CBS is Ready For Take II With Kimbo Slice
MMA August 26th. 2008, 12:00pm
Elite XC’s national TV debut with Kimbo Slice earlier this summer was a ratings winner, circus-like in nature (exploding ears! ewwww!), and MMA purists deemed the night a laughable joke because Slice was awarded a victory in a match he should have (maybe!) lost.
Elite XC’s second CBS effort didn’t involve Kimbo and hardly registered anywhere.
So this move is obvious: Oct. 4, CBS, Kimbo Slice against … Ken Shamrock? Dude’s 44, or an age at which you shouldn’t be in an octagon attempting to bash another man’s head in. Also worth nothing: He’s lost five matches in a row, all in the first round. At the time of his last victory (2004!) the Google IPO wasn’t even released, this blog didn’t exist, and Barack Obama was largely unknown to the general public outside of Chicago.
If Slice doesn’t carve this old man up, he should return to backyard brawling.
42 Responses to “CBS is Ready For Take II With Kimbo Slice”
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August 26th, 2008 at 12:02 PM
Randy Couture disagrees.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:03 PM
Wasn’t Clinteastwood that old in “Every which way but Loose?” You know, with him and the chimp?
August 26th, 2008 at 12:04 PM
It’ll be interesting to see the ratings as it actually has competetion in October. College football and Baseball playoffs. I sense failure.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:05 PM
If Shamrock slaps on the ankle lock after snapping, shit’s over.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:06 PM
I’m calling this the last time we see elitexc on CBS.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Eastwood was 62 in Unforgiven. That’s an old dude tearing it up. Shamrock on the other hand? Not so much
August 26th, 2008 at 12:07 PM
It goes head-to-head with OSU/Wisconsin, Oregon/USC and Louisiana-Lafayette/Louisiana-Monroe. It may not be a big ratings grabber.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:07 PM
Cool Rick -
He was an orangutan. You need to study up on your Hominidaes.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:07 PM
He was 48 in “Every which way”, wow. And he kicked ass while riding around with a chimp. Pretty badass.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:08 PM
EliteXC is running out of lives.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:08 PM
Dana White is probably sitting in his office thinking to himself that he couldn’t be in a better position. He’s got a deal with Spike (perfect demo), purchased his strongest competitor (Pride), WEC is actually pretty decent and EliteXC has managed to fuck up in every way possible.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:09 PM
Is Affliction a real threat? Their shirts seem popular.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Affliction is a bunch of UFC cast offs, except for Fidor.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Rampage Jackson got charged with felonies. Could do three years.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:13 PM
Affliction is going to hurt itself when it does a Fedor-less PPV in November.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:13 PM
I’m expecting big things out of BodogFight.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:15 PM
Best appearance by an orangutan in a film – Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
August 26th, 2008 at 12:16 PM
Personally, I’d like to attend Strikeforce at the Playboy mansion, but I might just be a fan of tits.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:20 PM
“Best appearance by an orangutan in a film – Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”
Wrong. “Ed”.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:24 PM
Matt LeBlanc was pretty good in that.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:25 PM
44 or not, Shamrock should dispatch Kimbo with relative ease as long as he can avoid a big punch early.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:27 PM
If EXC thought there was a chance of that, they wouldn’t have scheduled the fight.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Kevin Duckworth dead………..at age 44.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:31 PM
Can I be the 8th person to break that story?
August 26th, 2008 at 12:32 PM
True CRM, or Shamrock will get a little extra in his check for laying down.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:33 PM
I’d like to see Kimbo Slice vs Jose Canseco.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:34 PM
I’d rather see Vai Sikahema/Kimbo
August 26th, 2008 at 12:36 PM
How about Mark Gastineau? He got knocked out in a boxing match by a punch to the shoulder.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:37 PM
How LeBlanc and the Chimp didnt beat out Geoffrey Rush and Cuban Gooding jr at the Oscars still boggles my mind. I’m still bitter.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:46 PM
While I do think Dana is in a pretty good spot, the purchase of Pride is still debatable in my book. The PPV buy rates are not so incredibly higher now than they were at the end of the Pride reign. It’s not like the Pride fighters are getting a huge pop in UFC (Henderson hasn’t drawn well at all… Americans didn’t know about Wandy or Rampage.. and Rampage destroyed Liddell yet the Iceman was/is still a much bigger draw).
