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The answer to that question,
at least in relation to his mixed martial arts skill set, became much more
clear tonight. That wasn’t supposed to be the case. He was supposed to run
through his opponent and remain the enigma he already was, but James Thompson
had other plans.
First of all, one thing was overwhelmingly obvious, Thompson was handpicked to lose to Slice in spectacular fashion. Based
on his size, skill and a reputation for a suspect chin, Thompson was brought in
to give Slice another highlight reel KO in front of the first MMA primetime
broadcast on a major network, that much is a given. Most fans understand how
the business works, the surprise, was how the fight played out
The Opponent
During the broadcast one of the commentators referred to James Thompson as an international MMA standout.
With all due respect, I am going to disagree. Let’s look at the numbers, after
his fight against Slice, Thompson has accrued seven losses and in his last nine
fights, a winning percentage of 22 percent over that span. If that is what it
takes these days to be referred to as an international MMA standout then those
standards need to be revisited.
The fact is, Thompson was brought
in coming off a knockout loss on a previous EliteXC card, and was fighting in
the main event of the promotions biggest event to date. A weak chin, suspect
fighting ability, and a dollop of Kimbo Slice punching power is a recipe for an
impressive knockout for one of EliteXC’s poster boys, no? No. MMARR had Slice
losing the first two rounds before securing a controversial referee stoppage in
the third round.
Kimbo Slice hits hard, no
one questions that. He had Thompson in trouble a couple times, but his ground
skills were a major question mark coming in and might be even more of a
question mark now. As the fight wore on both fighters looked like they were
very tired, Slice’s punches looked sloppy and his takedown defence was inept. Although
he reversed his way out from some bad positions, Thompson is not exactly a jiu
jitsu ace either. Even commentator Frank Shamrock referred to Slice’s
guillotine choke attempt as a “rookie hold,” going on to say he didn’t know how
to get out from underneath Thompson at the end of the second round. He was
right.
To top the fight off, the stoppage was controversial. The broadcast team referred to the stoppage as “terrible.”
In the referee’s defence, Thompson’s ear was hanging off the side of his face like
piece of salami and could have fallen off his face had it taken another punch
or two. Even Slice admitted in the post fight interview that it was a target so
I wonder how that would have looked to have an ear punched off a fighters face on
primetime TV? It probably wouldn’t have looked worse than seeing an ear bitten
off a fighters face but I digress. Was it an early stoppage? In terms or punishment
taken, the answer is yes. Would it have changed the outcome of the fight? Thompson
was in trouble, but no one will really ever know the answer to that, and there
is no going back now.
If Kimbo Slice steps into
the UFC right now, how many of the top UFC guys can he beat? At this point, the
answer is probably none. In all fairness, how many UFC heavyweights have only
three fights to his resume? Slice for all his weaknesses is clearly a
personality, and that is what Gary Shaw and company are building as much as
anything, so I don’t know if that even matters to them, right now
Are the Elite XC executives
worried about Slice because of his less than impressive performance? I would be,
but they probably already know what they have on their hands. Truth be told,
their ability to market him has been nothing less than impressive. Their
ultimate goal is making money, and if that is what they feel it takes to get
the high ratings they need to survive, then that is what they will do
In the end the important question might not even be about Kimbo Slice. The real question appears to be, is Elite
XC for real? Can it survive on primetime television? We will get a glimpse of that
answer as the ratings for the broadcast come in. Rest assured every major
player in MMA is waiting anxiously to see how well they do for their own
selfish reasons. If it doesn’t work out for EliteXC, their whole organization
might be in for a “terrible” stoppage.
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