“Introducing Colossus Fightwear, from a true giant of the sport”

English born heavyweight MMA fighter James “The Colossus” Thompson has unveiled his own label range of MMA clothing – Colossus Fightwear.

Having spent the past nine years as an MMA fighter, James Thompson, who is known as The Colossus, has teamed up with online fightwear retailer mmabasket.com to create his own branded range of clothing.

First to be unveiled under the new ‘Team Colossus’ label is a range of high quality, ring spun cotton T-shirts depicting the new fightwear logo. Commenting, James said: “Throughout my career I have enjoyed the support of an ever-growing number of loyal fans, around the world. I wanted to bring that collective closer together, creating a sense of family almost, under the ‘Team Colossus’ banner.” Adding: “My fans have always supported me 100% and now this is my chance to give them something back. I’ve gone to the best in the business to make that possible, the guys at mmabasket.com and I’m delighted with the result.”

Having fought around the world on promotions such as Elite, Pride and Cage Rage, James ‘The Colossus’ Thompson has amassed a huge fan base on many different continents. Throughout his career he has fought some of the biggest names in MMA such as Don Frye, Giant Silva, five times world`s strongest man Mariusz Pudzianowski and also the very well-known Kimbo Slice. Talking to fans at his high-profile fights, he became inspired by the thought of creating his own ‘Team Colossus’ branded range of fightwear, depicting his character.

Andy Croal is MD of online retailer mmabasket.com with whom James has developed the label. He said: “It’s been a tremendous experience working with James on the creation of Colossus Fightwear. He has a very clear vision of the look and feel for the collection, which has begun with the launch of these high quality, ring spun cotton T-shirts, which are available in all sizes. The range is set to develop with new apparel, including fashion wear, in the future, which will please his thousands of fans.”

A competition is scheduled to run in October with the lucky fan that wins receiving the complete Phase 1 collection. This will be published in a number of publications and on MMA web sites, along with Facebook and Twitter. Keep your eyes peeled for how to enter and make sure you follow mmabasket.com and James ‘The Colossus’ Thompson on the social media sites.

Colossus Fightwear has launched in partnership with MMA fightwear retailer MMA Basket and the clothing range is available exclusively through their site www.mmabasket.com

Saturday September 20th at the Troxy Theatre, Commercial Road, London. You will not want to miss it, as London England’s, James “Collosus” Thompson returns to fight before his home town crowd after a controversial 3rd round stoppage to American Kimbo Slice. He is back in the UK and looking to get on track as one of the UK’s Top Heavyweights. Thompson is set to fight the 6’5 Polish fighter Piotor “Doctor” Kusmierz.

This Card also features the British Welter Weight Title Fight that everyone in the U.K. wants to see, featuring the champion, Che “The Silent Assassin” Mills of Gloucester, undefeated since his 1st fight and the only man to beat Lithuanian power house Marius Zaromskis, not once but twice. Facing the highly regarded contender, Ross “The Gladiator” Pointon of Stoke-On-Trent.

Ross Pointon has made significant improvements in his last few performances and seems to have found the proper weight class to suit his body. Another British title is on the line in the Featherweight division where Cambridge’s, Robbie “The Flame” Olivier. With a record of 15-8-1 he is looking to defend his British Featherweight title for the 3rd time against highly regarded Leigh “the Bulldog” Remedios 15-6-2 of Chippenham.

Other fighters to appear on the card include Kim Farid, Brad Pickett, Ross Mason, Scott Janson, Stav “Crazy Bear” Economou, Wesley “2 play” Johnson, Steve Hopewood, Mark Brown, Scott Tooty, Jody Cohon, Nigel Whittear, Michael Pasto, Jack Mason, and John Hathaway.

