The mixed martial arts commentator Mauro Ranallo is prone to hyperbole, and I don't have a problem with that: Hyperbole has been part of the fight game for as long as the fight game has existed.
But as far as I'm concerned, Ranallo lost all credibility with his comments at the end of tonight's EliteXC show on CBS.
After Kimbo Slice gave what may have been the most pathetic main event performance in the history of mixed martial arts, getting knocked out in 14 seconds by a low-level fighter named Seth Petruzelli, Ranallo was asked how we should react to seeing Kimbo flat on his back on the canvas.
Said Ranallo: "We give him a mulligan."
Said me: Give me a break. Kimbo doesn't deserve "a mulligan." He deserves to be finished in the sport of mixed martial arts.
Ranallo tried to maintain a shred of dignity by later saying, "This is a huge loss, a huge setback." And then he lost that shred of dignity by saying, "But he goes back to the drawing board."
No, he doesn't. Kimbo is finished. I admire him for trying to take up MMA at age 34, but he simply doesn't have the talent. He's never going to be a good MMA fighter, and if your job is to analyze MMA, you shouldn't pretend that he will.
