Why all the hate about Kimbo being on the cover? Lets face it, die hard fans like us who frequent this site are the minority. Kimbo is not going to appeal to us knowledgable fans, but he is a big Draw in the eyes of the casual fans so he will get tons of attention. Lets face it, in no way is ESPN a credible source of mma news, they NO nothing about the sport. So who cares what they think?
EliteXC has very little Stars that can draw attention, and weather we like it or not Kimb is one of its bigger attractions. Since EliteXC’s resources are limited, they have to use what they got to draw attention. Its a company and they are using what little they have to try to survive in a market with the Big Bad Wolf, the UFC.
IMO, it is much worse when the UFC promotes novice’s like Lesner, or give title shots to Forrest off a 1 fight winning streak against a guy with no ACL, or give Frank Mir a title shot after beating Lesnar. These actions are much worse tbecause the UFC has big PROVEN stars!
As far as the cover, it’s sad to see kimbo on espn magazine, when you have GSP, A.Silva, Rampage among others that can grace the cover, unlike that good for nothing motherf…, who has beaten a useless tank abbott as him “big name win”
glad to see the sherk fans ARE betting!! BJ line back down to 250. I’m gonna sit and wait until after the weigh ins, and hope you tools waste..I mean bet it down some more
Come on -200 for BJ! i hope sherk looks ripped to give betters another reason to hold out hope, even though in UFC 84: Countdown, there was absolutely NO (recent) footage of Sherk training just him taking supplements The training footage was from the countdown against Franca if im correct.
I wonder if the rumors of him not looking in good as shape as he was in the past are true?
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Comment by ViolentMike
2008-05-22 16:01:14
Kev, what site have you been checking???
I remember you saying that BJ was up to -300 yesterday. Right now on BetUs he is -250, but he was never 300 that I saw. I placed my money on him about a month ago and got him at -230
betus was 280, I saw it drop. I didn’t forget about you Mike, was gonna deposit a 1000, but lost 3 big hands at the poker table the other night. 10’s, j’s and k’s cracked!! flopped a set with the 10’s. I’ll be making deposit and bets tomorrow!
lol. seriously, its funny hearing some of you saying things like “OMG, he doesnt represent MMA correctly etc, lets have someone else instead like GSP or chuck etc”
Guys, its MIXED COMBAT FIGHTING FOR A REASON, different styles for different fighters…wasnt the 1st UFC exaclty like that when this thing first started? so why not continue the same way it started??? Not every figher is going to be all around great at every thing like GSP or BJ penn but as long as i continue to get entertained in any shape way or form, then whats the problem?? thats the reason why most of us started watching MMA in the first place! i wasnt interested in who had the best armbar or the best gogoplata, i was interested in the most exciting fights, period!
So in regards to kimbo, hes not any different then chuck lidell, in fact hes the same way. A knockout guy that doesnt use anything else but punches, but look at how many times lidell has been successful with it. as for the ESPn cover, you would be whinning either way if it was someone else like you did with roger huerta. poor guy had not done anything wrong and it was always well…this guy is not proven, or this guy this or that…good lord!
I’m on the fence…for all you haters, and Non haters. Kimbo doesn’t deserver all the hate. The guy fought in the streets, got recognized and now the face of MMA on CBS. Everyone, or at least most will still know that UFC is the Majors of MMA and this is the minors when they fight on May 31. Don’t hate so much on this guy until he at least gets a L. then its Game on. So what he is on ESPN and everyone is talking about him, TIME WILL TELL IF HE IS legit. He can’t fight can’s forever. I personal don’t think he will make it long term, but I not going to sit here and say the dude sucks and has no skills and blah blah blah
And is making more money per fight than UFC headliners and champions!
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Comment by James S
2008-05-22 16:03:31
Exactly. Who hear follows MMA and doesn’t know that kimbo has only had two fights? Everybody knows he’s new to the game. He’s making a ton of money and fighting in front of a huge audience on free tv. I got nothing bad to say about Kimbo and i can’t wait to watch him fight FOR FREE on CBS.
even though he is still just a beginner,it is still good exposure for MMA.the cover kinda reminds me of the time he was on Jimmy Kimmel live.Jimmy merged 2 photos together to get the image of Kimbo, and the photos were of Mr. T & Geoffry the butler from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air .
