Thoughts on the Kimbo Fight

Kimbo Slice barely survived his fight with James Thompson winning via a controversial TKO in the third round.

The first two rounds appeared to go to Thompson and Kimbo was in trouble of losing his first MMA fight.

A loss by Kimbo, would have been devastating for his reputation as well as for Elite XC, who is hanging their coattails onthe hard hitting internet street fighting phenomena.

What became clear after the fight were several things. Kimbo Slice is still developing his MMA skills. Kimbo Slice has proven that he can fight on the ground-albeit he has a ways to go and even Kimbo will be the first to admit this. Kimbo Slice is no longer going to be viewed as MMA’s answer to the early Mike Tyson.

James Thompson who is a 2^nd rate MMA heavyweight known for being knocked out early in fights, challenged Kimbo to the brink.

Thompson has been knocked in the first 11 seconds of fights two times during his career. Aleksander Emelianenko disposed of Thompson in 11 seconds, while Neil Grove took 10 seconds to KO the Brit.

Thompson has been in fights with other well-hyped sensationalized strikers, like Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch and he has been knocked out in less time (43 seconds) than it took for Kimbo (38 seconds into round 3).

So the biggest surprise was how long it took Kimbo to take care of business in the ring (three rounds) and the nature in which the fight ended which was via referee stoppage when it looked like Thompson still was able to fight. One could say that Thompson was staggering, but this was the result of fatigue more so than the power of Kimbo who did not have much power left in his tank in the third round.

The punches Kimbo landed to Thompson at the end of the fight seemed weak compared to the punches typically thrown by him. This is a result of Kimbo’s poor preparation and experience in the ring.

Kimbo, who you would think would be more of a professional when it comes to preparation blamed it jokingly on smoking. I am not sure if he is referring to cigarettes, cigars or marijuana, but professional fighters do not smoke.

Also, Slice fell to the ground after the fight and minutes after he was still out of breath when he was being interviewed by CBS’ Gus Johnson.

Therefore Kimbo Slice, who won the fight controversially and to the disdain or the crowd, tarnished his reputation in several ways. Slicee is no longer going to be viewed as the all mighty and powerful striker. Thompson pushed Slice to the limits. He made Slice look like he had gone 15 rounds, not 2 rounds and 38 seconds.

Many casual fans who saw Kimbo fight were thoroughly unimpressed with his performance, but this is the result of the hype that they had heard about him. The hype was well deserved but as was displayed on Saturday night in primetime, Kimbo will not always win a fight by knockout in the first thirty seconds even if it is against a fighter with glass jaw who is a 2^nd rate heavyweight.

Elite XC and Gary Shaw are not stupid, though. They want to build up the hype surrounding Kimbo because it is money in their bank. A loss to Kimbo could have crippled the organization, which experienced 27 million dollars in losses just last year.

For pictures from the fight check out: http://1fighter.blogspot.com/ which can also be accessed through 1fight.com.