Last Friday’s inevitable showdown between Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock was like watching an episode of Jersey Shore. We all knew it would be a train wreck, but we couldn’t look away.
So we watched as a 51-year-old UFC Hall of Famer stepped into the cage against a 41-year-old street fighter turned MMA fighter. Neither had competed in the last five years.
“The World’s Most Dangerous Man” or “The World’s Oldest Man to Headline a Bellator Event” was ushered into the cage by members of his family and Road Warrior Animal, a professional wrestling legend. Meanwhile, Kimbo entered the cage, jumbo beard and all, with highlights of some of his best backyard knockouts playing on the big screen.
There was definitely excitement in the air, but it wasn’t the kind you’d expect from a major MMA promotion with a legitimate stable of talent. This had the rumblings of a spectacle. It took me back to the days of running through high school corridors alongside my classmates to catch the weekly brawl in the cafeteria.
To put it bluntly, the circus was in town.
Bellator 138 even received a cutesy title to go along with its headliner—“Unfinished Business.” It was a bit ironic considering Slice and Shamrock’s business was finished a long time ago. Shamrock had only won two fights in the last decade, and Kimbo had settled into a career of taking fights against no-named boxers.
Yet there they stood in the center of the cage serving as a headliner for a major MMA event. The bout started with Shamrock shooting in for a takedown and Kimbo falling backwards like a ton of bricks. He immediately transitioned to Kimbo’s back and sunk in the leg hooks, while attempting to slip his arm under Kimbo’s chin for a rear-naked choke.
After grimacing for a few seconds, Kimbo hulked up and manually peeled Shamrock’s arm from his neck, allowing space for an escape. Once he made it back to his feet, Kimbo stalked Shamrock to the cage before dropping him with a thunderous right hand.
And that was all, folks. The bout ended, Kimbo and Shamrock hugged it out and the Scottrade Center in St. Louis emptied. It was the culmination of months of promotional effort behind a pair of non-contenders who might never fight again. Even the Bellator featherweight title fight between Patricio Freire and Daniel Weichel took a backseat to this grudge match.
Many aren’t convinced the fight was real to begin with. Here’s what UFC commentator Joe Rogan had to say about Kimbo’s first-round TKO over Shamrock on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast show:
That fight looked fake as f--k. There’s a couple things I don’t like about that fight. I don’t like that clinch. That long clinch that they had when they were mouth to ear. They were mouth to each other’s ears for a long f-----g time. To me, the whole thing… the entrance looked so suspect because he was shaking everybody’s hand. It didn’t look like he was about to go to a fight. It looked like he was about to go put on a performance.
UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub echoed Rogan’s suspicions during the show:
If you watch Kimbo fight when he was in the UFC, when he was fighting Mitrione and Houston Alexander, that m-----------r’s taking it serious. Now when he fought Ken Shamrock, he’s talking to him in the ring before the entrance. The baddest m-----------r on the Earth really don’t talk like that.
Katie Nolan, the host of Fox Sports 1’s Garbage Time, didn’t hold back when criticizing the Bellator 138 main event, either.
Can't believe Sean Penn is about to fight Kimbo Slice this is crazy
— Katie Nolan (@katienolan) June 20, 2015
This is being filmed at a VFW hall I'm like 92% sure. #Bellator138
— Katie Nolan (@katienolan) June 20, 2015
Congrats, Ken Shamrock. I imagine the money you won with that dive was enough to buy you running water for your trailer.
— Katie Nolan (@katienolan) June 20, 2015
@Hof23 UFC isn't scummy. Staying in to watch a free fight between two 90 year olds is.
— Katie Nolan (@katienolan) June 20, 2015
If the fight was a ruse, Kimbo and Shamrock didn’t put much effort into making it enjoyable enough to warrant a rematch. We’ve seen better performances from WWE’s Eugene. This is where the conspiracy talk nosedives a bit for me.
My expectations are exceptionally low for both fighters during this twilight juncture in their careers. Shamrock, in particular, is in the post-twilight era of his career. Did people actually expect to be wowed in a professional fight between middle-aged men?
We weren’t witnessing Randy Couture or Dan Henderson here.
However, I would be naïve to completely ignore the spectacle-driven hype for this fight. The over-the-top trash-talking, embellished entrances and few punches thrown in the actual fight was a bit fishy.
But in the end, I keep getting brought back to the notion of sanity and professional competition. Shamrock wouldn’t purposely eat a free right hand from Kimbo Slice to throw a fight he’d gone all-in to train for—right?
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He also is the MMA writer for FanRag Sports and co-founder of The MMA Bros.
