Bellator Sinks to New Low with Kimbo-Thompson II

The attitude of the Scott Coker regime at Bellator has been clear from day one: ratings are king, so they will make the matches that draw ratings.

With that in mind, it was hardly a shock when Bellator pursued and signed Kimbo Slice in early 2015. Although never a champion in the cage, Slice reigned as the sport’s television champion for a brief but significant two-year period, after which he embarked on a short sideshow boxing career and appeared to retire.

Upon returning to mixed martial arts with Bellator, Slice did exactly what he was brought into do: draw record ratings. His first fight, a main event match with Ken Shamrock, set a new mark as the most-watched bout in Bellator history. His second fight, a grudge match with longtime rival DaDa 5000, set the bar even higher. However, for all of the television success of Slice’s latest bouts, his in-cage performances have been the worst of his career.

At 42, Slice lumbers around the cage with shot knees. In his first run in mixed martial arts from 2007-2010, Slice had arthritis issues in his knees and never moved particularly well, but remnants of his athleticism from a once-promising football career were clear. In his past two fights, any indication that Kimbo was once a great athlete was missing. He’s much more plodding; he tired extremely quickly against DaDa and the tremendous strength that aided him in his first run wasn’t evident. Although he was victorious in both of his Bellator bouts, the promotion scraped the bottom of the barrel for his opponents. Slice found himself in deep waters against Ken Shamrock and DaDa 5000; a slight rise in competition and he’d likely drown.

After the DaDa 5000 fight in February, Slice’s drug test returned positive for the steroid nandrolone and an elevated T/E ratio of 6.4:1. The Texas commission, which is generally regarded as a joke and incompetent, suspended Slice for 90 days for an infraction that could have resulted in a three-year ban in other states.

Older fighters on a steep physical decline are a safety concern; many states have additional testing requirements to license them. Steroids are a safety concern to both the athlete using them and their opponent. In the past year or so, the most influential athletic commissions have moved to strengthen drug testing procedures and stiffen penalties for test failures. The UFC has done the same. As such, in light of his poor performances, failed drug test, and the weak consequence for it, it would be sensible for Bellator to clear Slice with an athletic commission of strong repute before proceeding with his next fight. Predictably, that didn’t happen.

Whereas the promotion took Slice’s last fight to a state with a commission so relaxed that it allowed Antonio Margarito to compete after he was caught loading his gloves, his next fight will be in a location without a commission. On April 18, Scott Coker announced that Slice would return in July – five months after his failed test – against James Thompson in London, England.

When pressed on SportsCenter to justify the bout, Coker gave the same tired response the UFC leaned on for years: “We go by what the athletic commission says.” It’s Bellator’s excuse for choosing ratings over safety. Slice competing for the promotion is one thing, being placed in a fight less than six months testing positive for steroids is another.

Thompson, 37, first met Slice eight years ago in what was at the time the most watched fight on US television in MMA history. He took two rounds from Slice before being wobbled in the third, causing a questionable stoppage. Although past his peak and coming off two bad losses, Thompson still represents the sternest challenge of Slice’s second run in MMA. His last match was a loss to then-45-year-old Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in which he showed up out of shape after a knee injury kept him out of the gym. If healthy, Thompson should be favored to beat Slice.

The fight makes sense. There are few opponents with names or storylines big enough to fight Slice that are also near his caliber in the cage. Thompson fits the mold. Rather, the issue is Bellator’s apparent inability to step back from its ratings-driven mindset to properly handle Slice’s drug test failure. Their eagerness to place him in a fight so quickly, as though the failure never occurred, and book him in another location without strict third-party oversight hurts the promotion’s credibility and makes it look second-rate compared to the UFC’s recent work. If Bellator is aiming to be considered a top-notch promotion along with the UFC, it needs to begin handling itself like one.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.