This not good for MMA! Rookie watchers will think Kimbo is MMA/UFC and that would be piss poor exposure of the sport. People need to see fights like Karo v. Diego or Randy v. Gonzoga (Thousands more to name) to get a true piture of the sport. Kimbo is just fluff for the MMA sport.
maybe after seeing Kimbo plus the undercard fights,and hearing about what MMA is all about they might decide to check out other MMA shows.everyone starts out as a noob, even if you watched from the beginning UFC 1 like i did.sluggers always appeal to noobs,and if that creates new fans that is good for the sport.
i am a kimbo hater. ill admit it. kimbos fame and hype de emphasis the amount of skill and technique that is required to be a mmartist. history has shown us time and time again that fighters like kimbo( Houston, mccfedries,so on) do not do well for long. The thing about kimbo is that he is being protected from fighters that will pose a threat to him.
Also, people say its kimbos 2nd or 3rd fight give him a break, liddell fought losers in the beggening and so on. The difference between liddel and kimbo is that we did not have to hear about how liddel is the next big thing and how he could kill top 10 fighters until he proved himself. and he did. Kimbo automatically is hailed to be the next big thing while he has been far from tested. Why no brett rogers hype? he just knocked out thompson. Kimbo vs. Brett Rogers that would be an exciting fight, and it would be a decent test for kimbo. but no lets put kimbo against the loser and when he knocks him out lets give wwwwwaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy more credit to kimbo than rogers for doing the same thing.
I really hate ESPN for this. It just proves that they’re not serious about covering MMA. If any MMA star should be on the cover, it should be Anderson Silva or GSP. (Other than Liddell who was already on it).
This is a joke. The cover freaks me out. And I won’t be buying this issue.
You should be glad that MMA is getting main stream coverage, not bitching about how its wrong because it is not what you want.. If you want silva or GSP then go on the internet find a picture and jerk off.. That way we will all be happy.. you will get your fix of anderson… and we wont have to read your BS posts any longer… Sorry for the rant but this is for anyone who is hating on this cover.
Wow. Real intelligent, mature response. I only mentioned that fighters LIKE Silva and GSP are more deserving of an ESPN cover.
You’re the one defending Kimbo like you know the guy personally. If anyone needs to “durrrrh go and jerk off to pictures” it would be you with your Kimbo screensaver.
I’ll say it sloooooooow this time, so you can keep up.
Most people don’t hate Kimbo, the person. They hate the fact that he hasn’t accomplished anything in MMA, yet he’s on the cover of ESPN the magazine.
It seems like he’s taking the sport seriously. (training with Bas). But still, until he actually does something, anything, I couldn’t care less about the guy.
PS - Beating James Thompson doesn’t count as accomplishing anything.
Its all good. ESPN stopped being a real credible news source awhile ago. They are in the business of hyping stuff up for a minute and then ESPN moves on to the next “big thing.” I would not take it too seriously.
He hasnt accomplished anything yet because he HASNT BEEN AROUND LONG ENOUGH, our point is give the guy a break before you start to hate on him lol…its only been 3 fights!! so you r in fact contradicting yourself with your own comment if you pay close attention to what you just wrote. think about it, you cant accomplish anything with 3 fights under your belt.
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Comment by R-Dizzle
2008-05-22 16:37:30
No, I’m not. I’m sorry that you’re having trouble comprehending my argument, so I’ll try again.
Like I said before, the majority of people aren’t against Kimbo, they’re against the hype that’s behind him. He hasn’t accomplished anything YET, and doesn’t deserve a cover page when he only has one MMA “fight.”
And where are you getting 3 fights from?? Are you counting his internet street fights?? He has two professional MMA “fights.” One against Bo Cantrell, in which Bo fell down and tapped before even taking a clean shot. And one fight against Tank. F-ing Tank Abbott. Are you kidding me?? Lol, what a joke.
And no, the Ray Mercer fight was not a professional MMA fight. It was an amateur circus. His actual MMA record is 2-0. But again, he hasn’t actually fought an MMA fighter.
