With some convinced of fix in Shamrock vs. Slice, truth likely far less interesting

Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and Ken Shamrock

Can we talk, fight fans? Specifically, can we talk about fixed fights, since we seem to be doing it anyway, albeit somewhat recklessly?

Before Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson even had a chance to catch his breath after his first-round TKO of Ken Shamrock at Bellator 138, the Internet was crying “work!” It seems that the possibility of Shamrock legitimately screwing up a rear-naked choke was simply too far-fetched for people to believe.

More likely, according to many social media enthusiasts, was a fix. Surely Shamrock had thrown the bout, opting to let Slice split his head open with a right hand instead of taking the easy win. That this idea gained such rapid, widespread traction is a testament either to the close relationship between the Internet and conspiracy theories or else a reminder of how seldom we see truly fixed fights in this sport.

Because if you think it’s easy to work a fight and make it look even halfway legitimate, you’re wrong. Over at Fightland, technical analyst Jack Slack has a look at some examples that highlight this fact. The thing you realize once you look through some fights that are known or at least widely accepted as worked bouts is that it’s not as easy to pull off as it sounds.

It’s also not the kind of thing you do for no reason, which is the part that really confuses me about the fix allegations here.

The notion that Shamrock would throw a fight, that’s not so impossible to believe. Same with the bearded one, if we’re being honest. Bellator President Scott Coker would never go for it, but it’s not they’d need his permission. That’s the how, which is easy enough to solve. What’s lacking, however, is the why.

Why fix a fight so that the favorite wins? Why do it in a fashion that makes him look awful for just about every second of the fight, right up until the final blow? For that matter, why fix it in a fashion that involves a 51-year-old man getting his skull smashed by a pretty vicious right hand?

I know we would have been instantly skeptical of a Slice win via gogoplata, but that doesn’t mean that the only alternative was for Shamrock to let a hard-hitting heavyweight have a free crack at his face. There are easier and safer ways to lose, especially at his age.

But even if Shamrock was so committed to his craft here that he was willing to take a concussion just to follow through on his plan, I’m still not seeing the benefit of fixing this fight. Slice was a nearly 3-1 betting favorite, so it’s not as if there was a ton of money to be made by picking him to win.

Of course, if you know how and when the fight will end, you can always cash in with a prop bet. Trouble is, 1) those typically place limitations on how much you can wager, and 2) Slice via first-round knockout seems like one of the most likely, and therefore least profitable, outcomes.

If the plan was to get rich quick via a prop bet, they would have done better to make sure the fight lasted at least two rounds. Odds were almost 3-1 against that happening. If they could have made it the full three, they would have gotten 7-1 odds. Basically, any other outcome would have made them more money with the bookies than the one they chose.

But OK, maybe the motivation wasn’t to cash in with bets. Maybe it was all a complicated ruse to get Slice back in the picture with a knockout win. If that was the case, though, why have him get taken down so easily? Why have him look so lost when the fight hit the mat?

In a lot of ways, Slice’s performance was about as bad as it could have been while still resulting in a win. If Shamrock was willing to let Slice punch him in the face, why wouldn’t he be willing to let him stuff a takedown or two? Why wouldn’t he, I don’t know, maybe suggest that Slice actually defend the choke he improperly applied, rather than just flubbing it on his own?

What’s really surprising is how easy it seems for people to believe the fight was fixed, and how difficult it is for them to think it was just bad. Bad makes so much more sense, when you think about it. Bad is what we should have expected from this fight. If we apply the old Occam’s razor here, it’s the theory that wins out every single time. So why can’t people just accept that?

Maybe it’s because they’re scared of being tricked. They’d rather call it a fix just in case, just so they can say they weren’t fooled if, years from now, Slice or Shamrock admit to working the fight. And if it turns out they’re wrong, well, how would they even know? There’s no way to prove a bout was on the level. You can claim the fix was in until the day you die – with any fight – and you’ll never be forced to admit you were wrong.

Thing is, though, it’s pretty irresponsible, especially when you consider the severity of that charge. Next to loading up your gloves with a foreign object, fixing a fight is one of the worst things you can do as a professional fighter. At least, you know, outside of Japan. It’s the kind of thing that gets people lifetime bans in other sports. It is, as UFC President Dana White might say, “f-cking illegal.”

If we’re going to accuse people of doing that, we need more of a basis for it than this. It can’t just be because two fighters at a combined age of 92 didn’t look great inside the cage. You don’t need a fix to make that happen. If anything, you might need a fix to avoid it.