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The Case For Kimbo Slice

 

It's hard to miss Kimbo.  Not hard, actually, impossible.  If you have your TV turned to Spike

for any length of time, you're going to see either an ad for the show, a clip from the show, or

a head shot in the bottom-right corner of your screen.  As the tenth season rolls on with full-

force, one can't help to think that there is Kimbo-overload.  How can an entire season full of

talented fighters including a former IFL heavyweight champion, several UFC veterans, and four

former football players be overshadowed by a fighter who made his name in backyards and on

youtube.  Is this fair?  No.  Is this good for the UFC?  Hell, yes.  Is this good for mixed-

martial arts?  Absolutely.  In fact, as hard as it is to say, Kimbo may be one of the more significant

things to happen to MMA in a while.

Look at the numbers: Kimbo's fight with Roy Nelson reached a population of 6.1 million viewers. 

Aside from the same season's premiere, the most watched TUF episode or event was the third

season's series finale with 2.8 million viewers.  In fact, forget limiting it to The Ultimate

Fighter, look at the numbers for the most watched fights in American history.  The highest

honors go a fight with 7.2 million viewers - Kimbo Slice versus James Thompson.  Next goes to

Tito and Ken Shamrock with 6.5 million.  Third most watched had 6.4 million, featuring Kimbo and

Seth Petruzelli.  The fight with Roy Nelson comes in fourth.  See a pattern?  Three of the four

most watched fights in American history featured Kimbo Slice.  Two of them were with EliteXC,

which aired 21 events over the period of 19 months, only three of those events were not on pay-

per-view or a premium channel.  Imagine what Kimbo would do in the UFC, which in 2009 alone will

have held 21 events, eight of them being free.  Who better and in what better organization to

bring mixed-martial arts to the casual fan than Kimbo and the UFC?  And... wait a second.  We've

been loyal fans.  Who cares about the people who are just starting to watch UFC because of some

guy off the internet?  I do, and so should you.

When the Kimbo-machine has gotten the most work it can on the fuel that it has, 8-10 million

people will have tuned in to his biggest fight.  Who would be watching somthing else if the UFC

announced Kimbo and Chuck Liddell?  Pretty sure a few curious Dancing With The Stars fans will. 

When all those casual fans take a moderate-to-serious interest in MMA, several things are going

to happen.  First, advertisers and sponsers are going to want their names in-between fights and

all over the bloody-stained trousers, which brings in more money, which of course means better paid fighters.

 Better paid athletes means more talent.  A rush of new and dynamic talent means that not one company, not even

the UFC, can contain all of it and fighters would have to be divided amongst two or more.  Competition between

companies means more frequent cards and, quite possibly, and more competitive price for them.  Everybody wins:

 the advertisers, the fighters, and you.  Remember, I said Kimbo was one of the most significant things in a while to

happen to mixed-martial arts, not just the UFC.  So next time you're thinking that Kimbo doesn't

belong in the cage with such talent, try to remember he's walking in there with his greatest

weapon - his popularity. 

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

2 recs  |  Comment 9 comments  |  Add comment

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Note to BE staff, please format your articles like the above post…makes it way easier to read…

by Reaser16 on Oct 28, 2009 12:32 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

ENTER
ENTER

OKAY
I
WILL
TRY
TO
FIX
MY
FORMATTING
BETTER
NEXT
TIME

ENTER
ENTER

haha okay, i’ll stop being an asshole now cause mr. dogbyday really has a good point here. :)

by Anton Tabuena on Oct 28, 2009 2:19 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I like stuff double spaced so I can write in the columns.

Keep firing Assholes!

Never trust a man with no shirt on.

by Ubernoober on Oct 28, 2009 10:41 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I completely disagree. I struggled to read this because of the spacing.

I like using semi-colons; they make me feel smart.

by Llewdor on Oct 28, 2009 12:58 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

The best point of view I’ve heard on the subject of Mr. Slice.

by BakiHanma21 on Oct 28, 2009 1:10 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Sorry, the formatting looks fine to me. I’ll try to figure out what the issue is and get it resolved.

by dogbyday on Oct 28, 2009 9:38 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I actually find the latest season pretty boring and have stopped watching. The talent is pretty terrible in my opinion (besides Roy Nelson, did you know he pretty much dominated Frank Mir in a sub-grappling match?). There are people who are downright FAT and people who gas really badly. I haven’t seen anything impressive.

As for Kimbo, if you fail to comprehend that you should do grappling frequently if you want to compete in MMA seriously, I just don’t know what to tell you. Small children understand the concept of putting in more work on areas that they are weak in. The question is more like who CAN’T beat Kimbo? Take him down and he lays there like he’s paralyzed, stand up with him and knock him out with a jab. Soon even casual fans will realize that he’s not really worth watching.

by IpullguardIRL on Oct 28, 2009 12:07 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Yeah, Kimbo’s not great by any means. Still, I think he’s still very important not because of his skill, but because of his draw to the casual fan. I’m excited than he’s in the UFC to energize the casual fan to watch in the same way that I’m excited that Cain Velasquez energizes fans in Mexico, Brandon Vera for the Phillipines… heck even Michael Bisping for England. The fighters that get a large population to watch are okay in my book.

by dogbyday on Oct 29, 2009 1:23 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs


Gifs at Giftube.com
I like the crucifix do you?

by mr. gogoplata on Oct 28, 2009 3:37 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs


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