Ignore your man crush for a second and look at this through an objective point of view. If a random guy beat Bo Cantrell and Tank Abbott, and then all of a sudden got the cover of ESPN the magazine, you wouldn’t think that was undeserving?? You think beating Bo fucking Cantrell and Tank Abbott is worthy of a cover page?? Haha, what a joke.
man all you haters need to be easy on Kimbo the guy comes from nothin and uses fighting to feed his family and pay his bills. Ya hes not gonna knock out Fedor but F@#! people hes only had 3 mma fights let him come up through the ranks and have time to train so he can take on the top competitors in the sport and show em hes no bitch.
When MMA makes the cover I will be happy. When an internet prize fighter who is a “productive citizen” makes the cover it knocks the sport back 10 years. GSP or Silva or anyone else would make me happy not Kimbo.
Not hating on Kimbo so much but more the fact that he is being pushed as the face of mma….which he is not. He’s just the face of elite XC. MMa has much more experienced, disciplined and more deserving athletes who have trained for years and years to be fighters. Kimbo deserves a chance to make a decent living but I have a real problem with him beign the face of MMA to the Mainstream public. It just makes teh sport look very bad and trashy.
He doesn’t have to prove himself. This thread was just put up and there are already 44 comments. That is the reason he gets all the hype. I don’t get it, but for some reason people react to him whether it is positive or negative.
Even the so called real MMA fans get involved. There is a thread that has been up all day about Shane Carwin. The dude is 8-0 and has finished ever fight in the first round. He is a monster. There were 6 comments on that thread.
I think the hype is short lived and once he starts fighting real competition and loses people will forget about him…And isn’t he old anyways. How long realistically will we hear about this guy?
The majority of the posts on here are anti-Kimbo hype. That’s the only reason. If Kimbo fought his way up in smaller organizations and earned his spot on the cover, then no one would care. People would be supporting the guy, because he would be moving the sport forward. If anything, all of this hype is going to pull the sport back to the old UFC days. Because casual fans are going to see this internet street fighter, and think that’s all MMA is about.
If James Carwin was getting the ESPN cover over established veterans like Fedor and Couture, then there would be the same response.
PS - James Carwin’s record is still a lot more impressive than Kimbo’s 1-0 record. If you even want to call it an MMA record…
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Comment by Knowitall
2008-05-22 17:43:27
I agree there are other fighters who deserve to be the face of mma, but what do you suppose Shaw does tell Dana to promote his fighters? I mean GSP, BJ, Chuck, Anderson all fight in the UFC. Dana had his chance at this contract and turned it down, I mean CBS is a nationally viewed station, you had to know the company with this contract was going to be the face of mma, and promote their most marketable fighter.
Kimbo: Flavor of the Month. He doesn’t deserve the publicity he’s getting. He’s just another Butterbean-a circus freak. You’ll see. He hasn’t fought a true MMA fighter; once that happens and once he loses (which will occur) no one, not even the small MMA promotions are going to want him.
ESPN magazine covers a lot of stories that don’t usually make mainstream coverage. They’re covering Kimbo the story, not Kimbo the (very limited) MMA career. They cover a lot of minor league stuff as long as they’re interesting stories. They’re not trying to be just a news source.
Tonight on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 101 at 8PM EST
“Legendary MMA fighter Fedor Emelianenko joins Ferrall in studio with a host of other fighters including Tim Sylvia, Josh Barnett, Matt Lindland and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. “
Alright seriously? Randy comes out of retirement and beats Tim for the title, NO espn cover story on that. Rampage Beats chuck for the title, NO espn cover story on that. Frank Mir beats joke ass Brock lesnar NO espn cover story there. I could keep going.
Kimbo is a great striker yes, I will give him that. Is he the “NEW” face of MMA no. I refuse to give this man any MMA credit until he faces someone with some real MMA creditability under his belt. And lets not count beating tank abbott as an actual mma win. Gary Shaw has a good roster of ACTUAL MMA fighters and he promotes Kimbo? All he is doing is giving fair weather mma fans someone to talk about. If anyone knows anything they know that kimbo really isnt what he cracks up to be.
Now lets say for giggles sake that Elite XC gets my man Arlovski to come in and kimbo can beat him then I will get a bottle of BBQ sauce and eat my shoe. But I dont see that happening?
