Canseco Will Try His Hand at MMA
Published by Charles Jay on May 5th, 2009 in Current Events, Operation Cleanup

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So Jose Canseco is taking a swing at mixed martial arts, without a bat in his hand.

The question is not “why?” but “what took him so long?”

Canseco will reportedly be part of an open-weight tournament run by the Dream organization in Japan, scheduled for May 26 at the Yokohama Arena. They are billing it the “Super Hulk Tournament,” and why the hell not?

It is hard to say whether this was inspired by the Kimbo Slice culture of MMA fandom, but we know by now that Canseco will do, or at least suggest, anything to make a buck.

Many promoters will do that too.

Some of the reaction was somewhat predictable.

On one of the websites reporting the tournament, here were some of the responses:

“Hate to see MMA turning into a freakshow”

Listen, that ship has sailed.

We’ve mentioned Kimbo already, but there’s always been a certain charm to the “freakshow” aspect of MMA, and for that we can go back to the sport’s very beginning in this country, and perhaps more specifically, to UFC 8, which was billed as a “David Vs. Goliath” spectacle, much like this one, which has Gegard Mousasi, a middleweight, and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjo, a light heavyweight.

Canseco may not have the credentials for MMA, but he has the right credentials for a freakshow.

Actually, there’s something relatively healthy and fun about it, if you don’t take it too seriously.

Of course, this is potentially pretty damaging business for Canseco. His first opponent in the tournament – a guy who doesn’t need steroids to be 7-foot-2 and 330 pounds – is kick-boxer Hong Man Choi. Now, let’s not pretend – Choi is a freak, and I’m sure that was part of his entry into the kick-boxing and MMA arena, in the same way Nicolay Valuev was entered into boxing – but he has trained and at least has some quality wins to his credit. He also fought Fedor and was able to come away not looking all that ridiculous. Choi has only fought three bouts in what we know as MMA, but any way you look at it, this is a fighter versus a non-fighter.

Another comment:

“Jose will hit the canvas the first time he gets hit whether he is hurt or not.”

Well, that’s a very real possibility. Look, this is someone who not only got knocked out from one “punch” by Vai Sikahema, a former NFL player, but also couldn’t do any better than get a majority draw against Danny Bonaduce. That’s not the former heavyweight champion Danny Bonaduce, mind you, but the Danny Bonaduce who used to be on “The Partridge Family.” And if you’re old enough to remember that show, you’ll get even more of a chortle out of it.

Actually, the possibility of going down in a heap right away is what might potentiallly take away a lot of the risk for Jose.

Here’s a good one:

“Oh geez, Canseco. We give in, you were right. Everyone does steroids. Can you go away now??”

The answer, sir, is an emphatic “no.” He cannot go away. It does bring another thought to mind, however, and that is, inasmuch as Canseco has admitted he is doing stuff like this because he needs the money (although I’m sure there is a healthy bit of narcissism thrown in), I wonder why he didn’t realize more money from two books that were apparently best-sellers and kicked up a lot of dust in the baseball world, getting him a lot of publicity in the process (the latest, called “Vindicated,” outed Alex Rodriguez as a steroid user).

The comment I like best is…..

“I think the headline meant to read as: Jose Canseco to make MMA debut* You guys forgot the asterisk…”

Yeah, they sure did. But we didn’t.