MMA comes to prime-time this Saturday

[Ed_Palmedo]

By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports

 

Kimbo not the face of MMA

 

Kimbo Slice, a one-time homeless man, one-time strip club bouncer, one-time backyard, back-alley brawler turned Internet sensation/big money mixed martial artist isn’t a problem. Only in America, right?

 

He’s said to be a great guy, a boot-strap success story who deserves everything coming to him. I’ve watched him maul “Adryan” a half dozen times alone. You have, or will, too.

 

Kimbo Slice being a street fighter, rather than a Brazilian jiu-jitsu or Muay Thai master, isn’t a problem either.

 

No, he isn’t the best and brightest in MMA. He’d probably get whipped in a second by the sport’s elite, as Tito Ortiz predicted. The beauty of the MMA, though, is you bring what you’ve got to the cage. Kimbo has those iron fists. Maybe it’s enough. Maybe it isn’t. We’d all like to find out. The day an old-school scrapper doesn’t have a place here will be a sad one.

 

And CBS choosing to broadcast an MMA card in prime time Saturday, a historic moment for this once fledgling sport, isn’t a problem.

 

The sport has taken off in a way few others have – fueled purely by fan interest. It stands in stark contrast to all the network airtime spent on sports propped up on political correctness or obligation. MMA long ago deserved network attention.

 

Individually, nothing is wrong with a shooting star such as Kimbo Slice fighting on Saturday’s EliteXC card on CBS.

 

Together, plenty is. In fact, practically everything is.

 

EliteXC is a desperate promotion that’s hemorrhaging money. It’s willing to sell anything, even a false portrait of its sport, to succeed.

 

Kimbo is a guy with unexpected and most likely fleeting earning potential; understandably he’s willing to cash in even if it means tomato-can opponents and an image so unfortunately stereotypical.

 

CBS is so focused on quick television ratings, it will present a cheap trick, lowest common denominator show. This, rather than an introduction to a sport that if treated with respect and patience could grow into a powerful property.

 

Everyone is using. Everyone is getting used. In the end, what will be left from this experiment?

 

Will MMA on CBS just be a short-run, freak show discarded by all, left to return to its true roots and better promotions after the circus has left town?