Seems to me that the purchase was unnecessary in a lot of ways. UFC can’t put every fighter under contract. So they’ll have to keep buying other startups to truly control everyone.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:53 PM
It’s not that buying Pride was something that put them over the top. Pride was the only other true, established competition that the UFC had. UFC bought the WEC and is keeping it running, presumably to work up lower talent. I don’t think that Dana is looking to buy anymore competition, he just bought the only competition that mattered.
Sure Affliction and EliteXC are getting names, but the startup cost and getting those names to actually be good fighters is probably going to kill them.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Good point Sandi.. hey did you see the most recent PPV buy rates. I’m nervous that MMA has plateaued for picking up the casual fans. The only guys that sell PPV’s for them are Chuck, Tito (who’s gone) and Randy. The numbers aren’t increasing more and I think they have to come up with a way to get more events on free tv. Plus, it stinks when you’re favorite fighter only fights three times a year.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:05 PM
I didn’t, but I have a feeling that you are probably right for now. I have a feeling that they have realized that where boxing failed was making every fight PPV. You can see that at least with UFC they are still having fights with bignames on Spike every few months. That is what is going to bring the casual fan to maybe purchase the PPV. This will also keep from scaring away the core group like the WWE has done with PPV
August 26th, 2008 at 1:07 PM
And don’t get me wrong, the PPV numbers are still crushing any boxing match not involving DLH or FMW. So they’re doing well PPV-wise. They’re just not bringing any new fans to the sport at this point. And ESPN is not helping them. Has ESPN done one feature on Anderson Silva yet? How about BJ Penn? Nope.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:07 PM
It’s not an envious position to be in because the line between making money, gaining fans and losing money is so thin that any misstep can kill your company. UFC is in prime position to drive the market because they did purchase the two most stable competitors they had. They may not control every facet, but they do drive the market and that may be more important.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:08 PM
Cursed, I will still pay to watch Bisping, Franklin or Griffin fight also. But geez, PPV went up from 39.95 to 44.95..
August 26th, 2008 at 1:10 PM
I find it amazing that ESPN hasn’t jumped on this bandwagon, even if it’s ESPN8. The fact that there is a market ripe for the 18-35 demo and ESPN isn’t jumping is odd, but so is giving Screamin’ A Smith face time.
Have you seen the Contender Muy Thai on versus, that would be perfect for ESPN2, and maybe like a Friday night fights with MMA. Just seems odd. Maybe some higher ups at ABC don’t want anything to do with a possibly political topic.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:12 PM
I just can’t see paying that much for something they are going to show on an unleashed in a couple months. With prices going up on everything else, I am happy just to be able to pay my electric bill and feed my kids. If I have to wait a couple months and not see something on PPV, oh well.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:29 PM
Sandi,
Screw your kids…I know you would rather watch two dudes roll around on a mat with each other.
August 26th, 2008 at 3:32 PM
“Barack Obama was largely unknown to the general public outside of Chicago.”
Luckily, Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground and Rev Wright knew him as friends.
August 26th, 2008 at 3:38 PM
Couple things…
ESPN has a quality MMA show, but its only on ESPN.com…I just dont get how they don’t cover the sport, but they are all over comp eating. Makes me wonder if Dana pissed some one off there.
Anderson and Liddell just signed on as Bud Light spokesmen, which is huge. Silva is a great personality and once he gets some high level marketing behind him, he should be a star.
Sadly, this EliteXC will probably go down as the most watch live event ever. Both guys has name recognition and the learned MMA fans will definitely be tuning in with hopes of seeing Kimbo’s ankle bent 90 degrees…
Oh please, Uncle Shammy, please crush Kimbo.
August 26th, 2008 at 3:45 PM
/he sounds like a Portuguese Tyson