FACEBOOK TWITTER RSS APP PODCAST Opinion & Analysis : Keller's Take KELLER: Kimbo Slice in TUF - the pros, cons, possible manipulations, poll results analysis, bright side, and more

Jun 2, 2009 - 6:50:26 PM
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
I must admit I was, for selfish reasons, happy to see Kimbo Slice join the TUF 10 cast. I knew it'd give all us who write about MMA a hot debate topic. So far it hasn't disappointed.

However, what is clear from early results in our online poll is that you are by a wide majority very in favor of the move by Dana White and Kimbo.

In fact, 84 percent of voters so far are in favor it, with three out of four of those voting "great idea" compared to one-fourth saying "good idea." Only 16 percent say it's either a "bad idea" or a "terrible idea."

Let's put it this way. If Kimbo was ever going to be in UFC, this was the only route that makes sense given what Dana White has said about him the past. White will either be proven right because Kimbo will lose quickly against other aspiring heavyweights. Or he'll win, in which case White can either attribute it to relatively weak competition or credit his trainers for bringing him along quickly.

If Kimbo is serious about being a professional MMA fighter, how long are some fans justified in holding it against him that he was a YouTube sensation who was shot to the top before his time? If he's willing to join TUF 10 and risk his doubters being proven right in exchange for the chance to prove them wrong and work his way back into a high-profile MMA fight position on a UFC PPV, credit goes out to him.

By the way, I'm skeptical that he's going to get the same pay as anyone else on TUF 10. I wouldn't assume anything either way, as it's possible he's willing to start at the bottom with no special treatment, but it's also possible he needed a "signing bonus" off the athletic commission records to appear on the show.

Either way, it should be a shot in the arm to the show. The worst case scenario for purists who think giving Kimbo this spotlight is a terrible idea is that if he loses his first fight (which those who despise him likely assume will happen), but in the process brings new viewers to TUF who are exposed to a potential heavyweight star of the future.

If UFC manipulates who his opponent is, it'll be interesting if they set him up with an easy first win and then the toughest match-up in the second fight to extend his stay but prove he's not worthy by mid-season. Or do they set him up with a tough fight right away to really test him so he has earn his way into the late weeks of the show? Or do they do the opposite and feed him the weakest talent possible in the first two rounds so that when he faces tougher competition, by then he's had the most training possible so that he might make it to the finals and score Spike TV a monster rating for the TUF finale?

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Wade Keller is the MMATorch supervising editor and founder. He has covered UFC since UFC 1 for the Torch Newsletter. He is a double-black-stripe belt in karate and has trained in judo and jiu jitsu at the North Star Martial Arts Academy in Minnesota.

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