The Bellator 138 main event between Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock delivered, there’s no doubt about that. What, exactly, did it deliver? Well, that’s up for debate.
Check out the full fight video highlights here, courtesy of ESPN.com:
Shamrock was more…
The Bellator 138 main event between Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock delivered, there’s no doubt about that. What, exactly, did it deliver? Well, that’s up for debate.
Check out the full fight video highlights here, courtesy of ESPN.com:
Shamrock was more than aware that his best chance of defeating Slice lied in exploiting his lack of grappling experience, and he did his best to capitalize. As soon as the bell rang, Shamrock shot for a double-leg takedown. While Slice would defend, Shamrock continued to apply pressure with his wrestling, eventually upending him with a strong single.
The Baddest Man on the Planet immediately took advantage, advancing position, taking Slice’s back and sinking in a deep, deep rear-naked choke. While a tap seemed imminent, Shamrock just couldn’t seal the deal and was forced to let go.
Slice would muscle his way back to his feat, and landed a hard uppercut during the scramble. The punch staggered Shamrock, and Slice would follow up with a hellacious series of right hands. A devastating straight landed hard to Shamrock’s eye and dropped him into the corner of the cage. When Slice moved in for some ground-and-pound, referee John McCarthy would wave the fight to a close.
It is a disappointing turn for fans of the MMA legend. Shamrock’s rear-naked choke looked airtight to the point where it felt strange that Slice was able to escape, and more than a few folks (some famous) on Twitter questioned the legitimacy of the fight.
Kimbo emphatic with his feelings on facing Petruzelli again – NO #Bellator138
Where Shamrock goes from here is tough to call and will likely hinge on Bellator 138’s ratings and the availability of worthwhile opponents. Slice, however, stated at the post-fight press conference that he intends to return to the cage, and there are a slew of interesting options for him in Bellator.
So what say you, fans? Do you want to see either man return to the cage? Who would you like to see them face?
It was either going to be quick, or it was going to be bad.
Those were about the only two options on Friday night, when Bellator MMA dusted off 51-year-old Ken Shamrock to fight 41-year-old Kimbo Slice in a nationally televised main event bout.
Luckily…
It was either going to be quick, or it was going to be bad.
Those were about the only two options on Friday night, when Bellator MMA dusted off 51-year-old Ken Shamrock to fight 41-year-old Kimbo Slice in a nationally televised main event bout.
Luckily for nearly everyone involved—with the notable exception of Shamrock—it was the former.
Slice saw to that, surviving a deep rear naked choke attempt and flattening Shamrock with a winging right hand in just two minutes, 21 seconds. Along the way, Bellator MMA pulled off the unthinkable, squeezing a halfway entertaining fight out of two middle-aged men who had not competed in MMA since 2010.
From the moment Bellator CEO Scott Coker announced this unlikely do-over—an effort to finally get Slice and Shamrock in the cage after the idea failed so miserably for EliteXC back in 2008—we all knew what was up. Coker was running a very short con, cashing-in on the legend and booking a meeting between a pair of over-the-hill guys who a lifetime ago had individually appeared in the No. 1-2 rated fights in MMA history.
It was not a new strategy. Promoters of all stripes have been opting for similar ploys for generations. Even if the bearded lady’s whiskers are just glued on, the attraction gets customers through the door. Once they’re there, maybe they’ll buy a soda pop and a ball of caramel corn.
In this case, the soda pop for Bellator was featherweight champion Patrício Freire, who scored an amazing come-from-behind KO win over Daniel Weichel in the evening’s co-main event. The caramel corn was lightweight Michael Chandler, who snapped a three-fight losing skid by rolling over Derek Campos in the first televised bout of the fight.
Even if Slice and Shamrock weren’t expected to turn in a good fight—and, believe me, they weren’t—Bellator was hoping name recognition and curiosity would get people to tune it. Once they were there, the fight company hoped they’d be impressed by guys like Freire and Chandler. Maybe impressed enough to come back.
While ratings numbers likely won’t be known for a few days, the fighters clearly did their part. Friere’s win was complete insanity, and Chandler looked great dismantling Campos. Bellator also got good performances from heavyweight Bobby Lashley and featherweight Daniel Straus, and made sure to plug Tito Ortiz’s upcoming shot at the light heavyweight title, too.
