I posted a story this morning about Kimbo Slice’s fight last night on CBS and decided against using this picture from the Associated Press on the story linked to the home page. The caption, credit, and editors note from AP are as follows:

“** EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT ** Kimbo Slice, right, throws a punch to the the ear of James Thompson of Manchester, England that knocks him to the canvas for a TKO in the third round of their EliteXC heavyweight bout at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. Saturday, May 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)”

I first saw Kimbo Slice on the Miami-based “Reality Kings” porn sites several years ago. You’ll forgive me if I don’t provide a link. Strangely, those porn sites posted the now-famous videos of Kimbo fighting other bouncers from the Miami area. You can find them on YouTube. Fighting is probably not the right word, since Kimbo dominated his opponents in those early parking lot fights.

Boxing associations have been outspoken in their criticism of the rise of mixed martial arts in recent years as their own ratings declined. I watched the over-hyped Merriwether/De La Hoya bout and easily recognized the reason MMA has overshadowed boxing.

Merriwether may technically be one of the best boxers in history, but De La Hoya was actually there to fight. Merriwether punched once and would run, only to punch once, again, a few minutes later. Punch once. Run. People don’t care about the punch percentages and all those stats that judges care about. People want to see a fight, and that’s what mixed martial arts gives them.

I’ve noticed that mixed martial arts has changed itself in the last few years, too. When I started watching UFC back in high school, Royce Gracie would tie up opponents for 30 minutes until either the judge called the fight or his opponent submitted. One would have thought UFC 5, which pitted Gracie against Ken Shamrock, was the final battle between God and Lucifer, but it turned into a 30-minute hug fest. Elite XC fight league, which presented last night’s bout on CBS, appears to have moved away from those types of battles and focuses instead on brawls where guys just beat the crap out of each other.

I’m not particularly enthused by boxing or “ultimate fighting.” I can’t help but watch these brawls and think of the gladiator games that played almost constantly during the reigns of Caligula, Nero, and other Roman emperors.

We will have our games and Rome will never burn…

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2008 at 11:09 am and is filed under Memphis Overnight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.