Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock: A Little Too Much Hype for Me

I have to ask this question before I say anything else.

Are you kidding me?

Has the MMA world really been persuaded into thinking this is a big fight? Let me break it down for you like this.

Kimbo, in his sham of an MMA career, he is 3-0. Yippee. That means he is the greatest thing since sliced bread, right? HA. Let's look at the combined record of the guys he's fought. 33-34.

The only man he has fought that had a record over .500 was James Thompson. Here are the facts on James Thompson. This guy has the chin of a five-year old with a glass jaw. He had been knocked out eight times and has lost six of his last eight fights, five by KO/TKO.

Kimbo Slice has made his MMA career into a sideshow circus. Yet, he actually thinks he is a legitimate threat in any heavyweight division. Please, somebody tell me why, and if anybody says the name Tank Abbott in the same sentence as the words good and fighter, I'll quit.

I bring this topic up because I was just on ESPN.com and happened to go to their MMA page. If you can't find it, it's under the more sports tab under Breeders Cup (that is a bit of a slap in the face). Now, instead of having a preview of a legitimate fight like Anderson Silva vs. Pat Cote or even a tribute to Evan Tanner, they have, and I quote, " Still Dangerous" with a picture of Ken as their main story.

The best thing about it is that if you read the story, they have a conversation between Kimbo and Ken. The conversation is funny because Kimbo actually comes off pretty cocky, even though he has yet to prove any skills besides that of punching until he connects.

I'm taking Ken in this match, but that doesn't mean I'm interested. In fact, I think this fight is a skidmark on the underpants of MMA.

If you think this fight couldn't possibly get any worse, you are wrong. Jared Shaw, the VP of EliteXC, tried to make this fight seem like it was worth the electricity needed to power my TV by saying, "The press wants to paint that picture that Ken is washed up, but it's a very tough fight for both parties."

Does anyone else see anything wrong with this statement?

He actually just insulted both Ken and Kimbo, as well as the intelligence of MMA fans. Ken is an MMA legend for what he did in the sport during his prime; he has proven himself in MMA. Kimbo has done nothing to prove himself other than coming in with the same strategy for all three fights he's been in.

Also, Jared Shaw forgets to say that Ken is not washed up after calling out the press for saying he is.

This main event is worse than the one at UFC 48, Kimo vs. Ken. That card is actually pretty close to the one of EliteXC: Heat. It pits Ken Shamrock in the main event against a man only one letter "B" away from Kimbo. Both of these cards have good fighters fighting, but neither UFC 48 or EliteXC hyped up those fights at all.

Here is a list of fighters that fought at UFC 48. Frank Trigg, Matt Hughes, Evan Tanner, and the infamous fight between Frank Mir and Tim Silvia. Oh, I almost forgot, future UFC welterweight champions Matt Serra and Georges St. Pierre both fought on the preliminary card.

The EliteXC has their welterweight champion Jake Shields pitted against Cage Rage champion Paul Daley. Why is this fight not being stabbed into the public eye with a syringe of joy?

Another potential fight of the night puts Murilo Rua against knockout master Benji Radach, in what could be considered an elimination bout for a possible middleweight title fight. Not to mention the lovely and talented Gina Carano will be back to take on the tough 16-2 Kelly Kobald.

My final thoughts here are that the EliteXC, if they ever want to be seen as worthy of hardcore MMA fans' money, need to market fighters with talent. The reason why the UFC boomed into the public eye is because they grew their own fighters on TUF and backed them with as much hype as they could.

Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture can be considered household names at this point because the UFC hyped up every match they had with as much publicity as possible.

I believe EliteXC should be ashamed of themselves for putting Kimbo on TV, because in a sport that is still growing and steadily gaining attention, they were given a prime-time slot on a major network, and what did they do?

They hyped up Kimbo Slice as the future of the MMA world. They squandered their chance at being a major organization. Some learn from their mistakes and improve the next time, EliteXC matched their mistake and made it even worse.