GLORY, Spike TV and the divide between sports and entertainm

[Edge Guerrero]

By Marc Raimondi  @marc_raimondi on Mar 11, 2016, 3:00p

Kimbo Slice, GLORY kickboxer. That was almost a thing last year.

GLORY CEO Jon Franklin told MMA Fighting this week that he and his staff discussed the possibility of bringing the wildly popular former streetfighter in for a bout. Slice had competed in boxing before and, obviously, had a history in MMA. At the time, Slice was already on the Bellator MMA roster and GLORY and Bellator shared a television network, Spike TV.

Talks ceased pretty quickly, though. Nothing personal against Slice, but GLORY execs didn't want to compromise the promotion's identity as the top kickboxing organization in the world by putting forth a subpar product.

"Ultimately, while we had discussions about doing some big events like that, the decision really was that we want to be a true sporting league," Franklin said. "The best athletes in the world fighting for the top prizes against the best athletes in the world. That's really who we are and what we want to be, a global sporting league."

In a nutshell, that is the main reason why Spike TV parted ways with GLORY last fall. Spike, like all television networks, is in the ratings business. GLORY's unwillingness to do things like bring in the likes of Slice for "fun fights" that would draw numbers meant those two parties were no longer a good fit for each other.

Spike will stay in the kickboxing business with Bellator Kickboxing, led by Bellator MMA and longtime kickboxing promoter Scott Coker. GLORY has moved onto ESPN's family of networks (ESPN 2 and 3, mainly) and UFC Fight Pass. GLORY 28 is set for Saturday with its Superfight Series airing on Fight Pass and its numbered card on ESPN 3.

"They were really pushing us into things that we didn't want to do," Franklin said of Spike TV. "Scott is a great promoter and a wonderful man. He was really working on and trying to help us at the time with matchmaking and things like that. But really, we need to control our own matchmaking. We've got our own talent operations team. We've got the best kickboxers in the world. We need to manage our own destiny. Some of the things that they were doing [at Spike] weren't necessarily the direction that we wanted to go."

For read the rest http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/3/11/11117452/glory-spike-tv-and-the-divide-between-sports-and-entertainment

- I think tha`ts is a good thing that Glory didn`t accepted that.
Whats your opinion?

[Luigi]

"Talks ceased pretty quickly, though. Nothing personal against Slice, but GLORY execs didn't want to compromise the promotion's identity as the top kickboxing organization in the world by putting forth a subpar product."

Lmao oh Im sure Glory, thats why we have to watch your military fights whenever a card happens in America.

A better reason why not to have Kimbo in KB is that he has arthritis in his knees and cant take leg kicks. The logical solution is for Kimbo to fight in boxing, but a region level guy from Australia almost beat him which is probably why his boxing career stopped. Kimbo should be fighting old retired boxers imo. Mike Tyson, Frank Bruno, Roy Jones Jr, etc. He could also fight a modern champion from a tiny weight class. Kimbo vs Chocolatito would be hilarious.

[Edge Guerrero]

"Talks ceased pretty quickly, though. Nothing personal against Slice, but GLORY execs didn't want to compromise the promotion's identity as the top kickboxing organization in the world by putting forth a subpar product."

Lmao oh Im sure Glory, thats why we have to watch your military fights whenever a card happens in America.

A better reason why not to have Kimbo in KB is that he has arthritis in his knees and cant take leg kicks. The logical solution is for Kimbo to fight in boxing, but a region level guy from Australia almost beat him which is probably why his boxing career stopped. Kimbo should be fighting old retired boxers imo. Mike Tyson, Frank Bruno, Roy Jones Jr, etc. He could also fight a modern champion from a tiny weight class. Kimbo vs Chocolatito would be hilarious.

- Remember when there were talk of Kimbo in K1?
Even before his first loss? People were delusional, good that Kimbo didn`t believe his own hype, and match with Francisco Filho or Lebanner and he would get the beatdown of a lifetime. Even without the arthritis.
I think Kimbo is actually a good person so i don`t want to see him in any of those abusive matchs, his body is beat and he started his career too old.

Kimbo brings eyes to a card, and promoters are gonna use that till his wells fall off.
Do you think he can match any of those old boxers?

Sadly i think Jones Jr is the only one that wound`t kill Kimbo now?
And he is the best boxer of the names you dropped. :(

[Luigi]

Did you see Tyson box McBride at the end of his career? He gassed after a few rounds and got beat up for the rest. Not saying Kimbo could beat modern Tyson but it could be close lol