Koo’s Corner

Life has been hectic of late and will not calm down until next week. However, I hope to jam in 3-4 solid posts before the weekend. This one will focus on sports with hopefully some commentary on tech, entertainment, and commercials soon to follow.

- Rajon Rondo had a stellar weekend putting up 18 assists, grabbing 6 boards, while only having 2 turnovers. Even more impressive, Rondo blogged about the finals on Yardbarker 4x in the 24 hours before and after the game. Its great to see Rondo interacting with fans and sharing his thoughts and state of mind during such a compelling time of the year for him.

For those of you who don’t know my current employer, check out Yardbarker.com.

Those curious to see Rondo’s blog you can check it out here.

- The other interesting news of the weekend, was Big Brown losing in the Belmont. Big Brown actually finished last as his jockey eased off of him 2/3 into the race, fearing the horse was injured. Turns out no injury can be found. So what’s the deal?

Nobody really knows, any maybe nobody will ever know what really happened. However let me put forth this conspiracy theory (its a doozie, but I never concoct theories).

Below you will find the odds for the Belmont. Casino Drive, the horse Vegas picked second most likely to win, scratched as many suspected he would. With Casino Drive out, 8 of 9 the horses left were pretty heavy underdogs with only one horse having better than 20-1 odds. You can see where this is going.

Is it possible that someone got to jockey Ken Desormeaux, and explained him that if he could hold Big Brown back, that a mighty fortune could be made on one of the other horses. In fact the odds above are somewhat stingy as other betters cashed in on eventual winner Da’Tara at 40-1.

I haven’t heard this idea thrown around and am not saying it happened, but if there EVER was an opportunity to pull this, it would have been Saturday. The scenario of one front runner and a field of heavy underdogs may never be replicated to this degree again.

- The Euro Cup has started and has fairly entertaining thus far. Its nice to watch soccer at work or late at night. ESPN and ESPN 2 are televising a decent amount of games so tune in to watch the second most enjoyable soccer tournament.

- Finally, I wanted to chime in to keep your eye on the UFC this week. I am not an avid fan of MMA, but have slowly getting more into it as my friends are hooked like worse then Barkley on casinos.

This week UFC president is set to make a “mind blowing” annoucement. Lots of speculation that the company has been bought or at least reached a major network deal. It will be interesting to see as MMA continues to cross over to the mainstream while boxing wilts away to an afterthought on the national scene.

The outlook is bleak for boxing. I can’t think of anyone young who prefers it to MMA or even cares what so ever. If that doesn’t change, we may see boxing fizzle down to a third tier sport.

A couple nights back I started writing the blog below, but decided not to finish it as I was not 100% sold on the idea that Kimbo Slice was a pop culture phenomena that warranted a blog. 2 days later I have seen him on ESPN for an interview and on Yahoo.com’s front page. I am now 100% sold and have finished my blog below.

Over the past few years MMA (mixed martial arts), has steadily gained traction with the US public as a viable sports entertainment option. UFC reality shows achieved good ratings and was subsequently aided by Chuck Lidell’s rise to fame.

While the UFC has steadily risen from obscurity, lurking and incubating has been the internet phenomena that is Kimbo Slice.

I first heard of Kimbo Slice a year and a half ago at my fantasy football draft. Usually considered to be someone “in the know”, the name Kimbo Slice was new to me but one that 2/3 of my friends knew well.

Kimbo Slice fought in a series of unsanctioned back yard brawls in the Miami area. All the fight footage can be found on youtube or by googling his name. In all but one of his fights the massively big and grizzly looking Slice knocks out his opponents with due diligence.His one loss is a 10 minute epic war in which he succumbs to a Boston policeman.

In short, Slice is a modern day big and black version of Lionheart who has been harnessed by the internet and in particular youtube. Oh and by the way Slice also moonlights as a body guard for a handful of internet porn sites under the Reality Kings brand.

As interest snowballed into the giant, an effort to take the Kimbo to the mainstream was unfolded. A couple months back Kimbo took on ex heavy weight boxing champ, Ray Mercer in both of their first sanctioned MMA fight. In reality this was a pushover opponent as Mercer was just picking up a paycheck and had enough star power to warrant the purchase of the Pay Per View.

Next on tap was Tank Abbot, a former UFC champion, well past his glory days. I didn’t circle the date on my calendar as I am not a MMA enthusiast by any stretch of the imagination. However flipping through the channels 2 nights back, I was surprised to find that this highly anticipated fight was actually on my normal package of channels which includes Showtime.

Slice destroyed Abbot and was unveiled to his largest audience yet. The room lit up for his fight and chants of Kimbo could be heard before, during, and after the fight.

So what’s next? Both Kimbo and his handlers probably know, he is not an elite fighter and one capable of sustaining a successful career in MMA. However every fight he wins, adds to his appeal regardless of his opponent. People like Kimbo’s story of a mysterious behemoth man who made his name on the streets, without the pedigree and tuteledge of most MMA fighters.

My best guess is that Kimbo will continue fighting a mix of guys who have name appeal but are either too old, too small, too weak, or too apathetic to put up a fight. Kimbo’s legend will continue to grow until one day Kimbo falls short of victory to a seasoned fighter who is not in their forties.

Until then look for him on ESPN doing interviews, his BET reality show, or on Yahoo Sports features.