the process–at the very least he’ll be the American version of Bob Sapp and he could possibly end up as MMA’s version of Mike Tyson. He’s got that same primal brutality, the same barbaric charisma, the same ability to intimidate his opponents–combined with a good training team, plus serious power and a lot of natural talent.

This weekend could go down as significant in the development of MMA in the US, as we saw the “yin and yang” of the sport’s future. On Friday night, one future superstar was born in the personage of Vietnamese-American Cung Le who’s raising the technical bar in the sport in the same way that fighters like Frank Shamrock did in the past decade. On Saturday night, we got our first look at the raw, powerful and charismatic street fighter Kimbo Slice who could become the sort of dominant, fear inspiring champion that always captures the imagination of the American public. Making these developments all the more significant is that neither of the potential future superstars that exploded onto the scene this weekend are under contract to the UFC.

MMA fans, in particular, shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Kimbo Slice based on his unusual path to the sport. MMA in America essentially began as the bastard cousin of pro wrestling, and in the early days of the UFC serious pro wrestling fans knowledgeable of MMA style Japanese promotions like the UWFi and blood thirsty white trash were the only people who cared. I’m as happy as anyone to see the sport develop and grow as it has, but MMA is no position to start getting elitist. Even boxing fans need to look to their own sport’s history–there’s no shortage of champions who honed their skills on the street or in prison (Bernard Hopkins immediately comes to mind) and not in a gym or dojo. I can think of one guy who ran away from home as a teenager and lived on the streets. He was a big tough guy and began fighting in saloons and hobo camps for extra money. For awhile he worked in a shipyard but with his older brother started training as a professional fighter. Had he come along 100 years later, its a pretty easy reach to picture him beating up winos and crack addicts and posting the videos on YouTube. The technological advances of the past century notwithstanding, this fighter had a very similar path into boxing as Kimbo Slice has taken into MMA. That fighter was “The Manassa Mauler” Jack Dempsey, a legend in the sport and on the short list of the greatest heavyweights of all time.

As I often counsel friends who’ve gone through some tough times in their past “it’s not where you’re coming from, it’s where you’re going” that matters. And that’s the attitude that fight fans should take with Kimbo Slice. Assuming that he remains diligent in training and applying what he learns in the ring “where he’s going” is to superstardom as well as being a top ten MMA heavyweight.
Jack Dempsey
plus...
YouTube
equals....

Sunday, June 24th, 2007 boxing, mma

16 Comments to The Prophet’s mea culpa….or how I was wrong about Kimbo Slice

Scrap
June 24, 2007

Excellent read. Nice job.

FightOpinion.com - Your Global Connection to the Fight Industry.
June 24, 2007

[...] ProphetFighting: How I was wrong about Kimbo Slice [...]

ProphetFighting » Kimbo to party with Hollywood celebs & Suicide Girls?
June 24, 2007

[...] didn’t take long…in the span of 48 hours Kimbo Slice–who’s future prospects in MMA we discussed at great length yesterday–is apparently living the life you’d expect from Vinnie Chase on HBO’s [...]

dogspace
June 25, 2007

While I agree that Kimbo is not just a side show act to say he will burst into the top ten is laying it on a bit thick. Looking at who is there now I don’t imagine anyone of them will be intimidated by Kimbo . Cro Cop? Randy ? Mark Hunt? The Emeliankos’ (sp?) These men are everything that Kimbo (big, bad, agressive and naturally talented) is but with 10-20 years experience in MMA. Maybe he will become sucessfull but top ten in a year not a fucking cahnce in hell.

Don
June 25, 2007

Your great MMA analysis here is unfortunately marred by entirely unsubstantiated smearing of John Edwards in the opening paragraph. Edwards has made “I was wrong” into a mantra, making him about the last person you should should single out as a Democrat unwilling to admit mistakes.

Edwards has said countless times that he was wrong to have supported the invasion of Iraq. It’s always close to the first thing he says on the issue- whether in the debates, on the campaign trail, or in interviews. His willingness (bordering on eagerness) to admit that the biggest vote he cast in the Senate was a mistake has become his main distinction from the other candidates. Edwards is using his contrition as a main selling point, saying that we need a change from the blind stubbornness of Bush, while contrasting himself with Hillary’s unwillingness to call her same Iraq vote a mistake.

I want to stress that I’m a fan of your blog and there are many things to praise, so I hate to come across as negative. You of course have every right to hate Edwards, but whatever you think about him, he’s just not the right fit for the point you were making.

The Prophet
June 25, 2007

Thanks for the kudos about my blog and to some extent I think you’re right. I changed the Edwards’ example to a more specific instance of his inability to give a straight answer to a simple question.

