i didn't even bother watching the kimbo fight because i knew it was gonna be lame. he's just a passing fad, the william hung of fighting. everyone knows he's not any good, but people watch because he's the blue-collar underdog who got to where he is through perseverence and toughness (not talent obviously). a 180 lbs mid-level ufc fighter would finish him off in 2 minutes. all of his upcoming opponents will probably be 42 year old guys with 3-14 records.
The sport of MMA can only be as reputable as the outfit that's behind the event. Just bacause Elite XC blows, you can't hold that against the legitimacy of UFC. But like the other guy said, the decision in Britain that gave Bisping the victory over Hammil was pretty bad. Of all the UFC fights I've seen, that's the only one that really sticks out. By the way I missed the Kimbo fight but there was a good review of the event on Yahoo. I thought this was pretty feakin funny: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dw-kimbo060108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
You're right. The yahoo column was great. From it: "3. The CBS announcing crewâs endless hyperbole reaching its pinnacle when one of them compared Kimbo to Tiger Woods. This would be applicable if Tiger had gained fame hitting trick shots in putt putt and then was invited to a second rate club championship which CBS was conned into televising. He then shot a final round 124, after which he was declared the winner anyway. " You really have to wonder how someone sold CBS the idea of letting this bunch put on its first MMA card. Either whoever made the decision just had no freaking idea or they thought a legitimate card would not grab non-MMA fans like this freakshow would.
Pretty amazing. It looked like Kimbo's goons jumped in and stopped it whenever he was about to tap. Thirty more seconds of that CBS fight, and he would have been on the floor just like in this one. I give Gannon credit though. I wouldn't have liked his chances of walking out of there alive, looking at that crowd.