More fun stuff from the fan posts. Keep 'em coming! Kid Nate

A lot of grumbling is going on in regards to Kimbo Slice's crappy cardio and his complete lack of a ground game. And that's fair: the man has work to do to live up to his hype. But who's to blame for that hype? i'd lay that at the feet of Gary Shaw and CBS. Slice is doing his best to sell himself, but he's never claimed to be anything other than what he is: a good street-fighter who is still learning MMA. Gary Shaw is the one saying that he'd beat Mike Tyson. 

But there's been a lot of hype for Kaitlin Young as well. The odd thing is that almost none of it came from EliteXC: Shaw was too busy hyping Slice and Gina Carano to worry about doing any more than claiming that Young was a game opponent for Carano. Bloggers for several sites got interviews with the 22-year-old college student and published breathless reports of her prowess in striking and on the ground. It was reported that she'd knocked 3 opponents out in one night, owing to her extensive Muay Thai training, and that she'd be better on the ground than Carano because she'd participated in some grappling tournaments. 

The fact that the three girls she knocked out that night were all participating in their first event? Or that her 4 KOs were against women who now have a combined record of 4-5? Not important, even though Carano has beaten well-known fighters like Tonya Evinger and Julile Kedzie. What about the fact that her first MMA event was a short 7 months ago? Not an issue, even though Carano has been fighting and training MMA with one of the best camps in the world for 2 years. And what about that Muay Thai training? Young is 3-2 in amateur competition, while Carano was 12-1-1 as a professional and the first American woman to win a Muay Thai championship in Thailand. 

Much was made of a video, circulated by Young's camp, of her flipping tires and puling a truck across a parking lot, even though she is clearly the smaller and weaker of the two. Not to mention that the last mixed martial artist to be featured doing so-called "caveman" training was Young's teammate at the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy Sean Sherk, who was subsequently stripped of his title for testing positive for steroids. 

In hindsight, it's no surprise that Carano dominated the fight from beginning to end. While her shooting schedule for American Gladiators clearly shortened her training camp and left her overweight and out of breath during the fight, she had more than enough strength and skill to take out Young. When fighting on the ground, Young attempted one strike and no submission attempts.  Working from her back, Carano on the other hand, quickly brought her leg up to attempt a gogoplata submission - a relatively advanced technique. By the fight's end, the only damage done to Carano was a little smeared mascara, while Young looked as though she'd been hit by a truck. But this wasn't exactly a surprise: Carano was up against a smaller opponent with less experience who was facing top competition for the first time in her first televised fight. Who can win in that situation?

The blogosphere likes to view itself as free of many of the sins of the mainstream media. But bloggers are just as likely to fall for a convincing story-line in the face of overwhelming evidence as anyone. When a likable fighter talks herself up, we listen without questioning what she says. We like to be skeptical of what we hear from the news outlets, but we must apply that skepticism to our own work as well.