I also want to thank you for being the first Edwards’ supporter to counter my views in a coherent, intelligent and civilized manner. Typically, I get called a “Dubya loving right wing neo-con reactionary” which if you know me, or, for that matter, if you’ve read any of my writing on politics, is comical.

I dislike Edwards, but I dislike most politicians. Edwards to me seems particularly vacuous and self serving, but honestly there’s not a candidate of either party (at least any that have a chance of winning the nomination) that I’d vote for.

IMO, Edwards’ revised stance on the war in Iraq is more of a tactical political decision than anything else (as is, I would suggests, Hillary’s more “hawkish” position). He wanted to look “hawkish” when he was running for President and as Kerry’s running mate, but now he’s better served by taking the other tact. Not much different than Kerry’s horrible “I voted for it before I voted against it” line.

In any case, thanks again for reading and commenting. Obviously, this discussion isn’t really “on topic” for this blog but since you went to the trouble of commenting I wanted to reply. I invite you to read my “Revelation” blog if you don’t do so already–I frequently discuss political matters there and I’d be happy to have the input of a articulate and well informed person like yourself, even if it *is* “in dissent” ; )

http://www.prophetsplace.com/blog

The Prophet
June 25, 2007

Certainly there’s a lot of unknowns about Kimbo–IMO the biggest question will be his dedication to training and learning how to be an MMA fighter. Based on his first fight, I give him high marks but it remains to be seen whether or not he wants to dedicate himself to becoming a serious fighter or if he’ll be content with profiting from his new found fame.

And it may be more like a two year time frame but assuming that Kimbo *does* commit himself to becoming a serious fighter I stand by my suggestion that he’ll be a top ten heavyweight. Don’t forget that MMA is a business and based on his amazing and somewhat improbable popularity he’ll get opportunities, and get them more quickly than the average MMA newcomer. If he continues to progress as a legit fighter he’ll get big fights sooner rather than later. He’ll be considered a top ten heavyweight in this regard, which I guess is what ultimately matters–Kimbo’s skill as a fighter relative to the rest of the heavyweight MMA fighters in the world isn’t as relevant than the PPV buys he generates.

And his insane popularity cannot be underestimated–I did some research with a tool called “Google Duel” which compares the number of pages containing certain keywords, modified by certain adjectives. I did a comparison between Kimbo and the baddest man on the planet, Fedor Emelianenko who, as your aware, most (including myself) consider to be the #1 heavyweight MMA fighter in the world. I used the adjective “tough” as a modifier. Fedor returned 230,000 hits, Kimbo 251,000. I then turned to the higher profile UFC fighters–Randy Couture fared better and surpassed Kimbo, but not by much–Couture brought up 291,000 hits. Kimbo trounces Tim Sylvia in terms of popularity (Sylvia brings up a mere 158,000 hits). Mirko Cro Cop brings up 221,000 hits, meaning Kimbo wins the battle of popularity here as well.

Obviously popularity doesn’t equate to talent, but what it does mean is that Kimbo will get every opportunity to become a legitimate force in MMA. If he decides to take these opportunities and dedicate himself, he’s got all of the tools to become a top heavyweight.

The implication of the Google comparison I did above is mind boggling–Couture is more popular and well known than Kimbo, but not by *that* much. Kimbo tops most of the other top heavyweights. What’s really amazing is that this is despite the Zuffa promotional machine behind the UFC fighters, while until now Kimbo’s popularity has been more organic.

How good Kimbo can or will become is certainly open to debate. The popularity and “buzz” he already has, however, is not. I’d be willing to wager that if the UFC booked a match between Kimbo Slice and Randy Couture on the next PPV that it would break all existing buy-rate records. Obviously Kimbo ain’t ready for that shot, nor is he deserving yet, but if he’s willing to put in the work he could be in the championship mix within a year or two. Based on his popularity alone, one of the major MMA organizations is going to do whatever they can to make sure that he is.

I’ll go back to the comparisons I made in the article–I can see him either becoming a US version of Bob Sapp, using his fighting career as a springboard to becoming, essentially, a “personality” type celebrity. And assuming that he answers my big “IF”–his commitment to training and improving as a fighter–he could become the Mike Tyson of MMA, becoming the type of celebrity that transcends the sport and captures the imagination of the general public.

I’ll be interesting to watch, that’s for sure…..

