Tim Kennedy slams Reebok, bad
“Maybe this is like a big horrible joke that’s just them coming out with new Halloween costumes, but nope, this is them coming out with their real line of clothes.”
Tim Kennedy is a Ranger Qualified Green Beret and decorated combat veteran, awarded the Bronze Star for valor under fire. SSG Kennedy is a Special Forces Sniper, and can put four shots into a one-inch grouping with an assault rifle while on the move. And he is the #6 ranked middleweight in the world. In short, Tim Kennedy is a bad man.
In a recent interview with the ever excellent The Three Amigos podcast, Kennedy spoke his mind, about Reebok, and about much more.
“There’s a whole bunch of fights that would give me motivation to come back,” said Kennedy as transcribed by Stephie Haynes and Mookie Alexander. “I’m still training 2-3 times a day, so it’s not like I’m done, but for me to come back in, especially with the Reebok deal, it’s a big big problem financially. I lose $100,000-$200,000 a fight because of that, so the incentive has to be significant. We’re prizefighters. We fight for money, and they just took a big chunk of the reason why I fight out, which means that the incentive has to be somewhere else, which is me doing something significant; fighting somebody amazing like Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort, or Nick Diaz, otherwise what’s the point?”
Kennedy was asked about Reebok’s now withdrawn Ireland tee.
“Oh man, I’ve no idea what they’re doing,” he said. “There’s been a lot of new lines that have been released in all different sports. I own five different apparel lines, and we have never premiered or debuted a new line that could’ve gone worse. And the more that they do, the worse the perception of their products are. They should just stop and be like, ‘Alright, we’re going to go ahead and reset. We’re actually going to talk to athletes and see what they want their shirts to look like. We’re going to actually let the girls try on some clothes so they don’t look like they’re freight trains. And then maybe we’ll make a bra that actually makes one of our female athletes look decent.Then we’re going to come back and do this again, and when we do it, we’re actually going to spell the athletes’ names correctly.’
“It’s just every time they do something, it’s horrible. It’s ironic that we’re nearing Halloween, because maybe this is like a big horrible joke that’s just them coming out with new Halloween costumes, but nope, this is them coming out with their real line of clothes.”
Kennedy also commented on the temporary removal of the vast majority of fight kits on the site.
“Dude, I have no idea,” he said. “I mean Reebok’s kind of a big company, right? It seems like they should maybe have an idea about how to do business, but that evidently is not the case. They’re just kinda like … I don’t know what the hell they’re doing. You know what they’re not doing? They’re not making money. They must be trying their darnedest, but they’re not making any money, and they’re just embarrassing themselves.
In the early 80s when MTV debuted, music videos were primitive. If a song used “I’m on fire” as a metaphor, the video would show the singer on fire. Chris Weidman is known as the All American, for his wrestling prowess.
So Reebok put out American flag shoes under his name.
“Ugh, those sneakers are horrible,” he said. “Let’s say I’m driving down the road and I see an American flag, it’s sunset and they forgot to take the flag down, I’m going to knock on your door and be like, ‘Hey man, you probably forgot to take your flag down. Is it okay if I go ahead can take it down and fold it up for you, so that you can put it back up tomorrow?’ I’m that guy, and I’m not so wacko that … when Chris Weidman won the title [against Anderson Silva] and he draped himself with the flag, I thought that was an amazing moment. People are like, ‘Oh no, he’s not supposed to do that!’ No man, it looks awesome! God bless America, and we’ve got an American champion; let’s celebrate this for a second! But, there has to be a little bit of taste and discretion about when and where. It’s like a thing right now to walk on or step on the American flag. You do that in front of me, I’m going to pick you up and I’m going to beat the dude holding the phone with you. It’s pretty awesome when you can beat a dude with another dude, and I’d totally love to do that.”
“I’m going to damage both of these people. So yeah, shoes with an American flag that you’re going to be walking around on are not okay with me. But whatever, you just keep on with your bad self, Reebok! You guys are nailing it, nailing it!”
(48:25 mark)