Did Dana White try to sign Kimbo initially? Or did he have no desire to begin with?
Kimbo is just a guy getting a lot of pub from a savvy promoter in Gary Shaw. That’s what promoters do…they promote. Let it be. He’ll be beat eventually and all the hype will die down. Look at how it was this time last year for Chuck Liddell. He’s on billboards, tv shows, Connan Obrien. And a loss to Rampage then eventually Jardine blemished his shine.
I really do not understand why there is so much hate about Kimbo slice. The guy is not saying he’s a champion. He has said that he’s new to the game, and that he needs to climb the latter. He is though, been on the main page of a lot of media, but it works because if you check a lot of the other posts on this site; Kimbo recieves the most posts and comments. I have been a fan and participant in MMA for years. To state that Kimbo won’t hold any attention to real fans is misleading and inaccurate. As it stands right now, the heavyweight category is suffering in all organizations. Kimbo is a good asset to the heavyweight class, he is bringing a lot of attention to the heavyweight class, which has diminished over the years. I think the problem is though that we put him on a level which he himself does not see himself at yet. Like any dedicated fan of the sport we will just have to wait and see what happens.
Okay, let’s see … Kimbo is a “bum”, he hasn’t fought a real MMA’er yet, His record is 2-0, He is a thug and blah, blah, blah .. It’s about time that the Kimbo Haters come up with something new.
The reason there is so much hate about Kimbo is just because there can be. People (teenagers mostly) sit behind their mom’s computer and spout hatred and insults (Ever read the Sherdog forums? Lot of hatred going on there).
The industry is about entertainment and if Kimbo can entertain, that’s cool. Is he the most developed MMA guy out there? Of course not but he’s well known, he’s big, he’s an athlete (was invited to an NFL training camp), he’s intelligent (received an academic scholarship to Uni). He’s a raw talent just as any guy on “The Ultimate Fighter” is. He also has the look, the big, bad looking, black guy. Guess what that sells. Get over it.
Anyway the jury is still out. Maybe Kimbo will do well, maybe he won’t crack the top tier fighters. Either way, Kimbo is not negative towards MMA except to the small vocal minority that keep their heads in their nether regions.
1st
2nd!! do i get anything? where’s my da#N ufc 84 dvd? i was 2nd to post on here
ouch, 3rd give it to big jake i guess
Why all the hate about Kimbo being on the cover? Lets face it, die hard fans like us who frequent this site are the minority. Kimbo is not going to appeal to us knowledgable fans, but he is a big Draw in the eyes of the casual fans so he will get tons of attention. Lets face it, in no way is ESPN a credible source of mma news, they NO nothing about the sport. So who cares what they think?
EliteXC has very little Stars that can draw attention, and weather we like it or not Kimb is one of its bigger attractions. Since EliteXC’s resources are limited, they have to use what they got to draw attention. Its a company and they are using what little they have to try to survive in a market with the Big Bad Wolf, the UFC.
IMO, it is much worse when the UFC promotes novice’s like Lesner, or give title shots to Forrest off a 1 fight winning streak against a guy with no ACL, or give Frank Mir a title shot after beating Lesnar. These actions are much worse tbecause the UFC has big PROVEN stars!
Amen.
He’s sexy.
As far as the cover, it’s sad to see kimbo on espn magazine, when you have GSP, A.Silva, Rampage among others that can grace the cover, unlike that good for nothing motherf…, who has beaten a useless tank abbott as him “big name win”
dumb ass, don’t bother with that shit! at least have something to say other than 1st, same some thing worth while would be nice!
If Kimbo Slice was white would he get the same attention? I dont think so.
He’s an ugly MoFo!!!!!!!!
The new face of MMA? Wow… no thank you!
glad to see the sherk fans ARE betting!! BJ line back down to 250. I’m gonna sit and wait until after the weigh ins, and hope you tools waste..I mean bet it down some more
Come on -200 for BJ! i hope sherk looks ripped to give betters another reason to hold out hope, even though in UFC 84: Countdown, there was absolutely NO (recent) footage of Sherk training just him taking supplements
The training footage was from the countdown against Franca if im correct.