The Prophet
June 25, 2007

I had a thought today while I was eating lunch–its interesting that most of the major sports celebrate players who take an improbable path to stardom. Take Kurt Warner, who its well known worked in a grocery store and played Arena Football before becoming a Superbowl winning QB. Or going back a few years, the Utah Jazz’s defensive monster Mark Eaton, who worked as a mechanic and played in the CBA before becoming the all-time #2 shot blocker in NBA history. Maybe its because MMA has yet to establish itself as a sport, and its more defensive about proving its legit–emphasizing all of the formal martial arts or other fighting training their competitors have. That could be why they’re so disdainful of Kimbo’s strange road to the sport…

Eleven to Ten: The Net Prophet Sports Blog » Kimbo Slice article up on ProphetFighting.com
June 25, 2007

[...] The Prophet’s Kimbo mea culpa…or how I was wrong about Kimbo Slice [...]

Don
June 25, 2007

Thanks Prophet for the response and prompt clarification about Edwards in the original post. I still think there are much better examples of Democrats unwilling to admit error, but I’m not going to quibble over it. I wasn’t aware of your Revelations blog and will be sure to check it out.

Now to be so crazy as to talk about MMA for a moment
Those Google results are interesting and definitely indicate a lot of buzz about Kimbo.

Something to keep in mind, though, is that coupling the fighters name with the word “tough” would favor Kimbo, as people are more limited in how they can praise a street brawler. For someone like Fedor, toughness is only one of many aspects that make him a complete fighter. I’m sure you know people can just as easily praise his skills, conditioning, submissions, complete dominance in the HW division, etc.. And there is a big step between enjoying the sideshow spectacle of free Youtubes clips and being willing to spend $40.

The Prophet
June 25, 2007

Please do–its sort of an eclectic mix of topics, but I address politics quite a bit. As a Libertarian, you’ll no doubt find enough that you agree with and enough to piss you off to keep you entertained for awhile ; )

Now to be so crazy as to talk about MMA for a moment
Those Google results are interesting and definitely indicate a lot of buzz about Kimbo.

The Kimbo buzz alone can keep him in the sport as long as he wants. If he wants to devote himself seriously to training and become a professional fighter it could make him a superstar. I know that as far as my own site, this story has received about 10x more hits than the average posting. There may be other factors–its longer, its after a big weekend of MMA events so people might have been seeking out MMA information–but its hard for me to believe that Kimbo doesn’t have something to do with it.

And your point about the Google comparison is well taken–its obviously an unscientific comparison. Also, the service I used just measures the appearance of the name/modifier and not the context–so if a site said “Kimbo is a big dude but will get his ass kicked if he fights anyone tough” it would still show up as a citation. I’m going to do a little more research tonight with some head to head comparisons without adjective modifiers. It was just the site I was looking at while I ate lunch used them.

And I agree that watching Kimbo beat up a rasta on YouTube and paying $40 to watch him do it are two different things–but consider how much money fight promoters spend trying to get their competitors exposed to the public. If the big money fights of the last year (DLH/Mayweather, Couture/Sylvia, etc.) demonstrate anything its that the most money is made when you can make the public care about the fighter. There were plenty of cards with fights that you could tell going in were going to be more exciting and/or competitive, but that doesn’t sell tickets and PPV’s like personalities.

So if this many people already care about Kimbo enough to write about him online and read about him–not to mention watch his YouTube “fights”–just imagine what the UFC promotion machine could do with him. He’ll have to “audition” a few more times by fighting guys like Tank Abbott, but if he continues to dominate physically and learn what Bas Rutten is trying to teach him it won’t be long before he’ll be appearing in a bigger organization. Like I’ve said before, if everything breaks right he could end up being the Mike Tyson of MMA. In any case, the phenomenon of his popularity is fascinating and it’ll be interesting to see what happens ; )

dogspace
June 27, 2007

Fair enough, its nice to see well thought out comments somewhere on the internet

joe kurtz
June 27, 2007

While I’ll admit to “coming around” on Kimbo a bit since his performance against Mercer Saturday night, I’m not as ready to anoint him a future legitimate contender just yet. There’s definitely potential there that I ( like you ) wasn’t willing to recognize while watching his featured exploits against the variety of no hopers that he met on YOUTUBE.

But, we also have to look at the substance of what he had in front of him in his MMA debut. Which was suspect at best …

Now, I was amoung those that thought that even an out of shape, depleted Ray Mercer would prove to be too much for a guy off the streets like Kimbo. Even with the serious training that he’d done with Bas in preparation for the contest, I figured that it would in no way enable him to seriously cotend with a man in Mercer that had been training in a combative sport for the majority of his life & been to the pinnacle of it both as an amateur & a pro.

I was wrong.
But, I have major doubts as too how seriously Mercer took this fight or if he even wanted to be involved in it in any capacity other than cashing the paycheck. He admittedly did little to no crosstraining for it, looked TOTALLY unenthused as he made his way into the cage & showed absolutely no desire whatsoever once the contest began.

