True - he's not getting paid for participating in TUF. However - just being on the show will raise his market value and keep him in the public's consciousness. Even if he gets called out and sparked out in the very first match - he will still be able to field offers after leaving the show. Japan will always be there for a guy with the notoriety and circus attraction value of a fighter like Kimbo.
Bingo :thumbsup Not surprised by this at all. Everyone gets paid. Kimbo gets more exposure in the West and his gravy train rolls on. Good luck to him i say.
IMO, with him not being paid for all this, just shows us how much Kimbo wants it, and that he wants to get better. That embarassing kayo would have made a lesser man hide in obscurity for the rest of his life, Kimbo is rebounding from it, and willing to have another go.
Well he was hardly going to make a living stacking shelves. I just hope Bas Rutten can get in there and hit Dana with a flying forearm..
Its irrelevant that he won. The point is the title shot was absolutely pathetic. The funny part about all this is that Kimbo wont even be close to being the worst fighter on this show. Kimbo will likely be middle of the pack if not a bit better.
What if Kimbo actually trains properly throughout the course of the show and ends up winning? What a shocker that would be. On a related side note - I don't see that happening as Bas Rutten stated the reason he stopped training Kimbo was because Kimbo stopped listening to his coaching and refused to train properly.
This is a win/win for the management. If Kimbo loses then it makes them look much better than their competition and they get to say how much better their guys are than street fighters. If he wins then they make loads of money. Either way they get to bring tons more viewers back to (right or wrong) their most important farm system for finding/hyping new fighters. Considering how long it's been since they did heavyweights, I'd expect the talent level of this crop to be pretty high. The only other guy I know about though is Rex whatshisname the ex-nfl lineman. Any other big names? What about the gold medal judoka? Anyone know?
This is going to be gold. I sure hope he gets put on Rampage's team. Can you imagine those two in the same room together? Rampage might just have to lay him out.