The organization also pulled out all the stops production-wise. Bellator’s new stage set, adorned with a series of enormous HD video screens, continues to look wonderful on TV. Each of its marquee fighters got his own, stylized entrance and it even had Road Warrior Animal—one half of the legendary pro wrestling tag team the Legion of Doom—accompany Shamrock to the cage.
It all made for a circus atmosphere. At the end of all the ballyhoo, however, a sort of interesting thing happened.
Slice and Shamrock didn’t completely disappoint.
Now this was a surprise. Prior to his own half-decade long absence from the sport, Shamrock had finished 4-10. Slice (real name: Kevin Ferguson) ended on a 1-2 skid in the UFC around the same time. Ken duffed through the prefight workouts his own manager posted on YouTube. Kimbo kept his shirt on at the weigh-ins.
Even as we all readily admitted that we would watch—and watch gleefully—as the two old warhorses rode back into battle, we kind of hated ourselves for it.
Theirs didn’t quite shape up as a freak show fight, but it certainly tested the limits of what a state athletic commission should sanction. Shamrock weighed in beneath the light heavyweight limit at 204.4 pounds on Thursday, looking tanned and half-crazy, as ripped as we’ve ever seen him, with his goofy Wolverine sideburns died jet black. Slice tipped the scales at 232—arms notably less defined than before, his middle noticeably softer.
But once they got out there, they at least turned in some decent action.
Shamrock clearly wanted nothing to do with Slice on the feet. He shot for takedowns from the opening bell and clung tightly to the once-feared street brawler in the clinch. When he succeeded in landing a ponderous double leg just over a minute into the fight, many probably thought the end was near for Slice.
It almost was. Shamrock locked up what looked like a fairly tight choke and the fighters spent the next 50 seconds in that position on the mat. Somehow, though, Shamrock couldn’t finish and Slice eventually worked his way free.
As the two scrambled to their feet, Slice scored with an uppercut and then a series of slinging rights. When Slice landed the final thudding punch to the middle of his face, Shamrock fell back against the base of the fence, looking very much like a 50-year-old man who’d just been separated from his wits. Referee John McCarthy stepped in immediately to call it off.
It all seemed to happen just in time. Shamrock’s takedowns had not looked good and Slice’s inability to ward them off was even worse. Had things gone on much longer, it seems likely both men’s inadequacies would have come glaringly to the surface.
But they didn’t. It was mercifully short and sweet and nobody seemed to get seriously injured.
Because of Slice’s thunderous right and McCarthy’s on-the-spot awareness, we got in and out of this fight just in the nick of time.
Whether or not this event on the whole will constitute a big win for Bellator will likely have to wait until the TV numbers come in. Fans, however, seemed to see just enough to get their fill.
Katie Nolan is a rising star in the sports world. The host of Fox Sports 1’s “Garbage Time” offers a humorous look at sports on a weekly basis, and has one of the best Twitter profiles in all of sports. Bellator 138 hit her radar with the m…
Katie Nolan is a rising star in the sports world. The host of Fox Sports 1’s “Garbage Time” offers a humorous look at sports on a weekly basis, and has one of the best Twitter profiles in all of sports. Bellator 138 hit her radar with the main event of Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock.
The under-the-big-top style main event had wide appeal because of its circus nature, and the potential comedy surrounding the outcomes most certainly grabbed Nolan’s attention.
Before the fight even started she was on top of her game. Nolan called Shamrock “Sean Penn”, and suggested Bellator was being filmed as a local VFW. Her pre-fight tweets showcase her comedic talents even with an event with little to no consequence.
Slice would defeat Shamrock by TKO in just 2:22. This quick result most certainly caught Nolan’s eye and it was reflected in her instant commentary.
Nolan initially called it a UFC fight, but promptly corrected herself. She noted Bellator was a “weird creepy uncle” of the UFC. Honestly, it is not really that bad of an analogy if you are seeking one to explain Bellator to a friend. Nolan’s comedic touch only sharpened the edge for her opinion that this fight was a little fishy.
The “Garbage Time” host continued on post-fight to take a jab at Shamrock, and both fighter’s recent records.
To add to the comedy, the Twitter reactions of some Bellator fans in response to Nolan offered even more comedy surrounding the strange night of MMA action. Nolan was quick to respond to the criticism. The Fox Sports 1 host is continually a winner in the realm of social media, and Saturday night was no exception.
