Bellator returns to action this Friday with Bellator 138 at the
Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO. The televised card features a number
of potentially exciting fights – Daniel Straus vs. Henry Corrales, Bobby
Lashley vs. Dan Charles, Michael Chandler vs. Derek Campos (lightweight
title fight), and Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Daniel Weichel
(featherweight title fight).
But the fight that will have most fans watching will, of course, be the
main event between Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and Ken Shamrock.
Originally set to take place nearly seven years ago in the now-defunct
Elite XC promotion, Slice and Shamrock once again get a main event
status for what will likely be the highest watched fight that the
Bellator promotion has seen.
In spite of the hype, Slice vs. Shamrock holds little relevance in the
MMA world outside of a ratings boom for Bellator. Neither of these guys
will be competing for a title any time soon (if ever), neither is at the
top of his game, and I doubt there’s anyone out there who believes this
will be a quality display of mixed martial arts.
But as we know, MMA isn’t always about titles, it isn’t always about
fighters at the top of their games, and it isn’t always about a quality
display of mixed martial arts. Sometimes it’s just about the hype, and
despite the lack of current day relevance of either Slice or Shamrock,
there’s plenty of hype.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past ten years, you know
that Slice gained fame as a YouTube sensation, a literal backyard
brawler who was knocking out guys on a regular basis while a number of
shaky-handed cameras filmed the action. Where Slice is a legend in the
backyard, Shamrock became a legend in the cage (and ring). Shamrock, at
51 years of age, has been fighting professionally for just under twenty
two years. Twenty two years. When Shamrock had his first recorded
professional fight, Conor McGregor was four years old.
Shamrock, long-dubbed “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” enjoyed a lot of
success in Pancrase, and was generally successful in the UFC when he
wasn’t fighting someone named Royce Gracie. But a loss to Dan Severn at
UFC 9 (you read that right – UFC 9 – keep in mind, UFC 188 was just last
weekend) started the decline of Shamrock’s career, and since that time,
he’s 6-11 in mixed martial arts competition, hasn’t beaten someone with
a winning record since 2004, and hasn’t fought at all since November
2010.
Slice is 4-2 in professional mixed martial arts bouts, and also hasn’t
been in the cage in over five years. Slice went 3-0 in his first three
fights against three guys that there was little doubt he would beat,
then ran into Seth Petruzelli as a late replacement for Ken Shamrock
when Shamrock had to bow out of their first scheduled fight after
getting a cut on his head hours before their fight. The suspicious
circumstances of the cut aside, Petruzelli stepped in and defeated Kimbo
in fourteen seconds.
Slice then made a run at the UFC after going through TUF, defeated
Houston Alexander in a mostly boring decision at the TUF 10 finale, and
then lost to fellow cast member Matt Mitrione in 2010. Someone new to
the sport might be reading this and think “So these guys are the main
event of a televised card? Why?”
Because of the hype. Like with nearly every other professional sport,
ratings rule the day. Higher ratings mean more money, and cash is king.
This fight has so much hype behind it, Spike TV (the broadcasting
network) even produced a one hour documentary about the fight. While the
documentary had its interesting moments (Shamrock is living in an RV
with no running water outside of his gym), the bulk of the documentary
focused on the hype surrounding their first scheduled fight as
justification for the “importance” of the second fight. Have any other
Bellator fights ever gotten this type of documentary? Unfortunately not.
There was lots of talk of “breaking bones” and “pounding faces in”,
amidst talk of Shamrock’s renewed sense of religion and clips of Slice’s
backyard fights, and the buildup often seemed more reminiscent of a
professional wrestling match rather than a mixed martial arts bout.
But despite all that – despite the fighters’ ages, despite their lack of
fights in the last half-decade, despite any true relevance in current
state of MMA affairs, many many people will be tuning in on Friday night
to watch the fight. I will be. I want to see what sort of a freak show
it is, whether Kimbo will be able to KO Shamrock before Shamrock can get
ahold of one of Kimbo’s legs for a submission (the odds say the answer
to that question will be a resounding yes), and lastly, whether their
“beef” will suddenly be squashed after the fight as the two hug it out
once the fight is over.
All that being said, I don’t mind the hype, and I don’t mind the fight
happening. More viewers means more exposure for mixed martial arts,
which translates into more money for the promotions, which eventually
will trickle down to the fighters. The saying goes that there is no such
thing as bad press, and while I don’t think that is true 100% of the
time, it’s true here.
While the ratings numbers will undoubtedly peak during the night’s main
event, there are going to be more than a few people watching the other
televised fights, and there they will see a true display of mixed
martial arts, and maybe, just maybe, some of those who are watching a
televised MMA event for just the first or second time will decide to
keep watching MMA once the hype from this event has died down. If they
do, it’s a win.
