I've about had it with the Shaw’s: "He's the closest I've come to Mike Tyson" – Gary Shaw

Normally, I put a lot more time into my blog entries. I’ll find citations and do a little background research, but I watched something yesterday afternoon and read something today that just got under my skin too much. The fight game is different than other sports. It relies on single events with extended downtime in between that seem to require constructing storylines. In a football, basketball, or baseball season, stories build naturally over the course of a season. Occasionally, there is trash talking and hype. We see the nostalgic hype being built by sports media now, which shows the Lakers-Celtics battles from yester-year. But in these sports where seasons are longer, there’s isn’t as much of a perceived need to fabricate animosity or embellish a competitor’s career – at least not as much.

In the fight game, however, sometimes things are said or confrontations are created that simply detract from what all this really is – sport. MMA is sport, at least that’s what its promoters and athletes are trying to advocate. In sport, the legends are created not because of their hype, but because of their long-term success as athletes. Even athletes with minor social problems that many of us can relate to, such as Brett Favre (substance addiction) and Michael Jordan (gambling), are ultimately revered because over time, they remained elite athletes; not because the commissioners in their respective sports made unreasonable statements about them.

In today’s issue of The Los Angeles Times, EliteXC President, Gary Shaw, said of Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, “He's the closest I've come to Mike Tyson...” It’s hard to say what aspect of Ferguson to which Shaw was referring. If he was comparing Ferguson to Tyson with regard to star-power, perhaps Ferguson is on his way...perhaps. But comparing Ferguson the athlete to Tyson at this stage in Ferguson’s career is ludicrous. For all of Tyson’s social shortcomings, as an athlete in his early days, Tyson was far more accomplished. And having worked with Tyson, Shaw should know this, but then again, he is a promoter. And it’s not just the elder Shaw.

With Ferguson present, EliteXC Vice President, Jared Shaw stated of Ferguson on a recent broadcast of Inside MMA, “...the truth of the matter is, this is a guy that no matter how much money comes or how many accolades, how much people talk about him, he does this not for the money. He does this for the love of this sport that he now loves and respects. And he does this for the pride for the streets for where he comes from.” I was amazed when Jared Shaw stated this. Making matters worse, later in the same show Shaw stated of MMA’s possible future in New York, “Everybody likes money, and it’s a sport that’s only gonna bring more income into that state...” Ferguson, meanwhile, maintained a low-profile silence and let others do the talking. Bottom line, this was blatantly indicative of the way Ferguson is being used as a commodity to bring money into a company, and symbolically, even if Ferguson gets a large purse, it's indicative of how fighters in the fight game are used as expendable products.

This is nothing against Ferguson. I'll watch tonight, and I hope he wins – for him, not for EliteXC. More so, I’m cheering for those fighters who have gone by relatively unnoticed – Robbie Lawler and Kaitlin Young come to mind. I respect the athletes. This same episode of Inside MMA closed out with Jared Shaw saying, “...EliteXC treats fighters like real athletes, like they deserve to be treated. And that’s all we ever really want to do for this sport, is we want to make a difference to them because they’re tremendous, and I have the utmost respect for anybody who steps in a ring or a cage and puts on a 12-ounce glove or a 4-ounce glove.” Don’t say it; show it, and not just for your main-eventers, for all the fighters.

David Mayeda, PhD, is author of Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society