I saw this headline, laughed and thought well he is finally going to get his ass kicked. Then I saw who he was going to fight:


Who will pass out from exhaustion first?

Notes: Kimbo will face Shamrock on CBS
By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports
Aug 25, 4:56 pm EDT

Buzz Up PrintRelated Video Liddell ready for fight Liddell ready for fight

More MMA Videos Related CoverageBlog: Talk Kimbo-Shamrock More From Dave MeltzerUFC expansion not without risks Aug 22, 2008 Notes: Olympian challenges Fedor; Noons-Diaz off Aug 20, 2008
In a battle of one of the biggest draws in mixed martial arts history against one of today’s most talked-about fighters, 44-year-old Ken Shamrock will be named Kimbo Slice’s opponent in the main event when CBS officially announces the matches for the Oct. 4 network special from the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla.

The official announcement of the complete show, which is also expected to feature Gina Carano vs. Kelly Kobold-Gavin, is slated for Tuesday.

Slice’s (3-0) fame from YouTube videos translated into the most-watched mixed martial arts match ever in North America on May 31, when 6.5 million viewers saw him beat James Thompson on CBS. Shamrock set pay-per-view records during the early days of the sport, and later in comeback matches with Tito Ortiz.

But Shamrock (26-13-2), one of the first superstars of the sport during a stint from 1993-1996, has lost five matches in a row since a win over Kimo Leopoldo four years ago. He was not competitive with Tito Ortiz in two matches in 2006, but the first match drew what is still the second-largest pay-per-view number in MMA history with 775,000 buys after the two were opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter reality show.

Controversy regarding a quick stoppage in the match resulted in a televised rematch on Spike TV that drew 5.9 million viewers. Shamrock, a one-time powerhouse, lost both matches in less than four minutes combined and was easily overpowered by Ortiz.

Since then, Shamrock’s only fight was on March 8, in London, England, when he was knocked out in 3:26 by journeyman Robert “Buzz” Berry.

Elite XC desperately needs ratings success with this show, with just one event after this left on its CBS deal, and coming off poor ratings for the July 26 show.

While Shamrock’s record in the ring hasn’t been impressive after leaving the sport in 1997 to go into pro wrestling for three years, he still poses some danger on the ground. He significantly injured the knees and ankles of Don Frye in a 2002 battle in Japan, and even though he lost quickly to Rich Franklin in 2005, his submission work in the first minute did put Franklin on crutches for a week.

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But he’s been prone to quick knockout losses and a power game that made him a star dating back to UFC 1 in 1993 hasn’t been evident much in the past decade.

Brock-Kongo? While not announced officially, the Lesnar vs. Cheick Kongo match that UFC has been attempting to put together since both won on Aug. 9 in Minneapolis is hopeful, but far from definite for Nov. 15 in Portland, Ore.

The date depends on how quickly Kongo can recover from a nagging shoulder problem.

Kongo will be the best striker Lesnar has ever faced. But Lesnar would go into such a match as a heavy favorite because of the belief Kongo is not going to have an answer for the wrestling ability of the former NCAA champion.

With so many shows to fill and so many name fighters who aren’t going to be ready until December, if Kongo is not ready, it is going to make the card a very difficult sell as a pay-per-view quality lineup. The only name match finalized for that date is Kenny Florian vs. Joe Stevenson.

Frank of all trades: With so much interest being generated by Lesnar regarding pro wrestlers transitioning to MMA, someone is trying to do both, and many other things, all at once.

Frank Trigg, who defeated Olympic judo gold medalist Makoto Takimoto on Sunday in Saitama, Japan, via three-round decision for the Sengoku promotion, is becoming a jack of many trades.

Best known in some circles as the MMA analyst on FOX Sports Net, and by an entirely different group as the expert analyst for the Total Nonstop Action pro wrestling organization on Spike, Trigg also does an Internet MMA audio show and has his own clothing line.

Trigg (17-6) went straight from Japan to Orlando for pro wrestling tapings. He was brought in as an announcer in March when the wrestling company did an MMA-themed storyline. Almost as soon as he got there, he started secretly training to add “pro wrestler” to his resume, and his first match is expected to be imminent.