Given the fighters involved, their respective ages and recent results it is difficult to suggest that the fight was actual a work. However, I don’t believe it is that big of a leap for anyone to make – especially from an outside perspective. It was not a high-level bout in the slightest, and was most likely disappointing for a lot of viewers who tuned into the freakshow.
Nolan’s tweets were in good fun, but probably echo the thoughts of quite a few out in the sports world. It is what adds to the weight of her comedic tweets. There may be a sliver of truth behind it. The 140-character musing struck a chord with some fans, and made others chortle with pleasure. If anything can be taken away from the night it is that her tweets show that Bellator’s circus booking of Shamrock-Slice worked in generating widespread interest.
A little more than a month ago, my colleague Jonathan Snowden and I visited Ken Shamrock in San Diego.
Jonathan was there to work on a story about Shamrock’s preparations for his bout with Kimbo Slice. I was there mostly because I was curious. We’d hea…
A little more than a month ago, my colleague Jonathan Snowden and I visited Ken Shamrock in San Diego.
Jonathan was there to work on a story about Shamrock’s preparations for his bout with Kimbo Slice. I was there mostly because I was curious. We’d heard he was living in a motorhome behind a gym (by choice, not because of monetary issues), and I guess I wanted to see it for myself.
Because if the idea of Shamrock facing Slice struck you as a little bit ridiculous—and it probably did, and it’s OK if that’s the case—then the notion of one of MMA‘s living legends living a spartan existence with no running water while preparing for a fight against a man most famous for his backyard brawls on YouTube?
Let’s just say that I had to see it to believe it.
We attended a San Diego Padres game with Shamrock and his family. The thing that stuck with me from that day was this: Ken Shamrock is 51 years old, and he is in better shape than I’ll ever be. He isn’t just in great shape for a 51-year-old; he’s in great shape for a person, period. For a human.
Shamrock is 51 years old, and he is doing things men half his age don’t do. And that’s amazing.
But what he shouldn’t be doing is fighting. Not anymore.
Shamrock vs. Slice—the fight we all allegedly waited seven years for—is in the books. It was the perfect endcap to a night of spectacle and ridiculousness, which Bellator (under Scott Coker) is beginning to specialize in. Shamrock, escorted to the cage by the remaining living member of the Legion of Doom, milked every bit of the pro wrestling drama he learned during his days with Vince McMahon’s circus troupe.
And, in the end, the fight resembled a well-booked pro wrestling match. Shamrock started out grappling, taking Slice down easily. He secured a rear-naked choke, of sorts; it looked more like a sleeper hold of pro wrestling fame than an actual rear-naked choke, which begs the question: Did Shamrock, after decades of grappling, forget how to execute a submission hold on a man who is absolutely hapless in the grappling department?
For a few fleeting seconds, it looked like Shamrock would actually get the job done. Slice nearly tapped, or at least appeared to be on the verge of doing so. Announcer Jimmy Smith even screamed that Slice was out, only for Slice to immediately demonstrate that he was not, in fact, out.
And then Slice fought out of the rear-naked choke, stood on his feet and punched Shamrock in the face. And Shamrock, because he is 51 years old and has a chin long past the point of expiration, crumbled immediately.
It was the end, mercifully. Nobody was hurt, and that’s a win.
And we can only hope it was truly the end, though something tells me it won’t be.
Shamrock has been knocked out eight times over the past decade, first by Rich Franklin back in 2005. He has been knocked out by Tito Ortiz and Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry and Mike Bourke and, at some point along the way, his chin vanished. It is gone.
But that is to be expected from a 51-year-old man who has spent a lifetime in combat sports.
There is no shame in it. Fifty-one-year-old men don’t fight each other in cages; 51-year-old men train others to fight in cages, or they play with their children and grandchildren.
And so here’s to hoping Shamrock, legend that he is, finds his way out of the cage for the last time and settles into something a little less violent.
He is deserving of that role, and it’s difficult to imagine him not finding such a place, if only he’ll take a step back to a place where punches are not being thrown.
Describing the atmosphere of a Bellator weigh-in — especially one headlined by the freakiest freakshow fight this side of Kinnikuman vs. Bob Sapp — is a difficult thing to do on paper. The energy is not quite as high as at the typically UFC event (well, a pay-per-view, anyway) and the loudest bouts of applause from the half-filled floor seating generally are oft reserved for the bevy of local fighters competing on the evening’s undercard. There is a distinct lack of frills at a Bellator event, which makes sense given that the promotion is now run under the guidance of Scott “No Nonsense” Coker.
