The Underrated Impact of Kimbo and the way he will always be GOAT

Mind Mine said:
I will keep it short and sweet because it is a bittersweet topic. Kimbo accomplished more outside of mma in bringing attention towards mma and how he might fair than any human EVER and there will never be another. There aren’t any mma fighters that can shift general public focus to mma as Kimbo did. Perhaps you can claim Mcgregor but that’s about it. By creating the great debate of how would this streetfighter do against pros, millions if not billions of dollars were made. Kimbo Slice is a household name today. MMA fans put their every bit of energy in trying to invalidate Kimbo as a fraud. They never got their wish. What they got was an old fighter who was far to old to become elite . He had many holes in his mma. At the end of it all he was still Kimbo Slice MMA FIGHTER. LEGEND.

The greatest force outside of mma that brought the world’s attention to mma. Kimbo is GOAT in that regard. If I’m wrong name anyone outside of mma that had a greater impact on mma viewership? I’ll wait.
Click to expand...


The final question has been made so that Kimbo is kind of the only answer. But to me this question is kind of dumb. Here why in short.

First becaue mma has not always been within the set of rules we know of now. So whatever the set of rules Kimbo fought under, it was mma just like early Vale Tudo was. So if Kimbo is another mma fighter, then your whole thing falls appart.


Or if we carry on with your point, then guys like Mirko Cro Cop should be considered because he comes from K1, Sakuraba comes from Pro Wrestling, Dan Henderson was a Greco Roman Olympian, what about the BJJ guys… some of the names we could gather then had definitely more impact.

Second, let's imagine how relevant this question is in other fields. Let's try: who is the person who had the greater impact on tennis while being outside of tennis? I guess most would say "I have no ideas", It feels it would be hard to come up with interesting names and I doubt their impact would be anywhere near what actual tennis player had.

That leads us to my last point. What do you mean by GOAT? To be the greatest means you've had to exceed most/all others athletes achievements within the field you’re talking about. So I guess he is either a GOAT in a one name ballot, in another words both the GOAT and Worst in his own stuff. Or, we can broaden “this stuff” to anybody who came from a different sport/discipline, and then again, it would be easy to find names who had more impact.
 
His street fighting clips on Youtube back in 2000 or so actually got me into watching UFC and boxing. Hadnt really paid attention to it before that point.
 
Elite XC and Kimbo got me into MMA. Without Kimbo I wouldn't be on these forums.
 
Mind Mine said:
Fighters lose fighters win. Kimbo’s defeat was no more humiliating than Fedor getting face down ass upped by Hendo. It doesn’t define his impact
Click to expand...

So funny you said this cause Kimbo and Fedor lost to the same guy.
 
You could make similar arguments for a lot of guys. The pioneers
  • Royce and the Gracies with all their marketing early and getting BJJ schools to open everywhere (though they wanted it called Gracie Jiu Jitsu instead)
  • Ken Shamrock, the second most-known fighter after Royce in the early days, who went on Larry King's show and debated John McCain on the sport when it was new and very controversial
  • Tank Abbott, the original heel who was on the show "Friends" when it was massively popular
  • The TUF revival of the UFC, especially Forrest and Bonnar and their brawl
  • Lesnar, who brought a lot of attention and a new market around the same time as Kimbo
  • Connor
I don't think Kimbo did any more to bring attention to the sport than these guys. He just brought his own niche over.
 
Mind Mine said:
I will keep it short and sweet because it is a bittersweet topic. Kimbo accomplished more outside of mma in bringing attention towards mma and how he might fair than any human EVER and there will never be another. There aren’t any mma fighters that can shift general public focus to mma as Kimbo did. Perhaps you can claim Mcgregor but that’s about it. By creating the great debate of how would this streetfighter do against pros, millions if not billions of dollars were made. Kimbo Slice is a household name today. MMA fans put their every bit of energy in trying to invalidate Kimbo as a fraud. They never got their wish. What they got was an old fighter who was far to old to become elite . He had many holes in his mma. At the end of it all he was still Kimbo Slice MMA FIGHTER. LEGEND.

The greatest force outside of mma that brought the world’s attention to mma. Kimbo is GOAT in that regard. If I’m wrong name anyone outside of mma that had a greater impact on mma viewership? I’ll wait.
Click to expand...
he had so many holes it was barely MMA
 
  • Like
Reactions: mkt
Mind Mine said:
BVery good call now the question is being Brock came first did viewership and attention increase after Kimbo
Click to expand...
ok, by your logic kimbo did it after royce gracie. gracie brought more eyes to MMA before him there were literally almost none in the US
 
Ryoto Machida said:
Lol. Dude got KTFO from a Seth Petruzelli jab.
Click to expand...
LOL, right? Next we're going to here that Kimbo vs. prime Foreman or Lennox Lewis would've been a great boxing match because Kimbo had legit, unorthodox backyard box-brawling skillz!
 
Mind Mine said:
I will keep it short and sweet because it is a bittersweet topic. Kimbo accomplished more outside of mma in bringing attention towards mma and how he might fair than any human EVER and there will never be another. There aren’t any mma fighters that can shift general public focus to mma as Kimbo did. Perhaps you can claim Mcgregor but that’s about it. By creating the great debate of how would this streetfighter do against pros, millions if not billions of dollars were made. Kimbo Slice is a household name today. MMA fans put their every bit of energy in trying to invalidate Kimbo as a fraud. They never got their wish. What they got was an old fighter who was far to old to become elite . He had many holes in his mma. At the end of it all he was still Kimbo Slice MMA FIGHTER. LEGEND.

The greatest force outside of mma that brought the world’s attention to mma. Kimbo is GOAT in that regard. If I’m wrong name anyone outside of mma that had a greater impact on mma viewership? I’ll wait.
Click to expand...

This may work to prove goat

Kimbo > Houston Alexander > Sokodjou > Matt Hammil > Jon Jones
 
BigOlJeet said:
Kimbo brought actual fight fans, Brock and Conor brought in WWE press conference noobs
Click to expand...
Fans? If he did, they were very short-term. He also brought in the sketchiest, sleaziest entourage to the cage with him that I've ever seen in his early fights. I guess it was the Miami porn-drug mob that he bounced for.
 
Miokink026 said:
What a dumb post.
Click to expand...

This. Kimbo brought a few backyard bareknuckle bums to the UFC and MMA for like 2 years. But other than that, nothing of lasting impact at all. A drop in the MMA bucket really.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mkt
He was fun in and out of the cage but not what you'd call champion material
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,119
Messages
55,468,391
Members
174,786
Latest member
plasterby

Share this page

Back
Top