"Instead, I watched the boxing match between Jermaine Taylor and Kelly Pavlik, a fight in which cuts were treated, consciousness was encouraged and the only time you considered someone would die was when ''guest judge'' Harold Lederman got a little too excited while giving his round-by-round scoring.

And that's where the hesitation to embrace Slice comes in. It's not in the man himself. It's in the mixed martial arts events where rules and safety are something of an afterthought, and too often referees step in five or six punches after a fighter's brain has clearly surrendered.

Based on accounts from folks actually at the Elite XC event, there were cringe-worthy moments during the undercard where it appeared a fighter's life was seriously at risk.

That alone is enough to keep me from getting caught up in Kimbo."

I'm still not completely understanding the logic behind these comments. Is Gutierrez a boxing fan? Because if he truly was, he would understand one important fact that nearly all fight fans that enjoy both boxing and MMA know. That fact being that there are still more deaths in attributed to the constant pounding to the head that boxers take on a daily basis as opposed to the quick flash knockouts that mixed martial artists potentially take.

Maybe that point has been pushed so far up boxing enthusiast's asses that it really isn't a good argument, but I'll tell the story of a boxing fight that was much more rattling than the Kimbo Slice vs. Tank Abbott matchup. I watched a replay last night of one of the bigger boxing upsets of the year in Donaire vs. Darchiniyan. Donaire stuck Darchiniyan with a hard left fairly early in the fight that sent him down spectacularly, and stopped the bout. The ensuing mayhem in the ring included nearly 10-15 emergency personnel who checked out Darchiniyan, who was unable to get back up for about 5 minutes. Eventually, he was able to leave the ring on his own power and even talk trash after his performance.

What's the point? It happens in both sports. People get hurt, consciousness is lost, and the danger of a fighter losing his life is always there. Instead of acknowledging that fact, Gutierrez sounds as if it won't be happening in boxing, but had a high chance of happening at the MMA fight. In fact, it has a higher chance of happening during a boxing fight due to the sheer amount of blows one takes to the head.

Just cut the damn hate. Sure, there are moments in MMA in which a fighter has clearly lost consciousness and is being hit after the fight is over. The referee has yet to intervene, and people scream bloody murder. Even with those fights happening, there are still boxing fights that I see today in which one fighter is knocked out standing and still being pummeled relentlessly as he falls. MMA is different. A fighter goes down, recovers, and then submits you to make a great comeback win a reality, and the next thing you hear is people screaming in your ear about how stupid it was that you didn't crush the guy while he was down. That's where MMA and boxing differ.

You can stick with boxing, I'll enjoy watching both. Email him your thoughts.