I wonder if the rumors of him not looking in good as shape as he was in the past are true?
Kev, what site have you been checking???
I remember you saying that BJ was up to -300 yesterday. Right now on BetUs he is -250, but he was never 300 that I saw. I placed my money on him about a month ago and got him at -230
betus was 280, I saw it drop. I didn’t forget about you Mike, was gonna deposit a 1000, but lost 3 big hands at the poker table the other night. 10’s, j’s and k’s cracked!! flopped a set with the 10’s. I’ll be making deposit and bets tomorrow!
Kimbo sucks OMGS HE’S GAY LOL!!!!
Saved you all the trouble… =/
wouldn’t call myself a Kimbo fan, but what the F#$K is that about?
Ohhhhh i just got it you are calling out the “HATTERS”
wow… i love how all the haters are his biggest fans.. and they dont even realize it.
lol. seriously, its funny hearing some of you saying things like “OMG, he doesnt represent MMA correctly etc, lets have someone else instead like GSP or chuck etc”
Guys, its MIXED COMBAT FIGHTING FOR A REASON, different styles for different fighters…wasnt the 1st UFC exaclty like that when this thing first started? so why not continue the same way it started??? Not every figher is going to be all around great at every thing like GSP or BJ penn but as long as i continue to get entertained in any shape way or form, then whats the problem?? thats the reason why most of us started watching MMA in the first place! i wasnt interested in who had the best armbar or the best gogoplata, i was interested in the most exciting fights, period!
So in regards to kimbo, hes not any different then chuck lidell, in fact hes the same way. A knockout guy that doesnt use anything else but punches, but look at how many times lidell has been successful with it. as for the ESPn cover, you would be whinning either way if it was someone else like you did with roger huerta. poor guy had not done anything wrong and it was always well…this guy is not proven, or this guy this or that…good lord!
I’m on the fence…for all you haters, and Non haters. Kimbo doesn’t deserver all the hate. The guy fought in the streets, got recognized and now the face of MMA on CBS. Everyone, or at least most will still know that UFC is the Majors of MMA and this is the minors when they fight on May 31. Don’t hate so much on this guy until he at least gets a L. then its Game on. So what he is on ESPN and everyone is talking about him, TIME WILL TELL IF HE IS legit. He can’t fight can’s forever. I personal don’t think he will make it long term, but I not going to sit here and say the dude sucks and has no skills and blah blah blah
What a joke - the guy has had two fights; actually just one cause Cantrell took a dive…
Well, that joke just made it to CBS.
And is making more money per fight than UFC headliners and champions!
Exactly. Who hear follows MMA and doesn’t know that kimbo has only had two fights? Everybody knows he’s new to the game. He’s making a ton of money and fighting in front of a huge audience on free tv. I got nothing bad to say about Kimbo and i can’t wait to watch him fight FOR FREE on CBS.
Show more skills than haymakers and maybe I start to believe Kimbo is a true MMA fighter!
even though he is still just a beginner,it is still good exposure for MMA.the cover kinda reminds me of the time he was on Jimmy Kimmel live.Jimmy merged 2 photos together to get the image of Kimbo, and the photos were of Mr. T & Geoffry the butler from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air .
This not good for MMA! Rookie watchers will think Kimbo is MMA/UFC and that would be piss poor exposure of the sport. People need to see fights like Karo v. Diego or Randy v. Gonzoga (Thousands more to name) to get a true piture of the sport. Kimbo is just fluff for the MMA sport.
maybe after seeing Kimbo plus the undercard fights,and hearing about what MMA is all about they might decide to check out other MMA shows.everyone starts out as a noob, even if you watched from the beginning UFC 1 like i did.sluggers always appeal to noobs,and if that creates new fans that is good for the sport.
Damn! All these Kimbo haters act like this man stole everyone’s wife or something sister! Let this man make it, DAMN!
i am a kimbo hater. ill admit it. kimbos fame and hype de emphasis the amount of skill and technique that is required to be a mmartist. history has shown us time and time again that fighters like kimbo( Houston, mccfedries,so on) do not do well for long. The thing about kimbo is that he is being protected from fighters that will pose a threat to him.
