“Taking a dive” as it is known in the boxing industry has been a part of the sport since its inception, when millions of dollars are thrown in a broken boxers face to drop your hands, bite down on your mouth piece and take a seven-punch combo that sends you crashing to the canvass, most will take it.
In combat sports throwing a match is easier than in your typical stick and ball sports because you don’t have to worry about your teammates, it’s only you out there – Last night in a small show in Springfield, Missouri we may have seen another example.
Former backyard brawler Kevin Ferguson, better known by his moniker Kimbo Slice notched his fourth straight victory as a professional boxer against Iowa-based mixed martial artist Brian Green who was making his boxing debut.
According to those in attendance Green was set to collect his first victory in the boxing world holding a healthy lead on points before Slice dazed him with a right hand and followed up with a right-hook that floored Green with 3.3 seconds left on the clock.
This is not the first time match-fixing scandals have been associated with Kimbo’s name – Two fights in his MMA career raised suspicion.
In 2008 he faced James Thompson in the first ever mixed martial arts event to be seen in primetime on a major North American network.
Thompson saw blood at the end of the second frame with a minute remaining he unloaded with over 20 unanswered shots on the Florida-based slugger who was allowed to keep in the game despite having his beard almost punched off.
In the final stanza it was a different story when Slice connected with two solid punches the ref in charge stopped in to protect the Brit pushing Slices unbeaten record to 3-0.
Also, in the final EliteXC fight he was scheduled to face MMA pioneer Ken Shamrock in the twilight of his career but a last-minute injury forced him to step aside.
In his place was The Ultimate Fighter cast-off Seth Petruzelli who was boosted up from the preliminary card to the main event to hand Slice his first professional defeat in just 14 seconds.
Petruzelli later admitted that EliteXC management “encouraged” him to stand and trade with Slice which was just another to their list of shady business tactics.
In all of these instances fingers were pointed at referees, management, promoters and just about everybody expect Slice.
Last night’s fight between Green and Slice won’t get the same type of attention because it didn’t have mainstream exposure but it’s something that deserves to be looked at.
Green showed crisp, technical striking against his larger opponent earlier on and in return took a series of harder-looking shots from the heavy-handed striker on the footage and the shot that put him down will make most of you raise an eyebrow.
The integrity of the sport has been something of question for many years now and incidents like this come back to hurt MMA in the long run.
Don’t take my word for this scenario, take a look at the below video and decide for yourself.
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