Rogan: Bellator needs to stop doing ‘fun fights’
Joe Rogan: “They can’t keep doing those. They should stop. This is the last one. If they keep doing it they’re going to lose credibility. There’s a lot of things they need to do.”
PRIDE was a mix of the greatest fighters in the world at the time, and also bizarre “freak show” matchups. They had the greatest pound for pound fighter in MMA history, and they had him fight Zuluzinho. Then Zuluzinho fought Butterbean, and got tapped. Then Butterbean vs. Ikuhisha Minowa. And Minowaman vs. Giant Silva. And bringing it cull circle … Giant Silva vs. Zuluzinho.
That tradition has carried on to some extent with Bellator MMA. The kinder, gentler term for the less freakyshow match ups is “fun fights.”
They are not accidents. When Scott Coker took over as Bellator CEO, he predicted it.
“We’re going to do some fun fights,” said Coker in 2014. “But also some hardcore MMA fights that the hardcore fans are going to want to see. We’ve got no restrictions. We’ll do it all.?”
Kimbo Slice vs. DaDa 5000 was a “fun fight.” Unfortunately, DaDa had to rapidly drop 40 pounds to make the 265 cut off, and his heart reportedly stopped after the fight. His family reported that he suffered renal failure, with multiple reports putting him in the ICU.
That’s not fun. And the fight was not fun, it was a potentially lethal travesty. Kimbo Slice vs. DaDa 5000 was a perversion of mixed martial arts.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan, among many others, called it the worst fight he had ever seen. While Rogan works for the UFC, he is an honest man, and can be highly critical of his employer, most recently calling the signing of CM Punk “ridiculous.” And he said, rightly, that the Viacom-owned Bellator has to let the “fun fights” go.
“I think, eventually, they’ve got to let all that go,” said Rogan, as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAFighting.com. “They can’t keep doing those. They should stop. This is the last one. If they keep doing it they’re going to lose credibility. There’s a lot of things they need to do.”
“I don’t think they thought that was going to be as bad as it was. I don’t think anybody would have anticipated those guys would have gassed like that. That was the worst gassing in the history of gassing. Dada just didn’t have enough gas. I kind of get that he wants to fight legitimately and he’s got to take that paycheck, but I just wish he had a real strength and conditioning coach or trainer. But we’re here talking about him. He got that. He made some money.”
“His heart stopped. It was filled with cheeseburgers and fried chicken and orange soda. He didn’t train. There was no way he trained. I mean, he might have trained for a couple of days. You should have lost 40 pounds before. It’s not like you didn’t know you were going to do this. How about Kimbo? What the f*** was going on with him? That wasn’t even amateur hour. Really? If it was an amateur fight you’d be champing at the bit to fight those guys – ‘I hope they’re in my bracket.’
“All you have to do is dance around for a few minutes and they’re toast.”