Kimbo vs Thompson = bad for mma

No one is hopeless. Even James Thompson has the potential to be a top 10 or at least top 20 under a totally different training system , which would be perfectly adapted for him. Kimbo is certainly no exception.

Yes , but Kimbo's take down + guillotine move on Mercer was the result of a calculated gameplan. (afterall , Bas is training this guy)...It doesn't matter if he's a street brawler or not. Mark Hunt was a street brawler at one point in his life (before his muay thai career) , remember how Tyson was discovered ? at 13...

"by legendary boxing figure Cus D'Amato. D'Amato saw something special in his raw talent and arranged to have Tyson released into his custody. Within several years, D'Amato and his trainers groomed Tyson into a top boxing contender"

We all have to start somewhere and again , Kimbo's no exception to that rule. The real problem is (actually there's several problems)

1 Rutten is focusing too much on Kimbo's natural strength & not much else. And this is negligible aspect that has repercutions on the guy's abilities to deal with certain situations where he's outpowered by a guy who wants to keep him on the ground.
(Thompson proved it last night)

2 Rutten thinks he has found some sort of revelation of mma. A raw talent who'll crush everything in his way. But Kimbo ain't tyson , and worst of all...it's not boxing...and you know as much as i do that it's a sport where even the weakest , smallest fighters have a chance to pull a victory with an intelligent gameplan. (Royce Gracie was the first to demonstrate in ufc's early days)

Take a prime Tyson and try to replicate the same career he had in boxing only in mma. It won't happen. Because that's the nature of mma. You can't just rely on a single talent & your athleticism. If that'd be the case , the likes of Lesnar , Randleman , LeBanner , Antonio Silva , Sapp or Belfort would all be undefeated champs.

You know what Lesnar's team used to say prior to his mma debut , after a year of training ? That he'd be unstopable! (how deluded is that ? ) ...because no one would outpower him , because he'd be the best wrestler etc....blah blah blah...and we all know what happened.

even BJ Penn had a few reality checks in his career (vs Pulver in 2002 )...So did GSP (in 2004 vs Hughes , even though GSP is way more versatile and complete as a fighter)...

I've seen Bas Rutten's training. I've seen the stuff he's trying to achieve with this guy and even though the training itself is intense...even though he's trying to "generalise" all aspects of the game , it's still detrimental on kimbo's future in the mma scene.

Why ? For the very same reasons Crocop used to have back in 2001. (only difference is that crocop , unlike Kimbo was already an experience top kickboxer when he was fighting under mma rules)

But crocop used to concentrate too much on his advantages , his natural abilities , he would spend too much time on the things he already knew and not enough on his weaknesses).

Bas is making the very same mistake with Kimbo.

I'm no professional trainer , nor do i have the pretention to know more than a professional fighter such as Rutten , but i'm not totally ignorant either. And sometimes you have to tell it like it is...There really is a hole in kimbo's training sessions.

Either Rutten realises that he needs to do some major ****ing changes for Kimbo's next fight and stop seeing him as some sort of magical cash cow with "raw talent"...or Kimbo will be history in a few months.

OR , Kimbo just needs to work with a different team.