The moment has finally arrived. After seven years of waiting (and one dead fight promotion), Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock will finally step in the cage on Friday night.
Slice and Shamrock are older men now, and neither has competed in mixed martial arts in quite some time. For Slice, it has been just over five years since a loss to Matt Mitrione sent him packing from the UFC; for Shamrock, it will be five years in November.
Both men are long past their primes, and there is every chance the fight will be absolutely awful.
And still, we are beyond excited for what may ultimately (and improbably) be the biggest fight of 2015, at least from a viewership perspective.
To discuss all things Slice vs. Shamrock, our intrepid duo of Jeremy Botter and Jonathan Snowden—Bleacher Report’s version of Cagney and Lacey—teamed up to answer The Question: Is Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock the biggest mixed martial arts fight of 2015?
Jeremy: Jonathan, you were able to spend a little time with Shamrock in San Diego last month, and I tagged along. During that time, we spoke of our excitement for this fight, but we also talked about how smart a play it is for Bellator. This is a promotion that must do something to be different. It can’t be UFC Light, because UFC is already doing a great job at watering down its own product.
Bellator has to do things differently. It has to attract attention somehow, and then hope to turn those eyeballs toward some of the more talented fighters it has on its roster. Millions of people tuned in to see Tito Ortiz vs. Stephan Bonnar, and they were exposed to Will Brooks in the process.
I am convinced that Scott Coker has hit a winning formula here. Kimbo and Ken are old men. This fight will probably be horrible. But I have to say that I don’t care one bit, and I think this fight has the ability to attract a mainstream crowd like no other fight on the docket this year. I have friends who never watch MMA, and they are excited for Slice/Shamrock. If they are any indication, this is going to be a massive viewing audience for Spike on Friday night.
Jonathan: Scott Coker is kind of the anti-Dana White. Most of the time, when you talk to him, he barely changes expression. He’s the type of guy whose heart rate never gets above 80 beats per minute. The next time he calls somebody names in public will be the first.
But, Jeremy, I swear on the almighty Fedor Emelianenko himself—when I sat down with Coker at the last Bellator event he seemed genuinely excited by this fight.
Coker calls it a “fun fight,” the term he’s devised to replace “freakshow” in the MMA lexicon. It’s also something more.
This is a true grudge match, the kind you hear about often but witness rarely. When you look Shamrock in the eye, you can see this is personal to him. Sure, he has all of his pro wrestling tricks working. But they are working in service of something real.
In the cage, no one will mistake this for top-level MMA. But while the two men may be a combined 92.7 years old, they are evenly matched. That’s the difference between being sad and being interesting.
This one is interesting. Despite the Kimbo friendly odds, I think it’s a pick-em fight.
Jeremy: I think you’re right. When I saw Kimbo opened up as a -405 favorite with oddsmakers, I was shocked. But then, I also had the opportunity to see Ken’s Padres jersey barely containing his massive, rippling biceps when you and I went to a baseball game with him a month ago. Clearly, the man is in fantastic shape, and not just for someone who is 51 years old; he is in fantastic shape, period.
There are people out there who will pretend this fight is embarrassing, because they think they’re some sort of purist and that this kind of fight is beneath them. You know the type. We all do.
But if you consider yourself a purist, answer me this question: Would you rather watch Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice do their thing on free cable? Or are you happier watching two men you’ve never heard of on a Fight Pass stream?
Even if someone answers “Fight Pass,” you just know they’re going to be tuning in on Friday night. They might not admit it, but they’ll be watching alongside the rest of us, because at the end of the day, we are all marks.
Jonathan: Like you, I love the spectacle and the ridiculous pomp and circumstance. Everyone who’s been to one of their live quarterly extravaganzas raves about these Bellator tent-pole shows. It’s going to be an incredible event.
But, and call me crazy if you must, I’m also super intrigued by this as an athletic contest. I know neither of these guys is ever going to be a world champion—and that’s OK. What’s important here is that they are an appropriate level of competition for each other.
Shamrock vs. Slice, in many ways, is an old-school throwback, a return to a time when MMA was a battle of styles. Shamrock is the submission master. At lunch one day he told me all about why leg locks are the ultimate counter to the guard.
He still believes.
Kimbo is a street fighter, a hard puncher who has learned just enough in the gym to make it interesting. He can end Shamrock’s night with a single punch.
That’s exciting to me. Am I weird?
Jeremy: You’re not weird. I mean, you are weird. But not because you’re excited for this fight.
I was also perversely excited for Tito vs. Bonnar back in November. And I felt this way even though I knew—I just knew—it was going to be a terrible fight. And honestly, the odds of Shamrock and Kimbo going out there and putting on a fight of the year candidate? They’re pretty small. I think we can agree on that.
But still, I’m excited for the fight, because this is an evenly matched bout between two old people. And also because of what you mentioned: It is a battle of styles, a throwback of sorts to the old-school time when we’d see a jiu-jitsu master facing a boxer.
The fact that Shamrock was the guy participating in those style fights back then? Well, it makes it that much better!
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