The Heavyweight Disaster: Spreading Outside of the UFC

As each organization announces upcoming heavyweight fights, I find myself getting more and more bored and even a little bit depressed by the low quality, not just of fights, but of fighters.

While I like to reminisce about the good ol' days of the freak matchup as much as any guy, I'll be the first to call out an organization for putting together a matchup just for the hype. So, Gary Shaw, consider yourself called out.

The fact is, Kimbo vs. Tank is a high profile fight because it's a freak matchup, even if it's about as interesting as Fedor vs. Zuluzinho. In fairness, there's far more speculation about the way that this fight is going to go down, but that doesn't make it more exciting. At least Fedor's fight had Fedor.

I'm not going to bash Kimbo or Tank as fighters, just state the facts and let them do the talking for me:

Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson has one professional fight.

David "Tank" Abbott has a losing professional mixed martial arts record

Both fighters are not famous because of what they have done in the cage.

Both fighters get more attention for the way they look than the way they fight.

Both fighters have shown little, if any, technical ability in their fights.

While it's only fair to say that both are incredibly strong, I was sort of hoping that the reign of bulky freaks of nature would die out when Igor Vovchanchyn put his shin through Mark Kerr's face. That, apparently, doesn't decrease the draw that Elite XC intends to get out of having two massive, skill-less warriors throw over-hand rights at each other until someone falls down.

I'd say that I'm disinterested in this fight, but there's some nostalgia attached to Tank Abbott. Still, there's not enough to get my attention with a single fight, and Elite XC seems to offer little else with their roster that consists or about a dozen talented fighters and a bunch of low caliber gatekeepers.

It's this simple: Gary Shaw's organization is dragging more cans than a wedding limo, but they don't have the same draw.

Why is Kimbo getting talked about like a main event?

Why is Tank Abbott's career being resurrected by a fight with a guy who's only win is over a guy who, like Tank, isn't even boasting a .500 winning percentage?

Let me tell you why:

Because the heavyweight division is so bad that we're going to tolerate the Brock Lesnar's and Kimbo's of the sport just to watch the giants go at it, and that, more than anything else, is depressing.