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On the week UFC is reportedly heading to Fox, Jared Shaw calls Dana White & T. Jay Thompson stupid

By Zach Arnold | August 16, 2011

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“Thank you, Dana White. You made a huge mistake and you once again made Jared Shaw smart.” — Jared Shaw interview with FightHubTV.com

A couple of interesting events are happening soon, one being Pro Elite’s relaunch in Hawaii at the end of the month. To which Jared Shaw, son of Gary Shaw and former boss of Pro Elite, says the following:

“I think they’re a joke. I think my father called it right. I think T. Jay Thompson has too much dye in his hair. He forgot that he used to run around stripping for men and I think if he’s got anything else to say about the way the Shaws ran it, he can come say it to my face. Seriously, T. Jay. *blows kiss*”

With news of UFC reportedly landing a deal with the Fox TV family, a lot of people are saying a lot of things. Bellator isn’t saying anything right now, but you have to think that they are thrilled at the possibility of receiving a lifeline from Spike TV should UFC vacate the network. If Bellator is willing to cede some creative control to Spike, we could very well see a true & solid second-tier promotion in MMA to develop new stars. That would be an excellent development. What would not be an excellent development is if Bjorn Rebney goes into TNA mode and decides to stick to his tournament format rigidly, business be damned.

Another person who has plenty to say is Jared ‘$kala’ Shaw, the son of Gary Shaw. Jared is busy promoting Kimbo Slice, who won a boxing match in Oklahoma last Saturday night in 17 seconds. Remarkably, ESPN ran the result on their news ticker that same night and treated it as a serious story. On Monday, clips from Youtube of Kimbo’s win were shown on both ESPN & ESPN2. In other words, there are people in the media who are taking Kimbo’s attempted run in boxing seriously.

“What I thought is exactly what I told people we’d deliver, which is an injection into the boxing scene — steroid-free syrum. Kimbo Slice has hands, that’s just the natural cause. The last three years, it’s a mirage. You think because he wasn’t winning in MMA or wasn’t knocking people out (that) he wasn’t born and bred for thsi sport, you’d be crazy. If you really know both sports then you in Mixed Martial Arts, you have a much more squared-up stance. There’s takedowns, there’s kicks, he’s got a lot of things to look for. Now he’s just looking at two hands in a straight box and as he showed you (Saturday) night, he’s a human highlight reel. So whether you like Kimbo Slice, Jared Shaw, Gary Shaw or not, it doesn’t really matter because now you’re going to watch. Kimbo Slice is here to make a statement and as he just told me, he’s got a plan. He ain’t here to be a sideshow. He’s here to knock people out, take names, and build properly towards hopefully a Heavyweight championship run.”

And as for why everyone is stupid and should start marking out…

“As Kimbo stated, when we were in Mixed Martial Arts he was looking for a lot of different things, so he was unable to commit to just a punch for the fear that he knew his ground game was, you know, suspect anyways and he didn’t want to get easily taken down. he doesn’t have to look for that any more. So, with every day comes more learning in this game and with fights comes even more of a learning curve and he’s going to learn to get under those punches and he’s a very, very scary out for any heavyweight, I don’t care what size and what weight, what age, what color, creed, especially what their record is, it doesn’t matter because the fact is this guy has killer instinct. I don’t see that in David Haye, I don’t see that in Wladimir Klitschko. I’m not saying that Kimbo’s better than them, so please don’t take my words out of context. I’m saying I don’t see killer instinct. You can love Mike Tyson because he knocked people out. You better love Kimbo Slice.”

I breathlessly await the prospects of a transformative fight like Kimbo vs. David Haye or Kimbo vs. James Toney for an alphabet soup title.

Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

15 Responses to “On the week UFC is reportedly heading to Fox, Jared Shaw calls Dana White & T. Jay Thompson stupid”

  1. Mr.roadblock says:

    For what it’s worth (and these things change fluidly) the word in TV is that Spike is going to rebrand. Once UFC leaves Spike is going to change it’s name and format and be more like USA Network. Trying to program male and female friendly shows.

    I would imagine Bellator won’t be a part of that.

  2. EJ says:

    Not to mention the fact that TNA is the way it is because of Spike, the idea that they will somehow prop up Bellator is pretty ridiculous. Spike might at well rebrand and drop TNA at this point because without the UFC and considering all the money they’ve dropped to prop up TNA they are left with nothing.

    • Chuck says:

      When UFC leaves Spike TV TNA will be the number one property on Spike. It’s not saying much, but TNA does better tv ratings than pretty much everything else on Spike.

      If you have show that is called “1,000 Ways to Die” that is in it’s THIRD season……then you know you have a cruddy, sleazy tv channel.

      I still say TNA was at it’s best when it was on Fox Sports, and after it left Fox Sports but before it went over to Spike (those summer 2005 ppvs were actually very great believe it or not). If TNA is gone from Spike then Spike is left with less than nothing.

  3. Chuck says:

    Kimbo’s ground game “suspect”? That is a hell of an understatement….

