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April Fool’s: Does Chuck Liddell think Kimbo Slice is one?

By Zach Arnold | April 1, 2008

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Chuck Liddell says Kimbo Slice is overrated, at least according to The Sun newspaper today. Expect this to pick up some steam on the blogs, no doubt.

Here is the BetUS preview for this Wednesday’s Ultimate Fight Night event. Todd Martin has an article talking about the upcoming match between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard.

Erin Bucknell recently talked with Armando Garcia about the Nick Diaz situation in California.

Choi Mu-Bae recently defeated Gary Goodridge in MMA.

Onto today’s headlines.

  1. The Canadian Press: From social worker to Barbarian, Tim Boetsch turns heads in the UFC
  2. Shanghaiist: Taikang Lu martial arts
  3. Men’s Fitness: Rampage Jackson – listen up, the UFC champ has a few things to get off his chest
  4. MMA Junkie: Houston Alexander reader Q & A
  5. WSYR (Syracuse, NY): 13 arrested in internet sports betting ring (which featured MMA betting)
  6. The Albany Times-Union (NY): Cops detail betting operation that involved UFC betting
  7. Capital News 9 (Albany): Police bring down local gambling ring
  8. Variety: Bob Sapp may get his own reality TV show
  9. Whoopass Radio (Audio): Kenny Florian, Joe Lauzon, and Tracy Lee interviews
  10. The Boston Herald: Different paths to an Octagon collision for Lauzon and Florian
  11. The Daily Star (UK): Charles McCarthy says he’s going to cut down Michael Bisping

Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

18 Responses to “April Fool’s: Does Chuck Liddell think Kimbo Slice is one?”

  1. Ultimo_Santa says:

    Since Chuck does well primarily against smaller opponents, and grapplers with questionable striking ability, I think he’d be overwhelmed by Kimbo in a fight.

    After seeing Chuck get out-punched by slow, methodical, and mostly predictable Kieth Jardine, I honestly don’t think Kimbo would have much trouble scoring a R1 TKO.

    Slice would go into a the fight a huge underdog, but (even though I’d be in the minority) I’d bet on him.

  2. Mateo says:

    I just think it’s sad that they have been mildy successful having Kimbo face absolute bums so far.

    I like the approach the UFC used for Brock Lesnar. Throwing top cometition his way, right away. We now know Brock needs work. We would only be guessing he needs work if they pitted him against a bum like Cantrell.

    This could be the wave of the future for MMA. Ace fighters being marketed as world killers, while taking on nothing, but absolute crummy fighters for years.

    We now know that there are plenty of crummy fighters willing to stink up a main event and promoters willing to use them. It’s up to the fans to tell those orgs that want to go that route, no thanks. By not watching, not supporting and not trying to spread any false propaganda that beating a crummy fighter means anything.

  3. cyph says:

    The new writer at Sherdog, Joe Hall, is actually pretty good. I like the news magazine style that Sherdog has adopted. Now, if only they’d change the color scheme, then perhaps they’d be looking a little more professional.

  4. Iain Liddle says:

    …not to mention a change in name.

  5. IceMuncher says:

    Ultimo…wow. You outdid yourself. You discredit a former champion that has beaten several of the very best fighters in his division and a legitimate LHW contender who has earned his way into the top 10 with solid victories, while simultaneously praising a man whose only two MMA victories involved a guy that submitted to a punch to the underarm and a fat, 40 something has-been who is now 1-8 in his last 9.

    All that in the same post. I am impressed.

  6. David says:

    Ironic that the “security word” shown is worked:

    Great comment from Mateo:

    “This could be the wave of the future for MMA. Ace fighters being marketed as world killers, while taking on nothing, but absolute crummy fighters for years.

    We now know that there are plenty of crummy fighters willing to stink up a main event and promoters willing to use them. It’s up to the fans to tell those orgs that want to go that route, no thanks. By not watching, not supporting and not trying to spread any false propaganda that beating a crummy fighter means anything.”

    Such a precise way of explaining the state of large businesses, specifically fight promoters, being influenced by corporate media CBS/NBC will only make MMA more of a “spectacle” (quotes for a loose meaning of the word)!!!

  7. The Gaijin says:

    For all the posturing and bitching Frank Shamrock does about the level of fighter salaries – I’m pretty surprised he only collected $300k for his fight with Le.

    I’d have thought he’d be making a lot more than that, especially when this event seemed like it was going to be a big draw.

  8. Dave2 says:

    $300k is 50% more than what he got vs. Baroni. Man that guy is getting paid.

    Cung Le got $200k. Holy. Is that just a one-off thing for Cung? He was making $50k a fight before.

  9. The Gaijin says:

    OH dont get me wrong – that’s some nice scratch.

    But I was expecting that he’d be pulling in like $500k bare minimum the way he talks. Does he still have an equity interest in Strikeforce?

