Real perspective on Kimbo Slice

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

OK, ok......I know you Kimbo haters have had a field day coming on here and trashing Kimbo. Some of you have your own reasons but I had to make a post as to why I think it's all based on hate.

First off, so many hardcore MMA fans just didn't like the fact that Kimbo was getting all that attention after not putting in the "time" that most established MMA fighters have put in. I get that and you have a legit gripe.....JUST NOT WITH KIMBO.

If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at Elite XC for boosting this guy up as something he is not. Now, if you were real understanding fans with actual knowledge of the game, you would have understood this a long time ago and not been so quick to hate on Kimbo a man who's just trying to get payed.

I can also understand if Kimbo was to come in and be ****y and disrespectful about the sport or start threatening fighters and talking smack. He did the complete opposite. He came in and showed much respect to the sport, to Bas Rutten for training him and to everyone that interviewed him. All he wanted to do was fight and make money, nothing more.

I equate him to Butterbean in boxing. Some boxing diehards said the same thing about Butterbean that some in here are saying about Kimbo. That he doesn't deserve the attention, that he's a joke, that he's disgracing the sport of boxing.

Being a diehard boxing fan myself I said, WHO CARES! Simply because he isn't going to be a factor in the big scheme of things so therefore I'm not worried about the "integrity" of the sport being compromised. He is just a guy that came from the "Tuff Man" competitions and is just trying his hand at something more legitamate. Kimbo is no different.

I was surprised at the way Kimbo lost because I have seen him take a hell of a punch on the street with no gloves from guys much bigger than him and he was fine. I think it was just one of those things where the punch hit a sweet spot and he lost. I still think Kimbo could go on and fight some more and make a decent living out of it but what happened is not something most of us didn't see coming from a mile away.

I don't hate Kimbo, or even Elite XC for putting him in the limelight. I respect the man for stepping in the ring and putting his life on the line and doing something lagit instead of doing something illegal on the street.

MMA is a great sport and Kimbo will be just a footnote in the history of it.

[Kakutogi-Gumi]

MMA fans: Kimbo the Man > Kimbo the Image

Solution: Kill the Image

The difference between Butterbean and Kimbo is that you guys have history on your side. MMA doesn't. It's still young. It can't afford a Kimbo yet. But it can continously sabotage the hype machine that makes Kimbo larger then life. That's why the MMA community cheered. Not because he was laid out by a b level fighter, but because the hype machine was finally destroyed and we can finally cheer on Kimbo as a REAL fighter now.

[jakkups]

I don't hate Kimbo either but I do not and did not agree with EliteXC's attempts at manipulating the casual/mainstream market into believing that he was a legit athlete that was a true force to be reckoned with in MMA. Click on the link in my sig and I pretty much explain what I have felt about the man himself. However, I am glad he lost as it puts a spanner in the works for EliteXC and leaves them up slack alley since they pumped all there time and efforts into making out that Kimbo was a true MMA superstar only to have the mystic shattered in just 14 seconds just like I said it would be. I don't like nor have I ever liked Gary Shaw, and his son just seems to be a younger version of him so in all honesty there isn't much hope for me liking him either, and I am thoroughly satisfied that they have finally got a taste of what MMA is all about. Unlike boxing, the unlikely is more likely to happen, and when you are guys like Shaw who don't have a clue what the sport is really about then I am glad when it all blows up in your face and you are left drinking your own Kool Aid.

[Kakutogi-Gumi]

^^^ My long answer

[1bad65]

Originally Posted by cuauhtemoc1496

I can also understand if Kimbo was to come in and be ****y and disrespectful about the sport or start threatening fighters and talking smack.

Here he is getting all thug about Chuck Liddell. He even threatens to come to his camp.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wE5LvLKwbHM

Kimbo was a creation. Like Vanilla Ice. When he went on Jay Leno and stuff he was all humble and respectful. But when he was around his **** buddies he was all ghetto. Whose the 'real' Kimbo?

[Kakutogi-Gumi]

Ben Fowlkes pins it.

Kimbo was exposed on Saturday night, sure. But he wasn’t exposed as anything other than what most of us already thought he was: an amateur fighter rushed into the spotlight by desperate, unscrupulous promoters. It was Elite XC who was truly exposed. They built their reputation on Kimbo’s curious brand of celebrity, and fate conspired to grind their cash cow into hamburger.

Their strategy was to only make fights that Kimbo could win, then shout his name from the rooftops when he did. Last night they got a lesson in the unpredictability of MMA. Now they’re left shouting excuses. They found out the hard way that you can only play the squash match shell game for so long before a former karate champ comes along and ruins it.

[Dice]

Originally Posted by 1bad65

Here he is getting all thug about Chuck Liddell. He even threatens to come to his camp.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wE5LvLKwbHM

Kimbo was a creation. Like Vanilla Ice. When he went on Jay Leno and stuff he was all humble and respectful. But when he was around his **** buddies he was all ghetto. Whose the 'real' Kimbo?

Both the respectful and the thug is the real Kimbo slice. I'm pretty sure you have no problems cursing for no reason when you talk to your friends (ex. man its hot like a mother****er today) But i'm sure you'll find a problem cursing for no reason when you talk to casually with an elderly person (oh let me get that mother****ing door for you ma'am), does that make you a fake?

All and all, the poster acouple of posts above said it best, we dont hate the man, we hate the hype around him. I think Elite XC is a terribly run company that has a few good fighters and it put a smile on my face to see Jared Shaw die with his eyes open when the ref stopped the fight

[Harms]

Originally Posted by 1bad65

Here he is getting all thug about Chuck Liddell. He even threatens to come to his camp.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wE5LvLKwbHM

Kimbo was a creation. Like Vanilla Ice. When he went on Jay Leno and stuff he was all humble and respectful. But when he was around his **** buddies he was all ghetto. Whose the 'real' Kimbo?

Wasn't it Chuck who ran his mouth off first?

[Dice]

Originally Posted by Harms

Wasn't it Chuck who ran his mouth off first?

Yes it was sir

[Gareth Ivanovic]

Nothing wrong with a man trying to make some money, but couldn't he have started at least just fighting on the undercards and left the main events to real MMA fighters. Instead they headline him in his second fight on EliteXC and when fighting of any kind gets put on network television he's the one to headline. I wasn't really suprised he got beat the way he did, I knew that once he fought a guy that was not washed up and a professional he would be in deep trouble. Kimbo's isn't by himself to blame for this, but he went along for the ride. **** the guy was everwhere from ESPN to ESPN the magazine, Video game commercials to even I think at the country music awards. He'll probably be back, but let's hope not headlining cards.