Those who have done both pro wrestling and MMA probably numbers more than 100, with some of the best known being Lesnar, Ken Shamrock, Don Frye, Mark Coleman, Josh Barnett, Frank Shamrock, Renzo Gracie, Kazushi Sakuraba, Bob Sapp, and Bas Rutten.

Trigg’s double-leg takedowns and overall power were too much for Takimoto, who won the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney at 180 pounds. Takimoto threw him early using his judo, but Trigg’s wrestling controlled most of the match.

Trigg was in the semifinal of a show headlined by Takanori Gomi, the top Japanese lightweight star, who many rank behind only B.J. Penn as the best in the world in the class.

Gomi (29-3, 1 no-contest), the final PRIDE lightweight champion, hardly looked like a rival for Penn in winning a decision over South Korea’s Seung Hwan Bang (5-2) over three rounds.

Sengoku is Japan’s second biggest MMA company, behind only Dream. But both groups are question marks going forward. Sadaharu Tanikawa, who heads Fighting Entertainment Group, the parent company of Dream, has noted that if the company doesn’t get a strong television rating on its Sept. 23 show, its future is in question.

Sengoku is in even worse shape. Sunday’s show drew about 10,000 fans, maybe half-full, to the Saitama Super Arena, but in Japan free tickets are not hard to come by. The group has no television in Japan, and does almost no numbers on pay-per-view, while putting on expensive first-class shows.

Awaiting answers: Why would a fighter turn down what would be, by far, the highest profile fight of his career, against an opponent that he dominated the first time they faced?

K.J. Noons is expected to have a press conference soon to explain the answer to that perplexing question.

Noons dominated Nick Diaz when they fought on Nov. 10 in the match to determine Elite XC’s first lightweight king. Noons’ superior boxing technique wound up with Diaz bleeding badly within a round, and the match was stopped at the end of the first round. After Diaz and Noons both won matches on June 14 in Honolulu on Showtime, the rematch was announced and followed with a mid-ring showdown that aired on Showtime. A rematch between the two has far more interest than any fight Noons could have at this point in his career.


Placed on the Oct. 4 CBS show in Sunrise, Fla., it could easily have 10 times or more as many eyeballs watching than their first meeting. But after an impasse in negotiations, Elite XC has dropped plans for the fight and moved Diaz to a Nov. 8 date on Showtime.

The closest thing to an explanation given by the Noons camp is that they felt Diaz wasn’t the top contender.

The first U.S. Olympian to talk MMA? After placing seventh this past week in the 163-pound weight class, American Ben Askren became the first 2008 Olympian to bring up going into MMA.

“I think there is a good chance I’ll be fighting soon,” said the 2006 and 2007 Dan Hodge Award winner as the best college wrestler in any weight class. Askren said he’s committed to helping coach the University of Missouri wrestling team for two years and would concentrate on improving his jiu-jitsu and kickboxing, feeling he needs to be excellent in two of three categories (wrestling, jiu-jitsu and kickboxing) and at least proficient in the third before he could do really well.

Satoshi Ishii, the Japanese superheavyweight gold medalist in judo, who talked of fighting Fedor Emelianenko after winning the gold, and who Japanese MMA promoters are trying to sign, is sticking with his main sport. Japanese judo officials think, at 21, he has the potential to win gold medals in three Olympics.

From: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=d ... &type=lgns

I lol'd... hard

Kimbo lost his first MMA match on national TV. The only and I mean ONLY thing that got him the win was that guys grapefruit sized cauliflower ear bursting. Up until that point he was losing badly.

Shamrock will destroy him.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

If he takes it more serious than his last fight with Tito where he was so cocky he didn't prepare.

When will the Cuban former Judo Olympian be in MMA?

He would get his ass kicked so bad. But probably pretty soon..

I'd say if Frank Shamrock was fighting, Kimbo may have something to be worried about. Ken is a joke in MMA these days and has been for several years now.

wtf, why would Ken bother when the next generation shamrock is already a seasoned vet?

Screw the shamrocks anyways, get a damn Gracie in there anyday!