At yesterday afternoon’s Bellator 138: Unfinished Business weigh-ins, which took place at the Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis, the atmosphere was similarly underwhelming for a card that features the likes of Patricky Pitbull, Daniel Straus, and Michael Chandler to name a few. It was the featherweight champion who made the biggest impact, however, both on and off the scale. After missing weight on his first try, Pitbull frustratingly addressed the media about being the co-main event to a couple of fighters he felt “sorry for” before openly admitting that he would NOT be watching their fight. Talk about a company man, amiright?
Describing the atmosphere of a Bellator weigh-in — especially one headlined by the freakiest freakshow fight this side of Kinnikuman vs. Bob Sapp – is a difficult thing to do on paper. The energy is not quite as high as at the typically UFC event (well, a pay-per-view, anyway) and the loudest bouts of applause from the half-filled floor seating generally are oft reserved for the bevy of local fighters competing on the evening’s undercard. There is a distinct lack of frills at a Bellator event, which makes sense given that the promotion is now run under the guidance of Scott “No Nonsense” Coker.
At yesterday afternoon’s Bellator 138: Unfinished Business weigh-ins, which took place at the Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis, the atmosphere was similarly underwhelming for a card that features the likes of Patricky Pitbull, Daniel Straus, and Michael Chandler to name a few. It was the featherweight champion who made the biggest impact, however, both on and off the scale. After missing weight on his first try, Pitbull frustratingly addressed the media about being the co-main event to a couple of fighters he felt “sorry for” before openly admitting that he would NOT be watching their fight. Talk about a company man, amiright?
Patricky would make weight on his second try, which is more than you could say for undercard fighters Chris Heatherly and Matt Helm, who both showed up heavy for their respective fights with Garrett Gross and Rashard Lovelace.
But onto the reason why we’re all here: The main event. We’d been lucky enough to steal some timewith Ken Shamrock recently, who at 51-years-old appears to be in some of the best shape of his life (thanks to genetics and hard work, of course). On top of that, his recent interviews have painted him as a honest, humbled, and most importantly, reinvigorated man with a renewed passion to end his career on a high note. The “World’s Most Dangerous Spray Tan” he was rocking at yesterday’s weigh-ins, on the other hand…
Oooh boy.
As for Slice, well, what is there to say, really? The man showed up sporting a Dude Wipes sponsorship across his backside — which, if there has ever been a product that epitomizes this fight, it’s freaking Dude Wipes.
Other than that, it appears that Slice has developed a little bit of a paunch since we last saw him, but has not lost one bit of pep in that excellent beard. (I swear, I saw a small squirrel poking out of it at one point. A squirrel with a switchblade.)
All joking aside, this card is loaded with great fighters and should make for an action packed night of fights. Former champion Daniel Straus looks to get back on the road to another title fight as he takes on undefeated Bellator newcomer Henry Corrales. Patricio Pitbull defends his feather weight title against Daniel Weichel, and hometown fight Michael Chandler will square off with 15-4 Derek Campos. And finally, one lucky fan may get to take home the head of last minute replacement Dan Charles after Bobby Lastly knocks it into the 17th row.
A full video of the Bellator 138 weigh-ins is below along with a full list of results.
Main card (Spike at 9 p.m. ET)
Kimbo Slice (232) vs. Ken Shamrock (204.4)
Patricio Freire (144.9) vs. Daniel Weichel (144.5)
Bobby Lashley (239) vs. Dan Charles (228)
Daniel Straus (144.4) vs. Henry Corrales (144.9)
Michael Chandler (155.6) vs. Derek Campos (152.5)
Undercard
Miles McDonald (115.3) vs. Dan O’Connor (115.3)
Justin Lawrence (145.7) vs. Sean Wilson (145.8)
Eric Irvin (155.6) vs. Hugh Pulley (155.2)
Rashard Lovelace (160.6) vs. Matt Helm (164.8)
Kain Royer (184.6) vs. Enrique Watson (185.8)
A.J. Siscoe (135.5) vs. Garrett Mueller (135.6)
Adam Cella (170.3) vs. Kyle Kurtz (171)
Justin Guthrie (170.3) vs. Steven Mann (169.8)
Garrett Gross (155.2) vs. Chris Heatherly (160*)
There’s a unique appeal to MMA. For all the aims of streamlining clothing suppliers and eliminating unseemly sponsors that the UFC has, the sport is bigger than just their aspirations, and it catches eyes for reasons beyond them.One major way tha…
There’s a unique appeal to MMA. For all the aims of streamlining clothing suppliers and eliminating unseemly sponsors that the UFC has, the sport is bigger than just their aspirations, and it catches eyes for reasons beyond them.