Also, people say its kimbos 2nd or 3rd fight give him a break, liddell fought losers in the beggening and so on. The difference between liddel and kimbo is that we did not have to hear about how liddel is the next big thing and how he could kill top 10 fighters until he proved himself. and he did. Kimbo automatically is hailed to be the next big thing while he has been far from tested. Why no brett rogers hype? he just knocked out thompson. Kimbo vs. Brett Rogers that would be an exciting fight, and it would be a decent test for kimbo. but no lets put kimbo against the loser and when he knocks him out lets give wwwwwaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy more credit to kimbo than rogers for doing the same thing.
Damn! All these Kimbo haters act like this man stole everyone’s wife or someone’s sister! Let this man make it, DAMN!
They hate the fact that he’s getting all of this attention and has done absolutely NOTHING in the sport.
He fought a washed up boxer in his first “MMA fight,” and I don’t even want to talk about the circus that was his second “fight.”
Talk to me when he actually does something…
They hate the fact that someone else is getting a cool break in life.
I AGREE. LET HIM ENJOY!!!
A Lot of people really act like this man actually did something to them for everyone to hate him so much!
I really hate ESPN for this. It just proves that they’re not serious about covering MMA. If any MMA star should be on the cover, it should be Anderson Silva or GSP. (Other than Liddell who was already on it).
This is a joke. The cover freaks me out. And I won’t be buying this issue.
You should be glad that MMA is getting main stream coverage, not bitching about how its wrong because it is not what you want.. If you want silva or GSP then go on the internet find a picture and jerk off.. That way we will all be happy.. you will get your fix of anderson… and we wont have to read your BS posts any longer… Sorry for the rant but this is for anyone who is hating on this cover.
Personally I like to watch MMA for the fights, if you like to wank over it thats your call.
Wow. Real intelligent, mature response. I only mentioned that fighters LIKE Silva and GSP are more deserving of an ESPN cover.
You’re the one defending Kimbo like you know the guy personally. If anyone needs to “durrrrh go and jerk off to pictures” it would be you with your Kimbo screensaver.
What did he do to you?….
Kill your favorite kitten?
Okay, again..
I’ll say it sloooooooow this time, so you can keep up.
Most people don’t hate Kimbo, the person. They hate the fact that he hasn’t accomplished anything in MMA, yet he’s on the cover of ESPN the magazine.
It seems like he’s taking the sport seriously. (training with Bas). But still, until he actually does something, anything, I couldn’t care less about the guy.
PS - Beating James Thompson doesn’t count as accomplishing anything.
R-Dizzle :
Its all good. ESPN stopped being a real credible news source awhile ago. They are in the business of hyping stuff up for a minute and then ESPN moves on to the next “big thing.” I would not take it too seriously.
Dizzle, the word you are using are too long and have too many syllables for Kimbo fans to understand what you mean.
UKmmaBOY, what “word” are you referring to?
My bad, I did a Kimbo fan style post. *Words*
Slooooooower pleeeeease..
He hasnt accomplished anything yet because he HASNT BEEN AROUND LONG ENOUGH, our point is give the guy a break before you start to hate on him lol…its only been 3 fights!! so you r in fact contradicting yourself with your own comment if you pay close attention to what you just wrote. think about it, you cant accomplish anything with 3 fights under your belt.
No, I’m not. I’m sorry that you’re having trouble comprehending my argument, so I’ll try again.
Like I said before, the majority of people aren’t against Kimbo, they’re against the hype that’s behind him. He hasn’t accomplished anything YET, and doesn’t deserve a cover page when he only has one MMA “fight.”
And where are you getting 3 fights from?? Are you counting his internet street fights?? He has two professional MMA “fights.” One against Bo Cantrell, in which Bo fell down and tapped before even taking a clean shot. And one fight against Tank. F-ing Tank Abbott. Are you kidding me?? Lol, what a joke.
And no, the Ray Mercer fight was not a professional MMA fight. It was an amateur circus. His actual MMA record is 2-0. But again, he hasn’t actually fought an MMA fighter.