I'd have to agree. Ken's too slow to shoot well enough to set Kimbo up for a lock. Kimbo has similar weaknesses as Lesnar, but with .00001% of the wrestling ability, and we saw how Frank Mir exploited them there. The Ken of old would've done the same with Kimbo, but not likely now sadly. The man has earned his payday however, so more power to Ken.

If Ken loses, he can say he took the fight to help the sport. If he wins, he'll just say "I just wanted to show that I still had it". Win/win for him.

Wish they would get over the Kimbo hype already, MMA is selling out fast and looking for like WWE every time i watch it.

I simply and honestly do not get MMA. I remember the hype between Liddell and Rampage about a year/year and a half ago- ESPN had a ton of stuff on it, lots of promos everywhere, even news stations were discussing it. It was everywhere. I decided to give it a go and see what it was all about.

Went to a bar, saw all the matches prior to Liddell-Jackson. Saw a ton of grabbing, a ton of hugging on the ground (I know it is some sort of hold, and that they are not "hugging" per se), and quite a few spots where one guy would be on top of the other guy in a gay sex position and motionless for a minute. Not my cup of tea. I am sure there is some technical stuff going on down there, but to casual joe like me it is a guy on top shoving his crotch in the ass of another guy on all fours.

So finally get to the main event, bar is going semi-crazy. Lots of talk. Fight starts, and I see.... nothing. Rampage standing in the middle, Liddell just jumping in a circle around him. Booooooring. Rampage finally tells him to come fight, and he clocks Liddell within like 20 seconds.

All that hype... all that publicity... for a 20 second punch?

I still don't get it. I still don't get the technical aspects, the holds, the grappling, all that crap. Maybe if I understood why a guy is on all fours and another guy is slamming his crotch in that guy... then I might get it. But I am not into gay sex, so I guess I don't.

I would much rather watch WWE than that. At least WWE is funny, and their storylines are semi-interesting. Plus they don't take themselves seriously- they know they are entertainment, and they come across as such. I just don't want to see Kimbo on all fours getting butt raped by another guy, no thanks!

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You're an idiot.

Haha.

Dude I am not a fan of MMA but these guys dominating doesn't make it any less interesting or entertaining. I'll watch a fight and it's great when they go long but watching a guy go in there and get a guy in a crab lock or something and pummel his head has an irresistible attraction.

You're a fan of football, when you boil that down it's really a bunch of sweaty guys trying to grab each other any way they can and drag them to the ground. You can make gay jokes all you want but I bet you if one of the MMA dudes went up against Donovan McNabb he'd beat the shit out of him.

PS: MMA is real, WWE isn't.

Either my post failed at delivering sarcasm, or some readers fail at detecting sarcasm. Either way...

I know MMA is real. I know WWE is not. I know that two MMA fighters on top of each other are not having gay sex- they are performing some hold, maybe submission, maybe trying to maneuver into a different position that allows them to score some knockout punch or something. I know that WWE is scripted, matches are already pre-determined, etc etc (although you *could* say that about MMA too in rare cases).

My point- I just don't get MMA. I don't get the technical holds. I don't get why the guy lays on top of the other guy on the ground for 100 seconds straight with little to no moving. I don't get 50% of the stuff that happens in the ring. I just don't get it. It is not for me. Doesn't make me an idiot... it means that I don't get the sport, and my post failed to be funny (or you failed to interpret funny).

And yes, I have seen several MMA fights. I remember one of them was non stop action, very little to no ground/mat action, lots of punches, lots of holds that were being counter attacked, and the match went into round 3 before a decision was made. That was an AWESOME fight! However from my personal viewing experience, 95% of fights are action-less holds on the mat with two guys in a position that could appear... nevermind, another failed humor attempt.

If every fight was like the one I described in above paragraph, sign me up. But alas, most are not.

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MMA touts itself as real combat. Outside of the ring, the bulk of any fight between two people ends up either on the ground* (if well matched) or over quickly (if not). The three-round sparring matches? Legendary. As in, you'll hear about them, but never see one.
*This is also why a good number of personal security trainers are adding collegiate wrestling techniques to their instruction set.

Go back to boxing and/or Toughman please and leave the thread. Fact is, it's a chess match that is really quite awesome to see on the ground. Unless it's Anderson Silva or Cro-Cop, I'd rather see a tactical ground match (Jason MacDonald's last "loss" anyone?) ending in a gogoplata or kimura than a quick knockout.

