I’m a sucker for a circus act in the fight game. I love the ridiculousness of cartoon like characters, fighting thugs and monsters of all shapes and sizes, brought from depths of strange parts of the world to beat the hell out of each other for our enjoyment. What can I say? I love a freak show. When I heard Kimbo Slice was set to fight Tank Abbot In Miami, a short ride from my home, I bought tickets immediately and danced with glee knowing I would see at least 1 minute of pure chaos and destruction. Turns out I wasn’t the only one.
After some very entertaining preliminary fights of prospects giving everything they had, the arena started to fill up and fast. I noticed many “Team Kimbo” shirts and lots of gold grills. After inspecting the t-shirt stand I bought myself a classic Kimbo shirt complete with a shiny gold grill to fit in. What amazed me beyond the Kimbo fashion was the crowd that was milling about for the fights. These were not your average mma fans. These were Kimbo fans. There is a difference. Many of these people had never seen a true MMA fight before or really seemed to care about it. The minute any fight was without action or went to the ground for longer than thirty seconds they booed. They were bloodthirsty, they wanted action and they wanted it now.
A fantastic night of under card fights provided awesome knockouts by both Scott Smith and Yves Edwards and a tactical battle that proved to be good match making between Ricco Rodriguez and Antonio Silva . Then it was time for Kimbo Vs Tank. I am sure many people have talked about the noise and atmosphere of the arena before the fight began. It was deafening and quite frankly shocking. When Kimbo stepped
out on the platform to do his long walk to the cage the audience blew up. I have been to a few fights in my day but nothing was like the response that Kimbo got. Grown men were screaming their lungs out like young girls at a Justin Timberlake concert. I know this is in his hometown but let me tell you it doesn’t matter where he is or where he goes, this is how he will be treated everywhere. The man is a super star.
The fight lasted about as long as everybody thought. Heavy leather was thrown and Tank hit the mat. It was not the out come of the fight that surprised me it was the reaction of the crowd. They got to see their hero beat the hell out of someone for a minute and they loved, they screamed, yelled, chanted, cheered and smiled for their hero long after the fight was over. I felt like I was at a rock concert except this place served no booze, which made the insane reaction of sober people even more impressive.
With a fan base of bloodthirsty Youtube lovers and young men looking for violence and quick excitement Kimbo is not one to ignore. EliteXC better do anything and everything they can to keep Kimbo under their wing, for this is only the beginning. As a fan of the sport and circus side shows I am thrilled that there is someone out there that has the kind of charisma and excitement that I have not seen in the fight
game since Mike Tyson. I can only wonder if this blood thirst that drives us all to look at a fight like a train wreck will have its bad side, taking the sport lovers back a few steps as we flock to see this monster. Right or wrong I’ll be there every time watching Kimbo unleash his violence until he falls screaming like a little girl wearing my gold grilled t-shirt.
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I do still love MMA and have...
February 19th, 2008 at 10:30 am
So far there are only two huge heavyweight draws in MMA. Kimbo Slice and Brock Lesnar, and that’s cool. One guy became a star via YouTube and the other WWE. Both of these fighters are being called monsters and beasts. It’s kind of tired, but I definitely understand.
Kimbo’s hype is somewhat reminiscent of Tyson but we will see. Hopefully he have at least 3 more fights this year. That would be great! Cool post.
Check out my Kimbo post.
http://scritchandscratch.com/blog/?p=376
February 19th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Its great to draw the fans and attention as long as the UFC and EliteXC are prepared to handle the backlash. The UFC made a big mistake by giving Frank Mir a guy who he could quickly submit while EliteXC was smart to throw Tank Abbott into the cage with a better brawler. Both Lesnar and Kimbo will draw huge crowds again, but once both guys become more well-rounded, everyone will have to realize that the circus will be found elsewhere. Hopefully the fans and the media don’t run off with the drunken masses who will be searching for other lopsided fights. Good article!
February 19th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Although I do agree that Kimbo is a draw, I don’t agree with him and Lesner being the only heavyweight draws in MMA. How about Randy or Fedor? If either was to fight this month they would be getting a large amount of attention.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Sure Randy or Fedor’s appearance would garner attention . . . BUT
Randy’s name has a lot to do with hype. He came off 2 losses to Lidell and 1 victory over Van Arsdale, and beat an injured Tim Sylvia and then soundly beat Gonzaga. His record is 16-8. And he is currently 44 or 45.
Fedor on another hand has an impressive record and great performances in the ring.
Lesnar and Kimbo both do something Randy and Fedor can not. Draw huge non-MMA fans into the arena and PPVs. The circus-show factor will die down as they both have more fights and experience but they will remain huge draws. Unfortunately I do not see Randy any time fighting soon, let alone Fedor. So interest will be waning slowly but surely.
Fedor will be fighting carefully selected opponents and maybe, just maybe he will fight an opponent that will please everybody. Not likely.
February 20th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I would venture to say that the draw Randy vs. Fedor would bring, would be far more than a kimbo vs. Lesner.
I still look for a end of the year show by HDNet Fights to rival the UFC’s end of year show, with a Randy vs. Fedor fight.