primetime kimbo, a review

mr. slice, as i'd prefer to address him, was introduced to a whole new audience on saturday night, when he defeated james "colossus" thompson on cbs in the first ever broadcast of mixed-martial arts on major network television. although the fight failed to live up to most people's expectations, this event was nothing short of historic. let's rewind.

more than a decade ago the first ultimate fighting championship premiered. the gracie family, in order to display the dominance of their family's brazilian jiu-jitsu, helped organize a martial arts contest between many different styles. and as planned, the young royce gracie took home the championship. the event became a cult hit and mixed martial arts was born (at least in its modern format).

eventually, in response to protests about its violence, the ufc and other mma leagues developed rules, such as weight classes and no elbows to the back of the head. and with these new rules, mma started going mainstream. the ultimate fighter reality show became one of spike tv's biggest hits and today you can watch several mma leagues (ufc, pride, ifl, and elite xc-kimbo slice's league) all across the cable universe (hdnet, showtime, fsn, cw11).

the last few years have proved especially fruitful as mma has surpassed boxing in the minds and hearts of most viewers, save some old timers. as pay-per view requests for boxing have steadily decreased, those for mma have been increasing. even floyd mayweather has toyed with the idea of jumping into the octagon (before he chose to go into the wrestling ring instead). this past saturday night was a culmination of the growing fascination with this sport. it was an inevitability.

detractors will say that the sport is too violent, too dangerous, too bloody, too uncivilized. but where are those detractors when people get paralyzed on the football field or when hockey players lose teeth in nhl-sanctioned fights or when dale earnhart dies at the daytona 500. as the evidence shows, mma has proven to be a safer sport than boxing, football and hockey. because most fights end up on the ground requiring some sort of grappling or wrestling skills, there is less of a chance for head injury through blunt trauma force.

but i'm being too analytical. most people don't want boxing to watch the footwork or counter punch jab. they watch to see mike tyson knock someone out cold. the same goes for mma. by now, everyone's heard of kimbo slice (on the cover of espn the mag) and his street brawling rep. he's the perfect face for mma.

the question was, however, 'Is Kimbo For Real?'
in kimbo's two previous fights, he essentially ended the fight before they even got started. his jiu-jitsu was never tested and neither were his grappling skills. perhaps even more importantly, we didn't even know if he could go for the full 15 minutes.

well, saturday night's fight provided many answers to those questions. kimbo showed that he has no stamina and no ground game, but that when it comes to pure punching ability and strength, he's right up there with anyone in the sport. if it wasn't for thompson's ear practically falling off in the third round due to a slice right hook, kimbo probably would have lost the fight (he was losing on two of the three scorecards and tied on the other one when the ref called the fight due to excessive damage to thompson's ear).

thompson, an average fighter at best, went at kimbo all night long and was completely dominating using the ground and pound attack (you basically sit on someone, immobilize them and proceed to throw elbows, fists and forearms at the now unprotected face). kimbo looked clueless when not engaged in a striking match (although to be fair, thompson was no match for him when standing up).

all-in-all the fight was pretty entertaining. although neither fighter was that impressive, the fight was evenly matched and there was plenty of blood. however, for the purists, this fight was nothing but fluff and hype. it's apparent that kimbo slice, for all his gold teeth and youtube videos (and trust me, i love mr. slice) is not even one of the top 100 fighters in the world. when georges st. pierres moves up to fight "the spider" anderson silva, that'll be a fight to remember.