Beating up old people should be illegal in MMA, sadly it’s still an accepted option for promotions to run out over the hill fighters to fill out a card and to sell a few extra tickets. This weekend Impact FC showcased as their main event Ken Shamrock vs Pedro Rizzo. Ten years ago this would have been a decent fight, but Saturday night’s fight was a sad reminder that once your skills have left you then you are just a punching bag able to take more blows than the average person.

Ken Shamrock has won two fights since 2002 and only four this decade.  One was against a dilapidated Kimo Leopold at UFC 48, and the other was against the recently deceased Ross Clifton who had lost 5 straight before his loss to Shamrock and whose body type resembled Earthquakefrom the WWF circa 1989, also Ken was busted for steroids after this fight.  During this time, Shamrock never got out of the first round. In fact, he had not been out of the first round since his 2002 fight with Tito Ortiz. Usually, he would be overwhelmed by the speed and power of his opponent.

No one wonders why Ken continually stepped into the cage as the answer was directly in our face, he needed the money. Ken and his managers made poor financial choices throughout his career, and today Ken is basically broke. I don’t have a problem with Ken’s desire to continue to fight. That is what a fighter is supposed to do. I have a problem with the continued booking of Ken by any promotion. Every promoter I have ever talked to has mentioned how much they care about the sport and about the fighters involved in it. If this is true, then why do I continually see fighters like Ken stepping back into the ring or cage to fight? I applaud Dana White for standing up against Chuck Liddell fighting again (for now), but I can’t see how he thought he had anything left after the Shogun fight.

I want to remember guys like Ken and Chuck when they were knocking people out and setting themselves apart from the rest of the MMA world. Sadly I am remembering more of Chuck looking up to the sky watching the birdies than him dropping bombs on people, and my son thinks Ken Shamrock is the guy Tito beat up three times. I beg you please stop the pummeling of the legends of our sport.

Big Foot. The Loch Ness Monster. Chupacabra. The punching power of Kimbo Slice. What do all of theses things have in common? If you answered they are all mythical, and that we have no real proof that they exist, than you are correct. Kimbo fans I am sorry to tell you this, but Kimbo is nothing more than a converted street thug with average boxing skills. Don’t get me wrong I like Kevin Ferguson the man. He is a very nice guy who almost no one ever says anything bad about. His appearance on the TUF 10 really opened him up to mainstream America, and we all got to see that he is a genuinely like-able guy.

Now when it comes to his skills in the cage and this vaunted punching power we hear people talk about, that’s where the myth starts to unfold. Quick, off of the top of your head name the professional fighters that Kimbo has knocked out. Times up. If you guessed Tank Abbot, Bo Cantrell and James Thompson then you are correct. Now would anyone say that these were not groomed opponents for Kimbo to KO? Cantrell had lost 4 straight fights 3 of which were by KO, when he decided to stop fighting against Kimbo, and he let himself get punched out. He has not fought since. Tank Abbot had won 1 fight in the past 10 years! That’s right 10 years. James Thompson had lost 2 in a row, and he has lost 2 more since the Kimbo fight. Thompson had been KOed 6 times in the previous 2 years leading up to the Kimbo fight, and yet Kimbo could not KO him. As a matter of fact, if you remember in the 2nd round James should have won the fight as he had Kimbo down and rained down 20 unanswered shots. With these high quality wins, Kimbo nation decided he had crazy power. He had beaten two washed up 40 year olds and a guy notorious for not living up to his potential with a glass chin.

So now we come to the Houston vs Kimbo fight. Sadly this was another fight groomed for Kimbo to KO his much smaller opponent. Houston weighed in at 208 lbs while Kimbo cut to 212. When he entered the cage, it is believed that Kimbo had a 25-30 lb weight advantage over Houston Alexander. Now Houston has been known to have big power in his hands and a weak chin. James Irvin shut him down with one punch in 8 seconds not that long ago. Minus the first round, which resembled a cardio track meet, Kimbo controlled the next two rounds. He also landed his Kimboplex on Houston. A move pulled off not by technique or skill, but by the fact that he simply picked up a much smaller man and threw him down. Kimbo landed many strong punches on Houston, but could not put away his tiny opponent.

Kimbo has made many improvements in the last few years, but he will never beat a top 25 HVWY. He is too slow to beat a top 25 LHVWY. So where does that leave us? We have a very marketable guy who, if it were not for his fan base would not be in the UFC. He is too old, too slow, and does not have the power that you think he does. There are many young up and coming guys who deserve the TV time that Kimbo receives. Please put away the beer goggles that you watch Kimbo through and see him for who he really is. A super nice guy that came around too late in life. Face it, he’s not the fighter that we built him up to be.