And yes, it makes you an idiot. You're the type of guy Don King gets pvp buys from.

So you are an idiot if you don't understand the technical aspects of a sport? Got it!

Actually, it does not. But you are too incompetent to understand that, so I won't waste my breath trying to explain that to you. Also, I have never spent money on any PPV event... especially in a sport so rigged that it is not even exciting to watch. And I don't care for boxing either, whether it is rigged or not. Football, basketball, hockey, golf... sure. Baseball playoffs due to the drama and suspense... sure. MMA, boxing, NASCAR, soccer... no thanks.

And BTW I am not saying MMA is a crappy sport. Never once said that. I did say that I don't understand it, I don't get it. I tried to get hooked on it, and was so displeased with the performance given that it made me not want to watch it. I guess if I knew what "chess match" was happening on the ground, I would be more inclined to watch. I guess if I knew what a kimura was, I would be more inclined to care. Growing up in Detroit, I never cared much for hockey because I did not understand it for many years. Then one day it was explained to me, and I enjoyed it far more. For a long time as a child, I thought they would just skate around in circles and shoot the puck. Yawn. Then I learned they have offensive sets, they actually have a playbook, and that there was some cohesion to what they were doing... and I got hooked.

Maybe it will happen with me and MMA. But I doubt it since I am not giving it much of a chance /shrug.

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Why do you do this to yourself?

So here's something really interesting about that. YOU are trolling the thread, dipshit, and then get upset when people think you're retarded for not understanding the sport?

If you want things explained, I think most of us here would be happy to explain the full guard, half guard, mount, reversal, kimura, gogoplata, etc to you, and why it makes the ground game exciting.

But as you said, you're not giving it a chance. In that case, get the fuck outta the thread, douche. Lanys cheerleader, indeed.

Thiago Alves vs Diego Sanchez at UFC 90 should be awesome.

This is tonight, for those of you who may have forgotten.

I just read that the Nevada Athletic Commission didn't clear Shamrock to fight due to a cut over his eye or some shit. This true? (I'm at work so I am DVRing it)

yeah, shamrock's out, some nobody is taking his place. Gina Carano is the hottest chick on the planet.

Yea, she's pretty ok.

http://mmajunkie.com/dyn/images/fighter ... wn-big.jpg

"Towel boy" suddenly doesn't sound like a crappy job.

That guy on her right witht eh towel in his mouth is her Dad. Family must be close...

Yeah Ken is out, this isn't even going to be fun to watch...

So far the best fights have been the Cyborg chick and Jake Shields. That was a great arm bar...

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

Hahah over in 14 seconds!!!!!

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
_____
VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

sorry, did I say some nobody? I meant MR Seth Petruzelli

I was going to post something about Kimbo losing this fight to the no-name and screwing everything up, but got sidetracked...

And that's that.

Lots of people getting out of the MMA business this weekend it seems...

what do you mean?

I mean EliteXC and CBS unless they can find someone new to hype.

Love or hate UFC, they have talent depth.

If people were jumping into the MMA business because of Kimbo Slice, then they are more than welcome to leave the MMA business. I don't follow MMA, but even I know that Kimbo Slice is not MMA...

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Y'know, maybe Kimbo could take lessons about staying in a futile fight from CC...

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

that is pretty messed up if it happened like that.

Dana gets tons of shit for the way he talks. Listening to that video makes me like the UFC even more. Almost everyone, except for the people that believe in Pro wrasslin, know some boxing fights are fixed. I think a pretty good argument could be made that pro basketball is fixed to some degree. MMA fighting really needs to be vigilant to stay clear of that crap or their ratings will drop like a rock.

Hopefully this is an isolated incident. The Florida Professional and Business regulatory committee or some shit is investigating ProElite after Petrazulli's comments and have already said if they find any hint of some type of payoff it's going to the Feds.

All Dana and the UFC can do is keep doing it cleaner then anyone else.

Edit: Funny, I just came across this on mmaweekly.

As Jeremy Lappen tells MMA.Fanhouse.com:



They are doing a ton of backpeddling and covering their tracks, so you know they got something to hide.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"