Jose Canseco: Why MMA? Why Now?
Published by Kal Thompson on May 10th, 2009 in Current Events

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In 1988, Jose Canseco was on top of the sports world. With his combination of speed and power, he had set the baseball world ablaze. Prior to his season in ’88, no other baseball player had ever achieved the pairing of at least 40 homers and 40 steals within a single season.

With his Saturday morning cartoon series, t-shirt conglomerate and toy line, Jose Canseco was a media darling. Although a bad-boy image was already ingrained, it did not deter any fortune 500 company from courting the Oakland A’s right fielder.

As 20 years passed, Canseco’s baseball career had become a farce (due to mishaps such as a ball literally bouncing off his head in the outfield, and over the fence, for an opposing player’s home run) and his personal life had been dragged down a littered path of public divorce and financial demise.

With the release of a few books that “named names” in the underbelly of major league steroid use, Canseco had instantly become an enemy to the remaining friends within his circle. The former “all-everything” had become a black-balled shadow of his former rock star-ish enigmatic persona.

So, the year is 2009 and Jose Canseco has decided to try his hand in the real world of mixed martial arts. After being viciously knocked out within seconds by a former undersized NFL player (during a celebrity boxing match) one would figure that Canseco had learned a lesson. After a far, far less than stellar performance against geeky former child actor, the annoying and atrocious Danny Bonaduce, Canseco barely won a judges’ decision in a glorified version of powder-puff “tough?” man.

If you can’t hold your own against a former football player within the squared circle, and you almost let a 150 lb. geek steal your lunch money during a boxing match, why would you throw your hat in the world of mixed martial arts?

Perhaps that knock on the noggin’ in right field (that has since become the ultimate sports folly fodder) has left Jose Canseco with post-concussion syndrome. Or perhaps the need for public attention (be it even bad attention) is as addicting as any drug known to man.

In late May, Jose Canseco will face off against Hong Man Choi in the first round of a “Dream” (see Pride FC) open-weight MMA tournament. I only wish I had a valid reason as to why a former right fielder would pit himself against some of the true giants of mixed martial arts. Perhaps I would know that reason if I didn’t have to pay Jose for his response to my question. (Yes, I was told by his agency that Jose Canseco only does paid interviews.) With that being said, perhaps by not answering my question without the exchange of a cash, Jose did in fact, inadvertently answer my question of “why?”