Which isn’t Kimbo’s fault as he obviously did his job properly before & during said fight, but I honestly think that due to Mercer’s lack of effort, Kimbo would have had more serious competetion infront of him had he met recent Tommy Morrison opponent John Stover in the cage rather than the now disgraced Ray Mercer.

But, what’s done is done & Kimbo’s MMA debut was a successful one. One which should be a very interesting one to watch. Especially when it comes to matchmaking.

The proposed bout with Tank Abbott seems like the next logical step & one that he should be favored to win in short order judging by Tank’s recent string of losses. He’s another guy whose only apparent interest in fighting these days is eating a few ounces of leather for a quick buck. But …

I do feel compelled to toss in a far fetched caveat in that, IF by some far out, unlikely chance Abbott actually trained for a fight against Kimbo & got himself into halfway decent shape, he could prove to be a very dangerous opponent. I think he’s got more power of the “one punch” sort than does Kimbo does & he certainly wouldn’t be as clueless as Mercer was against the cage & on the mat. Something to think about anyhow.

Another potential opponent that I haven’t seen or heard mentioned for him is Sean Gannon. Who does own a victory over Kimbo & whom I’m sure could be coaxed back into the cage for a rematch for the right amount of money.

Sure, the UFC career that he parlayed out of his win over Kimbo was a short, disasterous one for him, but that would be a moot point as far as this match up is considered. No one would care what he’s done since, just that he beat the “monster” Kimbo & they’d want to see if he could do it again. I think they could build a PPV around that.

I look forward to your thoughts & before I sign off, I want to let you know how much I enjoy your site & how impressed I am by the amount of thought I know goes into it. As with your thoughts on Kimbo’s potential, we may differ in our opinions, but I’ll always admire & have great respect for a man that can offer up his knowledge & views & articulate them well.

The Prophet
June 27, 2007

But, we also have to look at the substance of what he had in front of him in his MMA debut. Which was suspect at best …

Yeah, I agree that Mercer looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there which is clearly a bad sign for a fighter. And you’re absolutely right that he likely didn’t take the fight seriously figuring that he was a former world heavyweight champion and his technical superiority as a striker would see him through.

So he wasn’t much of an opponent but IMO a lot of that was due to Kimbo’s fight plan. This is perhaps what surprised (and impressed) me the most about his debut fight–its one thing to train and spar, but a lot of guys from a specific fighting background revert to that when they get into the ring. In other words, a striker will look to strike first no matter how much groundfighting training he has and vice versa. Watching Kimbo’s streetfights, my thinking was that he’d make the mistake of walking right in and trying to exchange punches with Mercer. That’s why I thought Mercer would win and likely what Mercer thought would happen as well.

Kimbo didn’t even think of engaging Mercer in a standup battle and–as I noted in my original post–did everything he needed to neutralize the strengths that a world class boxer (which Mercer certainly was at one point) has.

Tank is a good “next opponent” for Kimbo–he’s got the name value to sell PPV’s and definitely can punch. Not sure I’m convinced that he still has the one punch power edge–based on his fights of the past decade it doesn’t seem like his opponents have the same respect for his power they once did. Still, he’s obviously got a “puncher’s chance” and is a good measuring stick despite Tank’s recent record of 3-10 since 1996. If Kimbo *can’t* get the win at this point in Tank’s career he probably doesn’t have any business as a professional MMA fighter.

I agree that should Tank actually train for the fight that he could be a handful, but at this point in his career I don’t see it happening. He never really trained much when he was in his prime so its hard to see him starting now.

If Gannon has an interest in fighting again I definitely think you’ll see it at some point, probably sooner rather than later. Like you said, you could build a PPV around the fact that he’s beaten Kimbo and he’s a similar “measuring stick” opponent as well. If Kimbo is going to be a serious MMA contender he shouldn’t have trouble with a guy with a MMA record of 1-1 who was destroyed by Branden Lee Hinkle in his only UFC bout.

Thanks for the kudos and thanks for taking the time to post this articulate and thoughtful comment. The Kimbo Slice saga will definitely be interesting to watch as it plays out–its basically up to him now. If he wants to milk his new found celebrity he can definitely do so, but he’s got the opportunity to become a legitimate MMA contender. He could be the “perfect storm” of popularity, intrinsic toughness and solid training that we haven’t seen since Mike Tyson in his prime before he (or Don King or Robin Givens, depending on who’s version of the story you believe) ran off Kevin Rooney and the other good boxing people around him. If he’s willing to dedicate himself to the discipline, sacrifice and work necessary to becoming a professional fighter the sky’s the limit for him. At the very least, it’ll be interesting to watch ; )

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