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Headline of the Day – Kimbo Slice
By Zach Arnold | October 5, 2008
“Kimbo exposed as farce” has been the screaming headline on Yahoo’s main page all day long. The author of the article is Dan Wetzel, not exactly a rocket scientist when it comes to MMA coverage. Dave Meltzer he is not.
Just think — Wetzel gets paid to cover and write on MMA occasionally and you don’t.
Adam Swift presents his own burial of Elite XC.
Topics: MMA, Media, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
i couldn’t have put it better myself. kimbo in particular, and elite xc in general, are exposed for the frauds they are. the strings have been cut. it’s about time
And Wetzel proved why he deserved to get paid to write about MMA, and unpaid MMA bloggers don’t. He nailed it.
Mike,
What did he say that most of us haven’t been saying for the past year or so?
EliteXC promoted a good show, Shields vs Daley was spectacular, Arlovski is a piece of art to watch, and I will always tune into a Kimbo slice (yes, I am addicted to that kinda freak show fight) and Gina was great and every man who watched her fights would marry her.
You guys love to jump on the bandwagon and bash the flailing organization as if they don’t deserve to be in the business.
Just watch ProElites moves, and if they fail and run into the ground, at least they tried to promote good fights and provide great entertainment.
Dan Wetzel is right in this case but he would have said that anyway just like every other time there is a major non-ufc show and Yahoo Sports is very negative about it. Right next to the link to buy the replay of the last UFC event on Yahoo Sports or a link to an exclusive video preview of the next UFC event that is being sold via Yahoo Sports.
These big sites like ESPN and SI need a MMA newbie column and a MMA hardcore column. We have Meltzer up against guys who haven’t really told us anything and know less than me when it comes to the sport (and I wouldn’t say that I know a lot)…
I wouldn’t say that Kimbo himself is a farce; but certainly the way he has been pushed by EXC as a headliner has been a farce. I think most of us are still scratching our heads about EXC’s entire marketing strategy. Kimbo would be fine as a minor “freakshow” attraction on undercard bouts. He’s a Tank Abbott-kind of fighter in a day where street brawlers no longer contend for titles.
Kimbo has never shown any indication of a tendency toward self-aggrandizement. He’s always been realistic and modest about his level of attainment in the sport. It’s the Shaws and Jeremy Lappen who seem clearly deluded. The big, black, boogeyman mystique simply doesn’t scare trained fighters. Kimbo’s look gives him no edge whatsoever in actual fights, and if the man can’t win fights against the best, he won’t be credible as a headliner. It’s that simple. It was a huge, incomprehensible, costly mistake to push him as the promotion’s star.