For further information please visit www.cagerage.com

Bas Rutten Discusses The Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson Fight

Thanks to The Smoking Gun:

Street-brawling YouTube sensation Kimbo Slice (real name: Kevin Ferguson) was arrested by Miami Beach cops in May 2002 on gun and open container charges. The felony weapons rap against Slice, 28 at the time, was eventually dismissed. He entered a no contest plea to the booze charge and was ordered to attend an alcohol education course. After gaining notoriety via online videos showing him pummeling opponents in brutal backyard fights, Slice made his debut in a sanctioned mixed martial arts (MMA) contest in June 2007, when he defeated former heavyweight boxer Ray Mercer. In May 2008, Slice headlined the first MMA card to be shown in prime time on network television (he defeated James “The Colossus” Thompson in the CBS broadcast).

Gary Shaw tells everyone that James Thompson was having trouble breathing and is being taken by ambulance to the hospital, Gary Shaw then asks for prayers for James Thompson’s family, like James Thompson was almost dead or something. LOL. Meanwhile, James Thompson is standing just a few feet away and seems completely fine with the exception of some bruises on his face.

Here is a photo of James Thompson‘s ear before the fight started and he got it popped open. Also, below that is a picture from his PrideFC days, and his ear looked normal then.

The Kimbo/Thompson fight was stopped early, in my opinion, but it’s debatable. However, I think the Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith stop was definitely too early, a very bad call on the part of the doctor. First off, the fighter (Scott Smith) was supposed to get 5 minutes to recover, as is usually the case with fouls such as groin strikes or eye pokes, but the doctor came into the cage immediatley after the bout was paused and started asking Scott Smith if he could see. Well, of course he couldn’t see yet, he just got poked in the eye. Give him a couple minutes to recover and he’ll be fine, but no, this doctor decides she needs to make a championship fight a no contest. Scott Smith and Robbie Lawler beat the hell out of each other for no decision. At least Gary Shaw said he would pay them both their win bonuses.

The Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson result is going to be bad controversy for EliteXC. Many people suspect a “fix” in that it’s possible Gary Shaw approached the referee before the fight and told him to stop it at the first signs of trouble for James Thompson. Obviously Gary Shaw has invested a lot of money in Kimbo, and didn’t expect the fight to go past the first round. I doubt Gary Shaw would want Kimbo to lose yet, that’s why Thompson was hand-picked for him. Do I think it was a fix? I don’t know, I guess I don’t really care. Regardless, Kimbo Slice was exposed. He is not a top heavyweight fighter yet in terms of skill.

I think it’s safe to say that Kimbo Slice would not be able to hang with the current top MMA heavyweights. Judging from his performance tonight, Kimbo has a long way to go, as he himself admitted. Luckily, Kimbo has Bas Rutten training him. Any of the top heavyweights such as Randy Couture, Fedor, Tim Sylvia, Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell, Roy Nelson, and many more would be able to handle Kimbo fairly easy, if tonight is any indication. Hell, even Dana White may have been right when he said BJ Penn would beat Kimbo. However, James Thompson came to fight, as he always does. Somehow, Thompsons chin survived the fight, although he was wobbled several times, he was able to take the fight to the ground and control it there for the most part. I actually gave rounds 1 and 2 to James Thompson. What the hell was up with his cauliflower ear though? That thing was gnarly. Anyway, Kimbo popped Thompsons ear and wobbled him with more punches, when referee Dan Miragliotta foolishly stopped the fight. Bad call, ref.

The ref’s stoppage further shows me that MMA is probably quite a bit safer than boxing. If that were a boxing match, I don’t think it would’ve been stopped, I think Thompson would’ve gotten a standing 8 count and been allowed to continue fighting. I imagine non-MMA fans watching tonights show and seeing a popped ear, thinking “wow that is brutal” or maybe even arguing about the shots Thompson was taking to the head, but all of those things happen in boxing as well.

I don’t even know where to begin with his article, but I’ll start by pointing out that the writer thinks MMA and UFC are rival companies, so his opinion really isn’t credible. Here is a link to his complete article, but I’ve voiced my opinions about it below.

