Here’s the infamous Kimbo Slice vs Shamrock fight, which some have mislabeled as Kimbo Slice vs Frank Shamrock, but it was obviously against Ken.
This was a very strange fight, which lead to all sorts of accusations of fight fixing. It’s not the first time Bellator would have to fight such allegations, but their marquee freakshow fights definitely helped put them on the map leading up to the UFC’s sale, which has allowed Bellator to further gain ground and invest in more former UFC fighters, ones who are closer to their primes as well.
This fight helped set in motion a changing of the guards, if you will. Granted, Bellator is still miles away from catching up to the UFC, but
Kimbo Slice vs Shamrock
Whether or not you think this fight was fixed, and we can’t comment one way or the other becasue those are some very serious accusations and frankly it looks more like a couple of older fighters getting gassed and maybe at a certain point the will just isn’t as strong as it used to be, but either way – don’t let a failed freakshow fight cloud your judgement of a fighter’s entire career, or of a promotion, because this helped open the door for Bellator to gain some momentum.
One can’t help but wonder if the sale of the UFC for so much money has also helped open up the eyes of Viacom, who own Bellator, to the idea of growing the Bellator brand with added investments. We’ve seen Bellator signing more and more legit UFC fighters, as the UFC seems to focus on promoting fewer and fewer fighters, putting all of their eggs into less baskets, so to speak.
In either case, this fight was actually a significant event in MMA history, even if it was a weird fight.
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