The UFC's "Kimbo counter"

The incredible popularity of Kimbo Slice has caught much of the MMA community by surprise, and no one has had less of a clue how to react than the UFC. On one hand, the organization has ‘officially’ ignored Kimbo the same way they ignore everyone else who’s not under contract to Zuffa, LLC. On the other hand, they’ve taken a number of ‘informal’ steps to discredit or otherwise counter the Kimbo phenomenon. Dana White has dismissed Kimbo in several news conferences, suggesting at various times that Slice could be beaten by any UFC heavyweight, lightweight champion BJ Penn or even the UFC president himself. Unfortunately, Dana’s frequent dismissal of fighters when questioned publically about them—such as his observation that ‘no one cares about Josh Barnett’ despite the fact that “The Baby Faced Assassin� is on a short list of the best heavyweights in the world—has undermined the effectiveness of this tactic. 

Individual fighters have also ‘called out’ Kimbo including Chuck Liddell and Jake Shields. Whether or not this was done under orders from Zuffa isn’t known, but its not any more effective than Dana’s press conference name calling. It makes the fighters look petty, jealous and immature. Liddell is a legitimate legend in the sport and Shields is a fine fighter, but they’re basically ‘preaching to the converted’ with their comments about Kimbo—knowledgeable MMA fans already know of his limitations while those riding the bandwagon could care less what other fighters think. More problematically, with many of the ‘newcomers’ that Kimbo is bringing into the sport the tactic of undermining Kimbo is counterproductive and just helps to increase his ‘anti-hero’ appeal. 

The UFC’s strategy of ‘ignore and discredit’ may be correct on one level as Kimbo still has a lot to prove before he can be considered among the sport’s elite heavyweights. The problem is that he knows this fact and will admit as much publically. Kimbo certainly can’t be accused of not taking his training seriously—that’s evident by his appearance alone. During his ‘street fighting’ days Kimbo was a big, rugged 280 pounder who was muscular but not particularly toned. For his most recent EliteXC fight, Kimbo weighed in at 230 pounds and looks very lean and cut with clearly defined abs where his gut used to be. Furthermore, while Kimbo is something of an easy target the man who trains him—Bas Rutten—is a legitimate legend in the sport and someone whose knowledge, experience and ability is without peer. Rutten has had nothing but glowing praise for Kimbo’s potential and work ethic. The risk for the UFC is that while they’re portraying Kimbo as a dilettante with little experience or training much of the public sees him as a guy from a unique background who got a big opportunity and is trying to make the most of it. 

The bigger problem for the UFC isn’t the perception of Kimbo among their current fanbase (many of whom consider MMA and UFC one and the same and don’t follow other promotions) or hardcore MMA fans but of the new fans that he’s bringing into the sport. Many of these are young African-American males who for whatever reason have been severely underrepresented in the MMA fan demographic. They respond to Kimbo’s ‘street cred’, his tough persona, and his counter culture background. The long term viability of EliteXC is still up in the air, but its obviously a plus for UFC should these ‘Kimbo fans’ become ‘MMA fans’. It’s a fallacy, however, to just assume that this will just happen organically. Boxing really missed the boat during the height of Mike Tyson’s popularity by not making a proactive effort at converting fans of “Iron Mike� into fans of the sport.  In the short term, the UFC has little benefit in marginalizing Kimbo and in the long run it may be counterproductive. On one level, its sending a message to newcomers riding the Kimbo Slice bandwagon that the UFC isn’t interested in them which isn’t a good thing to do to a potentially large and until now untapped market segment.

So if the UFC can’t benefit by denigrating Kimbo and his abilities what can they do? Simple—they offer an alternative to Kimbo. They need to find a big, tough powerful looking African-American fighter. He should have ‘street cred’ but also be an accomplished fighter. He should be intelligent, articulate, able to think on his feet, have a good sense of humor and a quick wit and be a compelling and entertaining interview subject. He should also have an ‘over the top’ personality, a ton of charisma and superstar ‘presence’. Quite a tall order, but a fighter like that would offer much the same appeal as Kimbo but with the added upside of superior fighting talent. So where would the UFC find someone like that?

He’s sitting on top of the light heavyweight division in the person of current champion Quinton “Rampage� Jackson. Jackson may be the most underutilized resource in the entire promotion (with the possible exception of Clay Guida). While he’s never done security for a porno company like Kimbo, he’s got a similar tough guy persona and ‘over the top’ image (unless you consider wearing a big chain around your neck and howling during your ring entrances subtle). He’s arguably the best interview and funniest fighter in the sport. He always comes off as intelligent, quick witted and likable during his media appearances (like this recent appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show). He’s also a great role model—a ‘born again’ Christian who works hard and walks the straight and narrow. For example, “Rampage� did some guest vocals on some rap CD’s earlier in his career that were rife with explicit lyrics and he now disassociates himself from these and has suggested that he’d like to re-record the tracks.

“Rampage� would be an easy sell to the new “Kimbo� fans and would be a good ambassador to the relatively untapped African American demographic. Most significantly, he could be positioned as a ‘value added’ Kimbo since Jackson’s professional fighting credentials are beyond reproach. He’s the de facto undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world, having defeated UFC champion Chuck Liddell and PRIDE champion Dan Henderson in back to back fights. He’s also fought a who’s who of the sport all over the world including Wanderlei Silva, “Shogun� and “Ninja� Rua, Murillo Bustamante, Matt Lindland and Kevin Randleman.  

Making this even more attractive is that he’d just have to be himself. He’s got charisma and ‘star power’ to spare. The UFC needs to give him more media visibility beyond his role on “The Ultimate Fighter� and just “let Rampage be Rampage�. When asked about Kimbo Slice the party line should be that he’s an ‘interesting story’ and do nothing to insult him, ‘call him out’ or otherwise denigrate his abilities. That only serves to make him more attractive to his “bandwagon� fans, much like parental warning stickers only make rap and metal CDs sell better. If Kimbo starts to mouth off (which he’s not shown a tendency to do so far) let ‘Rampage’ respond. He can take the high road as well, but can also retalitate in kind with challenges and taunts if necessary. Its one thing to suggest that lightweight champion BJ Penn could beat Kimbo—that’ll just make him mad and makes the UFC look petty. It’s another thing entirely for the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world to challenge him—Kimbo wants no part of ‘Rampage’ at this point in his career.

Taking the high road with regards to Kimbo while pushing “Rampage� as an ‘alternative’ would be easy and effective. It would be a “win/win� situation for both the UFC and Quinton Jackson. “Rampage� would get the higher mainstream media profile that he deserves as one of the UFC’s best fighters and most compelling and charismatic personalities. The UFC will not only help convert the new “Kimbo bandwagon� fans into MMA fans, but will also get them interested in the UFC. That not only benefits Zuffa’s bottom line, but the sport as the whole.