I won’t be as critical of Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports as many other writers have been in the past, but I’ve wholeheartedly agreed with nearly every single posting I’ve seen on Iole from time to time. He’s been blamed for being a troll in the UFC’s hype machine, a “nuthugger”, and teacher’s pet to Dana White, and for the most part, his writing on the UFC would definitely lead me to believe those claims. People also state he isn’t a real MMA fan or historian, and the list goes on at the number of insults I’ve heard in regular conversation with hardcore MMA fans. I don’t mind his writing, and I’m by far not the best writer in the blogosphere or in any sphere, but I can critique one opinion that he mentions in his mailbag regarding the CBS/EliteXC fight in May:
Question: I feel EliteXC is doing MMA a huge disservice by putting Kimbo Slice as the main event on such an important card. I am a huge Kimbo fan but, lets face it, he is still more of a spectacle at this point in his MMA career. Why not legitimize our sport by featuring a championship bout between two thriving middleweights, Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith? Both men have appeared on UFC cards in the past, both are legitimate MMA fighters, and both appear to be just as marketable to the general public as Kimbo. What’s your take?
Iole: I don’t have a problem putting Kimbo on the card, but I find it horrible he’s in the main event against James Thompson. How CBS would accept Thompson as the opponent in a main event is beyond me. The guy has lost two in a row and six of his last eight. It’s a disgrace that a guy with a record like that would be put into a main event of such a significant card in the sport’s history.
I find it unbelievably ignorant that Iole can’t see why James Thompson is fighting Kimbo Slice as the main event on this card. Yeah, it’s a crap fight to have as a main event when you think of it in terms of quality, but in terms of entertainment, Kimbo Slice is guaranteed to “tee off” on James Thompson’s world famous weak chin. Even if we look at the opposite outcome, James Thompson isn’t going in the cage to submit Kimbo via heel hook or gogoplata. He’ll also be looking for the big knockout. Thompson is also known for his exciting opening round charges that have grabbed the attention of fans everywhere.
Sure, Smith vs. Lawler is the quality matchup we as hardcore fans all want to see, but there is one concept here that many writers are ignorant when analyzing the fanbase. The fanbase isn’t you. If you are writing about MMA on a daily basis, the majority of fans out there have nowhere near the knowledge that you have when talking about these fights. Do you want to see the fanbase that EliteXC is trying to pull in?
Go to a bar on a Friday night in a college town. Sure, fans will watch the fights and likely see a great fight between Smith and Lawler, but if Kimbo flatlines Thompson in the opening :30 seconds of the fight, those same fans sitting at that bar will be talking about that fight the next day and maybe even the next month.
Entertainment will grab viewers’ attention, and a fantastic knockout by Kimbo Slice will only up his drawing power and captivate casual fans to want to see him again. I’m not sure how people don’t “get it”.