    Look, there is no way Kimbo Slice will be a premier player as a pro boxer at this stage. He looked great last weekend because he fought an 0-1 (now 0-2) ham n’ egger. He is 37 years old and just starting out. I don’t want to see any comparisons to Randy Couture starting pro mma a month before his 34th birthday because, believe it or not, that was a different circumstance (mma was still new, Randy Couture had a very long greco-roman wrestling career, etc.) And Couture’s record? 19-11, so there you go. Just imagine if Couture started when UFC and other now-defunct companies just started in 1993 (he would have been 29 going on 30).

    Wait until Kimbo fights a decent fighter who is taller, has a longer reach, and has a god jab. He will be lost in there. Can you imagine Kimbo doing well against heavyweights of that nature (like the Klitschkos, Robert Helenius, Alexander Dimitrenko, etc.)?

    He will be fun to watch as a side show act (not unlike Butterbean) but as a legit competitor? Not at this stage.

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    Take it with a grain of salt, but mmalogic is saying that Zuffa is going to give SpikeTV the option of having Strikeforce. That will contain female title fights and basically a feeder system to the UFC. I can see SpikeTV going one of 3 routes:

    1) Take the Strikeforce deal because it’s still the best option at this time.

    2) Go with Bellator, mainly because they are still semi mad about the UFC leavingand just want to try something new.

    3) Leaving MMA all together.

    Any of the 3 options would not shock me. Either way, SpikeTV just lost the one thing they had going for them. They are basically a useless channel at this point….

    And I fully expect Rebney to stick with his tournament formats. Heck, he wouldn’t even budge for Nathan Marquardt, which was insane.

    • Kelvin Hunt says:

      Hmmm deciding to not sign Marquart wasn’t insane(Nate would cost quite a bit with a limited fanbase)..it if fought Lombard and lost…then what).but him sticking to tournaments is insane..

      I mentioned SF going to Spike a while ago…the only way Spike doesn’t take it is if they do your #3..which as you said is plausible.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        I could see any 3 options happening.

        The reason I could see them going with Bellator is purely as an emotional based decision. It’s hard to go to your manager and say: “Hey, we didn’t get the UFC, but they are offering us the leftovers.” It’s much easier to say: “We are trying something new and hoping for it to get bigger.”

        If Zuffa does keep Strikeforce, I think it’s a great thing for the sport. We shouldn’t be seeing fighters with less then 10 fights in the UFC for the most part….

    • Robert Poole says:

      Marquardt has ZERO fanbase. Overpaying for him would be dumber than any Strikeforce signing that you have railed on. Plus, he’s not really that amazing. He’s a slightly above average middleweights in a sea of average middleweights.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        Marquardt was a legit Top 10 Middleweight.

        And who said anything about not paying him?

        Marquardt has main evented a few SpikeTV cards before. He might not be the most popular fighter out there, but people know who he is.

        If Bellator can’t sign the Marquardts of the world, they are doomed. He is going to be as cheap as they come in terms of top tier talent.

  5. Chris says:

    So the Shaw’s can’t get Tim Bradley or Andre Dirrell to fight for them, but at least they can get Kimbo in the ring. Love it!

  6. Chris27 says:

    First off I keep hearing Bjorn say they are locked into MTV 2 until 2013 or something.

    So is that just bullshit cause nothing was official, UFC hadnt left Spike and they still have the rest of the year with teh UFC so Bjorn is gonna say yeah we are gonna jump right into SPike if the UFC leaves.

    I know they are owned by the same company but he makes it sound like they cant, that MTV 2 is their home for the next year or two and then maybe they move to Spike or whatever.

    If they cant move to Spike will they even survive? IF they do move will they survive?

    How many people watched UFC on Spike cause they are hardcore mma fans who will watch any mma on Spike nad how many watched cause it was the UFC and if the UFC is gone they dont care about anything else?

    Thats the question.

    Bellator doesnt have any stars that causal fans know, the tournament format is a disaster imo, good for building up some talent but it isnt gonna make the fights fans really want to see.

    They coudl have signed Nate vs Lombard for the MW title and thats a fight if it was on Spike that could do viewers on Spike, instead they didnt sign him cause of money and he didnt want to do the tournament it sounds like, they wouldnt give him a title shot.

    Bellator isnt gonna last imo if they dont change, keep the tournaments but they need to also make regular title fights. Having super fights that arent super isnt gonna cut it.

  7. Stel says:

    God willing, may the great Shaw family denigrate the goyim freely and enjoy being gods #1 without criticism!!!!

  8. bluerosekiller says:

    It’s just HILARIOUS to see Jared Shaw run his mouth about the lack of legitimacy regarding the new ProElite, when he’s the one that killed it in the first place with his shady semi-works involving Kimbo.
    And, from the looks of that atrocity of a “fight” on Saturday night, not much has changed…
    It appears as if it’s back to business as usual with that crew. So much so, that I expect there to be yet another scandal resulting from their promotions. Only this time, in boxing.
    Sure, they may get away with this kind of nonsense for a while by sticking to states with questionable athletic commissions, but sooner or later they’ll get caught or have the whistle blown on them.

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