Ignore your man crush for a second and look at this through an objective point of view. If a random guy beat Bo Cantrell and Tank Abbott, and then all of a sudden got the cover of ESPN the magazine, you wouldn’t think that was undeserving?? You think beating Bo fucking Cantrell and Tank Abbott is worthy of a cover page?? Haha, what a joke.
man all you haters need to be easy on Kimbo the guy comes from nothin and uses fighting to feed his family and pay his bills. Ya hes not gonna knock out Fedor but F@#! people hes only had 3 mma fights let him come up through the ranks and have time to train so he can take on the top competitors in the sport and show em hes no bitch.
Just face it …Kimbo sells. He sells fights and now sells magazines.
Be happy MMA made the cover………Haters
When MMA makes the cover I will be happy. When an internet prize fighter who is a “productive citizen” makes the cover it knocks the sport back 10 years. GSP or Silva or anyone else would make me happy not Kimbo.
Not hating on Kimbo so much but more the fact that he is being pushed as the face of mma….which he is not. He’s just the face of elite XC. MMa has much more experienced, disciplined and more deserving athletes who have trained for years and years to be fighters. Kimbo deserves a chance to make a decent living but I have a real problem with him beign the face of MMA to the Mainstream public. It just makes teh sport look very bad and trashy.
People don’t hate on Kimbo.
It’s just that most hardcore fans believe that other fighters deserve the attention that he is getting.
Its like somebody getting a promotion at your job when he/she started 6 months ago.
I personally don’t hate on Kimbo but he does not deserve all this hype before he has proven himself (when you compare him to other fighters).
He doesn’t have to prove himself. This thread was just put up and there are already 44 comments. That is the reason he gets all the hype. I don’t get it, but for some reason people react to him whether it is positive or negative.
Even the so called real MMA fans get involved. There is a thread that has been up all day about Shane Carwin. The dude is 8-0 and has finished ever fight in the first round. He is a monster. There were 6 comments on that thread.
I think the hype is short lived and once he starts fighting real competition and loses people will forget about him…And isn’t he old anyways. How long realistically will we hear about this guy?
The majority of the posts on here are anti-Kimbo hype. That’s the only reason. If Kimbo fought his way up in smaller organizations and earned his spot on the cover, then no one would care. People would be supporting the guy, because he would be moving the sport forward. If anything, all of this hype is going to pull the sport back to the old UFC days. Because casual fans are going to see this internet street fighter, and think that’s all MMA is about.
If James Carwin was getting the ESPN cover over established veterans like Fedor and Couture, then there would be the same response.
PS - James Carwin’s record is still a lot more impressive than Kimbo’s 1-0 record. If you even want to call it an MMA record…
I agree there are other fighters who deserve to be the face of mma, but what do you suppose Shaw does tell Dana to promote his fighters? I mean GSP, BJ, Chuck, Anderson all fight in the UFC. Dana had his chance at this contract and turned it down, I mean CBS is a nationally viewed station, you had to know the company with this contract was going to be the face of mma, and promote their most marketable fighter.
everybody is attacking the hype… then why not send hate mail is MMAMANIA.com for hyping Kimbo.. shouldnt they do a article of the real MMA fighter???
This isn’t an article. MMAmania is reporting the news. The news being that ESPN has a cover article on Kimbo Slice.
Got it? Good.
Who does Kimbo Slice think he is?
He is who we THOUGHT he was.
…and we let him off the hook.
Please Kimbo use make-up!
Kimbo: Flavor of the Month. He doesn’t deserve the publicity he’s getting. He’s just another Butterbean-a circus freak. You’ll see. He hasn’t fought a true MMA fighter; once that happens and once he loses (which will occur) no one, not even the small MMA promotions are going to want him.
That’s just my opinion.
ESPN magazine covers a lot of stories that don’t usually make mainstream coverage. They’re covering Kimbo the story, not Kimbo the (very limited) MMA career. They cover a lot of minor league stuff as long as they’re interesting stories. They’re not trying to be just a news source.
Tonight on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 101 at 8PM EST
“Legendary MMA fighter Fedor Emelianenko joins Ferrall in studio with a host of other fighters including Tim Sylvia, Josh Barnett, Matt Lindland and Renato “Babalu” Sobral. “
THAT IS ONE UGLY MOTHER FUCKIN CLOSE-UP SHOT
Kimbo should really get cleaned up now that he’s a “six figure n*gga”. He looks like a bum.