  10. ilostmydog says:

    If Frank brings up fighter salaries again, someone should mention that Fickett getting paid exactly half of what he made in the UFC. :p

  11. Dave2 says:

    I was surprised Drew Fickett made less with ProElite. Especially considering that he probably got more sponsorship money with the UFC for televised fights (not sure about unaired prelims. Only the minority pay $1.99 per prelim fight or have a monthly/semi-annual subscription for UFC on Demand or download the fights off the internet somewhere for free.) I guess there probably isn’t much demand for him?

    But in all honesty, I don’t see anything wrong with ProElite or Strikeforce paying as low as they can. They haven’t made a profit yet whereas the UFC is a profitable business so obviously the UFC is going to be under more scrutiny for fighter pay. But what I find ridiculous about ProElite and Strikeforce is that they’ll pay the lesser name fighters as low as they possibly can while grossly overpaying a handful of guys over market value. Who else would pay Frank Shamrock $300k? Cung Le $200k? Kimbo Slice $175k?

    I’m not going to criticize fighters for wanting to make their money within a small window of opportunity in pro fighting. But you’d think that ProElite and Strikeforce would exercise some prudence, what with them not even being profitable yet. That’s the thing with Fedor too. His agent asks for $2 million per fight so any organization that signs him for that much is going to lose a lot of money. I don’t think PRIDE paid Fedor $2 million per fight so why would anyone pay him that now?

  12. Dave2 says:

    The best thing for the “challenger” orgs to do is to build from the ground up. Bring in MMA rookies, guys from smaller shows with promise and also bring in some reasonably priced UFC/PRIDE fighters and repackage him. Who were the three most successful draws in UFC history? Chuck Liddell. Tito Ortiz. Randy Couture. What do they all have in common? They started their MMA career in the UFC. I don’t think these orgs will be able to build off of fighters grossly overpaid from their market value. You don’t need pre-made stars to hit it big. You need guys with star potential and to know how to nurture and promote those stars.

  13. Ultimo_Santa says:

    Kimbo Slice is unproven, sure – but I might take the longshot bet for him to KO Liddell if that fight were to ever happen, based on Chuck’s past trouble with people who know how to strike.

    I just don’t see Liddell’s strategy of backpedaling and leaving his hands by his side very effective against someone with more size, reach, and some scary fast hands.

    No discredit to Liddell, but IMO, he’s beaten top guys, BUT top guys who were carefully selected by Dana White to make him look good.

    In 2006 when everyone was going ape-shit calling Liddell the best fighter on the planet, he won 3 fights – all against guys with questionable striking, and all against guy’s he’s ALREADY BEATEN.

    In 2007, he gets KOed by Jackson, looks horrible backpedaling against Jardine and loses a decision, and then squaks by a MUCH smaller Wanderlei Silva (in what was an incredible performance by both men).

    I’m just sayin’…IF he were to ever fight Kimbo Slice, win or lose, I doubt he’d be calling him a joke afterwards.

    Just sayin’.

  14. ilostmydog says:

    Honestly, I don’t think Liddell benefitted that much from ‘carefully selected’ opponents. Yes, he beat Couture, Ortiz, and Babalu twice, but who else was there for him in the UFC’s LHW division at that time? The division itself was quite anemic and top heavy back then. There really wasn’t anyone else that he could have been matched against in a credible fight.

    Also, I would disagree with the contention that Liddell ‘squeaked by’ Wanderlei Silva. IMO, that fight was an easy 29-28 win for Liddell.

  15. Ultimo_Santa says:

    If you lose a round and you’re gassing towards the end, that’s sort of a ‘squeak by’ in my books.

    For Mr. UFC Chuck Liddell, who’s supposed to be the best of the best (and someone Dana White thinks can beat Fedor) he should have TKO’ed a much smaller middleweight coming off two devastating losses…not been glancing up at the clock and waiting for a decision.

  16. Ultimo_Santa says:

    And when it comes to opponent selection for Chuck Liddell, there’s a reason why he’s going to be facing a wrestler (and somewhat non-striker) Rashad Evans, and NOT Houston Alexander or Thiago Silva.

    Because Chuck knows how to stuff takedowns, and hit wrestlers shooting in. That’s his bread and butter. Give him a striker, and we could be seeing Dana’s meal ticket get KTFO, and go 1-3 in his last 4 fight.

  17. ilostmydog says:

    They gave him a striker in his last fight and he didn’t necessarily have that much trouble with him. :p And the fact that he’s facing Rashad Evans probably has more to do with the fact that Rashad is both a bigger name and a more accomplished fighter than the latter two fighters.

  18. The Gaijin says:

    As overrated and somewhat protected as I think Liddell was/has been…you’re really, really stretching to think he’d lose to Kimbo. Liddell would smoke him and even if he couldn’t stand and bang with him (he can), his far superior wrestling would be the difference. Liddell can implement the TD when he needs it, watch what he did against Silva and Belfort.

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