One major way that the sport catches eyes is the freakshow fight, the fistic equivalent of watching a man swallow a flaming sword at the county fair. There was a time when the sport embraced the freakshow with more regularity—there may even be an argument that the entire sport in North America was born out of the concept of a freakshow tournament—but it’s grown infrequent in recent years.
Sure, the UFC offered up Anderson Silva and Nick Diaz this year, but that was more fun than freakish. Prior to that bout, the last UFC freakshow was probably Randy Couture’s destruction of James Toney at UFC 118.
In the present age of MMA, where FOX Sports largely rules the day and promotions outside of the UFC have been smothered into irrelevancy, a good freakshow is hard to come by.
Or at least it was, until now.
Bellator 138 will see the first proper freakshow fight in years on Friday night, when 51-year-old veteran of UFC 1 Ken Shamrock will enter the cage against 41-year-old YouTube sensation and veteran porn security kingpin Kimbo Slice.
Neither man has had an MMA bout since 2010. The world has been waiting that long to see them return. That’s a tongue-in-cheek proclamation, but only slightly. There’s an odd appeal to each guy, a charisma sadly lacking in the vast majority of the sport these days.
Shamrock is an absurdity even by fight game standards, stomping around promising to beat grown men into “a living death” while operating training camp for his triumphant return from the confines of a motor home parked at a mini-mall.
In the time since the world last saw him, he kind of reunited with his estranged half-brother, signed on for a pikey boxing match, found God and circled back to MMA by signing with Bellator. This return bout is a rebooking of a fight that was called off in 2008 due to an injury on the eve of an EliteXC event, an injury that essentially sunk that promotion outright.
And the return comes against Slice, whom Shamrock hates with an enthusiasm usually reserved for religious zealots and hungry animals closing out a hunt. His story has been told so many times it’s become lore: He was the baddest dude on the streets of Florida, beating up men in backyards for years until someone started to tape him doing it. He proved he was good enough at it to make it in MMA to the tune of a 4-2 record, and pro boxing at 7-0.
This is, putting it mildly, the exact type of fight that MMA needs.
Too often now the sport is obsessed with rankings and the thrust for a title shot or a title itself, largely due to the fact that UFC holds such a sizable chunk of the market share and legitimacy is increasingly becoming their game.
Bellator, under the shrewd guidance of former Strikeforce boss Scott Coker, is actively going in a different direction. Accepting the occasional carnival showcase and the appeal that such a showcase has with fans, Coker is looking to get as many eyes as he can with fun fights in hopes of those eyes seeing the legitimate talent he has in the fold as well.
It’s a brilliant strategy, but one that’s built on a simple premise unique to MMA: Freakshows sell.
No other sport can claim that as a time-tested, proven reality. It would be difficult to get people to pay $60 to watch the retirees of the 1999 St. Louis Rams play some second-tier English rugby club in a game of soccer, or to see if John McEnroe could beat Mike Tyson in a game of frisbee golf.
Such offerings are simply too absurd. People who are fans of those sports are not attracted to such insanity.
However, MMA is that insanity. It was founded as that insanity; it evolved with that insanity; it continues to be that insanity.
Ignoring that fact borders on insulting to the fans and athletes who’ve been around since the beginning, while embracing it, even occasionally as Bellator is doing this weekend and has done in the past, serves as a license to print money.
Mixed martial arts is not mainstream. It never will be. One of the biggest benefits of that reality is the capacity to book a total circus attraction as a main event, then sit back smoking a cigar and counting the Benjamins that reward such ingenuity.
Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock is one such circus attraction, one such freakshow. The appeal is undeniable, and the benefit is all Bellator’s to reap.
The Bellator 138 main event between Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock delivered, there’s no doubt about that. What, exactly, did it deliver? Well, that’s up for debate.