He’s a fighter. I didn’t know they were supposed to look pretty.
It’s all exposure for MMA. If it helps the sport grow, who gives a f@ck.
Why!!!!!!!!!!He is not a real MMA fighter. I am so sick of this guy. I want him to fight a real proven MMA figher
Alright seriously? Randy comes out of retirement and beats Tim for the title, NO espn cover story on that. Rampage Beats chuck for the title, NO espn cover story on that. Frank Mir beats joke ass Brock lesnar NO espn cover story there. I could keep going.
Kimbo is a great striker yes, I will give him that. Is he the “NEW” face of MMA no. I refuse to give this man any MMA credit until he faces someone with some real MMA creditability under his belt. And lets not count beating tank abbott as an actual mma win. Gary Shaw has a good roster of ACTUAL MMA fighters and he promotes Kimbo? All he is doing is giving fair weather mma fans someone to talk about. If anyone knows anything they know that kimbo really isnt what he cracks up to be.
Now lets say for giggles sake that Elite XC gets my man Arlovski to come in and kimbo can beat him then I will get a bottle of BBQ sauce and eat my shoe. But I dont see that happening?
Don’t forget ESPN is trying to sell magazines. Part of the reason that they put him on the cover is that he is so recognizable.
Kimbo is the only guy I can talk about to the guys I work with because he is the only Fighter they know.
Kimbo is famous. Most of those other guys are not.
It is unfortunate, but it is true.
Did Dana White try to sign Kimbo initially? Or did he have no desire to begin with?
Kimbo is just a guy getting a lot of pub from a savvy promoter in Gary Shaw. That’s what promoters do…they promote. Let it be. He’ll be beat eventually and all the hype will die down. Look at how it was this time last year for Chuck Liddell. He’s on billboards, tv shows, Connan Obrien. And a loss to Rampage then eventually Jardine blemished his shine.
I really do not understand why there is so much hate about Kimbo slice. The guy is not saying he’s a champion. He has said that he’s new to the game, and that he needs to climb the latter. He is though, been on the main page of a lot of media, but it works because if you check a lot of the other posts on this site; Kimbo recieves the most posts and comments. I have been a fan and participant in MMA for years. To state that Kimbo won’t hold any attention to real fans is misleading and inaccurate. As it stands right now, the heavyweight category is suffering in all organizations. Kimbo is a good asset to the heavyweight class, he is bringing a lot of attention to the heavyweight class, which has diminished over the years. I think the problem is though that we put him on a level which he himself does not see himself at yet. Like any dedicated fan of the sport we will just have to wait and see what happens.
The hate isn’t on Kimbo. It’s on the hype he’s getting. For the millionth time. Try actually reading each post.
Its quite funny that you would say that since I did adress the “hype he is getting”. It seems that you have to “Read” each post.
Okay, let’s see … Kimbo is a “bum”, he hasn’t fought a real MMA’er yet, His record is 2-0, He is a thug and blah, blah, blah .. It’s about time that the Kimbo Haters come up with something new.
Why come up with something new….Is that not enough? I can not wait till this guy gets dropped.
I hope Thompson pulls it off so all the real mma fans can rejoice and the casuals can all shit their pants and cry themselves to sleep……….
This is Kimbo in a nut shell, MMA has been very very good to me !!!!!!!
The reason there is so much hate about Kimbo is just because there can be. People (teenagers mostly) sit behind their mom’s computer and spout hatred and insults (Ever read the Sherdog forums? Lot of hatred going on there).
The industry is about entertainment and if Kimbo can entertain, that’s cool. Is he the most developed MMA guy out there? Of course not but he’s well known, he’s big, he’s an athlete (was invited to an NFL training camp), he’s intelligent (received an academic scholarship to Uni). He’s a raw talent just as any guy on “The Ultimate Fighter” is. He also has the look, the big, bad looking, black guy. Guess what that sells. Get over it.
Anyway the jury is still out. Maybe Kimbo will do well, maybe he won’t crack the top tier fighters. Either way, Kimbo is not negative towards MMA except to the small vocal minority that keep their heads in their nether regions.
Just look how many comments Kimbo generates… unbelievable… and I just added another.