In this week’s Trading Shots, retired UFC and WEC fighter Danny Downes joins MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes to discuss the fallout from Bellator’s big Friday night.
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Downes: Ben, Bellator 149 took place this weekend. There were many fights on the card, but the only two people cared about were Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson vs. Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris and Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie.
Those fights were, let’s just say, less than entertaining. Slice won a sloppy affair and Gracie earned the first TKO of his career under controversial circumstances. After the show wrapped up, many fans, media, and fighters took to their respective platforms to decry the entire event as an embarrassment to the sport.
We could call Bellator 149 a circus, a freak show and a few other things, but is it really that bad?
Fowlkes: Oh, it was bad. That’s not even a question. The question is whether that’s bad, as in, for the sport as a whole.
If you’d asked me 10 years ago, I would have said yes. I would have insisted that messy freak show fights, especially when broadcast live and free on a popular cable TV network, had the potential to do lasting damage to the sport. But these days? I’m not so sure that’s the case.
What I can’t say for sure is whether it’s my attitude toward the sport or my perception of the collective attitude toward the sport that’s changed. Maybe it’s a little of both. Maybe the years have made me less of a purist, and left me more able to appreciate the fact that this sport started as one big martial arts freak show, and those are roots that you don’t outgrow so easily.
But I also think times have changed. A decade ago, being an MMA fan usually also meant being part advocate and part aficionado. You felt like you were constantly defending it, and you were always conscious of the uninitiated, uneducated viewer who might stumble in at the wrong time and get a bad first (and last) impression of the sport. I think that’s less of a concern now, at least in North America.
I think we’re at a point culturally where most potential fans of MMA have seen it enough to form an opinion. I trust the broader audience to understand the difference between the real stuff and the ridiculous stuff.
The same way a disgraceful celebrity boxing match reflects poorly on the participants and not the sport, I think MMA has enough of a legit history that a Slice-5000 fight here or there isn’t going to tear it all down. Or are you going to tell me I have too much faith in the fine-tuned tastes of the American sports fan?
Downes: I see. You’re trying to set it up so that if I disagree with you, I’m somehow insulting the “American sports fan.” I think we all know who’s the man of the people in this column.
I agree with you, but for different reasons. Slice-5000, as you call it, was sloppy, but it wasn’t any sloppier than other heavyweight fights I’ve seen. You had two out of shape heavyweights gas themselves out. Especially when you consider Dada 5000’s hospitalization due to high potassium levels caused by a bad weight cut, it makes even more sense. I don’t know what their respective training camps looked like, but they clearly didn’t do the proper preparation.
Is it a problem to hype a fight that deserved to be on the undercard at a show at the Hammond Civic Center? Absolutely, but that sounds like a problem for Bellator instead of the sport itself.
But is it really a problem for Scott Coker and company? Even in the immediate fallout of the event, people were playing freak show matchmaker and they’re all #wouldwatch fights. Even the elder Fowlkes will tune in to watch what’s next under the circus tent (via Twitter).
So how much of this discussion becomes disingenuous? The same people that want to complain about Bellator can’t wait to watch it. It’s like people who complain about how reality TV is “trash” but record it every night.
Fowlkes: OK, first of all, not any sloppier than other heavyweight fights you’ve seen? That makes me think you’ve seen some terrible, awful things in your days on this planet. Second, I’m glad you brought up Mr. 5000’s post-fight medical problems, because that strikes me as a nearly disastrous reminder that even “fun” fights have consequences.
What Bellator did here was take a guy who is not a real pro fighter and toss him into a situation he wasn’t prepared for. It went badly for him, both in the cage and in the hospital afterward. It could have even killed him. You know why? Because he doesn’t actually do this for a living. He doesn’t know how. And Bellator didn’t particularly seem to care that he didn’t know how, as long as he made it to the church on time.
What if he’d died? Then suddenly a sloppy fight isn’t our biggest problem. Then we might not feel so good about getting together on social media to make fun of hapless fighters.
Garbage TV is one thing, but this is a cage fight, Danny. You bring your garbage in there, and they end up carrying you out on a stretcher. I like stupid fun as much as the next guy, but shouldn’t the health risk aspect of it be something of a wake-up call?
Downes: I understand what you’re saying, but it’s not like Bellator grabbed a guy two weeks ago and told him that he has a fight. Perhaps the whole situation could have been avoided if promoters checked in on the fighters, but how much should we monitor grown adults?
When you sign a contract, you don’t see any officials until you show up for weigh-ins. How do you plan on solving that? Give USADA testers a scale and a set of focus mitts so they can fill out an assessment?
Fowlkes: Just saying, even in “Surviving the Game,” they made Ice-T get on that treadmill to prove he was fit enough to be hunted for sport. But I get it, you’re trying to make the point that it would be absurd to require pro fighters to pass some sort of basic proficiency test. And it would be absurd. Because most pros are pros.
I understand that we want to have some fun with this stuff. Hey, I watched it, and I had something resembling fun, though not the usual kind. I don’t think it damaged the sport, though I think it could damage Bellator’s reputation if this turns out to be the only way for it to get our attention. I also think we should remember that fighting may be a sport, but it is not a game. We want to have fun, but that doesn’t mean we have to be foolish.
For more on Bellator 149, check out the MMA Events section of the site.
Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who also writes for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.
