...the farce played a large role in boxing’s decline

Err umm … huh?

How large a roll did Butterbean play in boxings decline? In my most humble of opinions, the reason I don’t watch boxing is because every time I have tried, I get really really bored of the “punch – hug – break” for twelve rounds. Butterbean, if he had any impact, made the sport interesting for a few minutes.

John Ryan seems to be losing his mind to both boxing and MMA because nothing he stated in that snipet is true. Is he on the bottle or something? This bigotry behavior towards Kimbo is ridiculous.

If only “training every day with Bas Rutten” was actually the same as “no formal training”. I could afford to do it myself, then.

Butterbean played no role in boxing’s decline. Unless I’m forgetting something he never headlined a single card. He was an “attraction” on a few cards but no one took him seriously. He was just a big fat guy who beat up other big fat guys in 4 rounders.

A new cake-taker. Butterbean to blame in any way for boxing’s decline (which is preposterous) and thought by anyone on the planet who wasn’t demented to be the “Next Big Thing” in the sport (which is ludicrous) and Kimbo without formal training. That big galoot!

I agree with the point that this article is abundantly stupid in many of its conclusions, for all of the reasons listed above. But I think there’s the germ of a good point here. The comparison is that Butterbean was a freakshow, and Kimbo AKA Kevin is very much being marketed as a freakshow. Just as Butterbean made the sweet science resemble a glorified Tough Man contest, so too is Kimbo dragging the sport of MMA back into the dark ages of one punch knockouts of inferior opponents just to satisfy the bloodlust of uneducated fans. (We all saw how effective Butterbean was as MMA.)

And for those who decry the “racism” of Kimbo haters-isn’t there a certain amount of racism in the marketing of this man? His resume is a bunch of YouTube clips of streetfights that ended badly for those foolish enough to take the bait. “Kimbo Slice” sounds like something out of a blaxploitation film. People said he looked like a gorilla on the front of ESPN Magazine because he did-the editors and his handlers made him look that way—it’s part of the marketing.

Believe it or not, I’m actually looking forward to the Slice fight tonight (and rooting for him—gong and dash is like feeding a log into the woodchipper). But I do find it a little annoying that Kimbo Slice got on the cover of a major American sports magazine and is headlining national TV’s first live MMA event before Georges St. Pierre, B.J. Penn, and any number of great MMA veterans who have truly advanced the science of the sport got the same opportunity.

My two cents.

I could be wrong, but I think the gist was that the same kind of thinking that lead to Butterbean also lead to boxing’s decline (via other goofy marketing ideas and mistakes). Not that Butterbean himself was a sport destroying godzilla.

For a pro journalist, though, that guy is payed to be a little more clear than that, I think. But mainly, I just wanted to say how wrong it is that I see Butterbean and Kaitlin Young looking like the sexiest woman on the planet in the same browser window. Just… soo wrong…