Quote:
Originally Posted by AllTrac
I don't think EliteXC is ruining MMA, yet. With this news that they will be airing this fights on network TV they have the potential to do damage.
The person at the center of the storm is Kimbo Slice, not so much the man himself because he seems pretty calm and well spoke but the way Gary Shaw is marketing him is completely inappropriate for a sport that is trying to gain credibility. Every single time they introduce him they are harping on his "internet street fighting legend" moniker and that is giving the wrong impression to first time viewers because it reinforces the idea that MMA is just a bunch of animals in a cage (instead of on the street) trying to tear eachother apart.
Also they are not helping MMA by engineering Slice's record. He is obviously being fed cans to build his record and the next rumoured fight with James Thompson will do nothing to change my mind of a engineered career. I am not saying that other fighters have no gotten the easy road once in a while but no more than the cakewalk Gary Shaw is giving Kimbo. We haven't had a chance to see his ground game, which i am pretty convinced doesn't exist, and while his stand up is exciting it most likely wouldn't be much use against a truly skilled striker.
Are these the people we want to represent us on network television? So far they are not convincing me.
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That was my main point. It just reminds me of the stereotype given to the early UFC's. Has everyone already forggotten how hard it has been to get to the point mma is at now? I feel it would be very easy to go back to the old perception.
Remember the people who still have the old perception of mma don't watch the UFC or any other major org. They will however watch eXc because they can get it on good old rabbit ear TV. I am talking about the grandma/grandpa types that are conservative and
vote. It is an election year and Mcain(human cockfighting) is running for president. He needs something to get the far right behind him. This could be his ticket.
I have seen Kimbo interviewed and he seems like a nice guy dedicated to learning this sport. Even in his street fights on youtube he struck me as a nice respectful guy(which is impressive when you are demolishing guys in a backyard or boatyard or _____yard). Let Shaw get ahold of him and an image needs to be created because clearly no one likes a nice respectful guy. So they try to create a terrifying persona. The last thing we need is Kimbo being marketed as a big, menacing, street fighting, blackman ala King Kong which is exactly the impression I have been getting from eXc. That will make sure that all the old ladies will look at mma as the end off the western world. Heck I would be willing to bet that the majority of these people don't even know mma exists.
Remember people. MMA has been outlawed once. What makes you so confident it can't happen again? Especially in an election year.