There is a rumor running wild about the possibilities of a potential match (boxing or MMA)¬between MMA media sensation and YouTube street-fighting legend Kimbo Slice and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.¬ For all intents and purposes such disturbing news remains a rumor and nothing more as the thought of a fight as horrific as this just made me throw up in my mouth.¬ Such a match up does little to advance either sport and in fact would only serve to further¬harm both combative sports in ways that are down right unimaginable.¬ Since the explosion of popularity MMA has enjoyed in the recent years there are those who wish to see what the outcome would be if you pitted an experienced MMA practitioner against an experienced boxer.¬ To that line of thought I ask why.¬ Why would you want to see that and what the hell does it prove?¬ The results are all but a foregone conclusion, a boxer looses badly in an MMA match and an MMA fighter looses bad in a boxing match.¬ Just because both sports incorporate punching does not mean they are related.¬ It would be akin to pitting an NFL team against the World Cup winner.¬ Sure the sports are related in a sense that it is 11-on-11 but the similarities end there.¬ I just get tired of the constant debates on which sport is better.¬ There is room in both sports to welcome fans who love both but for some unknown reason fans are required to pick a side.¬ As for the mythical match-up between Slice and Tyson, I would sooner pour battery acid into my eyes then watch a 42 year old Tyson try to take on Slice in anything other than a menacing scowl contest.¬ What is perhaps most disturbing, other then the obvious, is that Gary Shaw, Slice’s promoter, welcomes¬such an¬idea.¬ In Shaw’s defense he is a promoter and all he see’s is an easy win for his star fighter and a mountain of cash in such a farce.¬¬Though it all is a mute point as¬I doubt that Tyson’s handlers would entertain such an offer and I applaud¬such sage advice¬if only because such a spectacle would regress the strides for mainstream acceptance that both sports have been diligently working to achieve in recent years. In Further MMA News Occupying A Boxing Blog….. Boxing has always been a passion for me but I admit to being an MMA fan during the early years of the UFC.¬ Back then the contests came off as a live action version of the popular Street Fighter II videogame of my youth.¬ For example the early stages of UFC would pit a karate guy against a wrestler or a levitating dictator against an electricity generating green hued mutant from Brazil in some convoluted attempt to determine which was the greatest fighting discipline.¬ These days MMA is an organized sport whit fighters who train in all types of styles and money and bragging rights are the prizes.¬ In my days covering the sport of boxing I have come across some local MMA fighters and I have to say that they are just as focused and disciplined as any athlete you would meet.¬ At their request I have begun watching more and more MMA in the past couple of months, so much so that I actually penned my first MMA piece for FightHype.com which you can read here.¬ Again, boxing will always remain my first true love and if you think that this post was an extremely long-winded attempt to shamelessly self-promote my work…well you obviously know me very well.
Kimbo Slice Vs. Mike Tyson? Kill Me Now!
Posted by Tim Starks on May 28, 2008 19:09