Here are some of Greg Cote’s ignorant statements:

“This form of fighting is all but bare-fisted, with less-than-gloves covering the knuckles. Anything goes,including kicking. (I suppose eye-gouging might or might not be frowned upon).”

Even kicking? OOOOH NO THE END OF CIVILIZATION! What is his opinion on kickboxing? I’m guessing Mr. Cote has really never watched an MMA event, he obviously has no clue about what the rules are. He also says:

“Pardon my not swelling with civic pride over one of our own hitting the big-time at last for what amounts to legalized criminality”

Legalized criminality? Give me a break, so is boxing if that’s the case. So is auto racing (speeding), and much more. He thinks boxing is “refined and genteel” in comparison to mixed martial arts. Does he not realize boxers are trying to knock each others heads off? Sure, that sometimes happens in MMA, but there are so many other ways to win, I would have to say the science of MMA is way more refined, and possibly more genteel considering a fight can end in 30 seconds with neither fighter being seriously injured. As true fans know, in the sport of mixed martial arts, a fighter can simply get caught in an armbar and tap out before he is seriously hurt. Not possible in boxing, where the loser must stand in there for 12 rounds and get his head busted repeatedly, or get knocked unconscious before a winner is declared.

Mr. Cote also asks in his article “Whatever happened to Chuck Liddell?” — more evidence he has no clue about the sport of mixed martial arts. Here is more:

“(Michael Vick), by the way, staged dogfights not much more vicious, or less civilized, than the type of combat that Kimbo and these other so-called ”freestyle fighters” shame themselves to practice. (And that we shame ourselves to watch).”

Wow, I really don’t think I need to explain the stupidity of that sentence. He is taking the subject of trained athletes who consciously make a decision to compete in sport, to Michael Vick forcing abused animals to fight each other to the death via bite wounds to the throat. Michael Vick also tortured injured animals via hanging and electrocution. I can’t believe Greg Cote is ignorant enough to make that comparison. Here is more wisdom from Greg Cote:

“It’s (MMA) sort of an adult version of teenagers beating up a homeless guy.”

Wow, this Cote idiot is full of intelligent comparisons, huh? Really man, you’re comparing the sport to multiple attackers beating a defenseless homeless person? Mr. Cote, you are out of control. Your article in the Miami Herald showcases your ignorance very well. You should be ashamed of some of your statements, particularly the ones that minimize the torture of homeless people and animals. Greg Cote should suffer the wrath of a Fedor armbar.

I have nothing against Kimbo Slice, but I would love to see James Thompson run right out and smash Kimbo in this fight. However, I don’t think that is going to happen. Both fighters are exciting to watch, I predict James Thompson will rush out and try to trade punches with Kimbo, and inevitably Kimbo will connect on Thompson’s chin, ending the fight. I bet the staredown will be tremendous, though. In the meantime, here is video of James Thompson’s epic fight with Don Frye in Pride. Also, sign up on our MMA forums, we need new conversation and MMA expert fans.

Supposedly, Kevin Ferguson aka Kimbo Slice is set to be an award presenter at tonights CMA Awards show on CBS (8pm EST). Yeah, he might not seem like he fits in at a Country Music Awards show, but if he’s there, it will obviously be to promote the upcoming May 31st EliteXC: Primetime show on CBS, in which Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson will be the main event.

ESPN featured Kimbo Slice (aka Kevin Ferguson) on their show “E:60″ back in December of 2007. The show is a weekly investigative sports journalism program, featuring stories from all over the world of sports. Tuesday night at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, the Kimbo Slice episode will be re-aired. This episode was the first good look at Kimbo Slice for a majority of the world, outside of those who knew him from his famous internet video streetfights.

Kimbo Slice is fighting in the main event on May 31st at “EliteXC: Primetime” which will be shown LIVE on CBS, the first MMA event to be broadcast on network television during prime-time. Kimbo’s opponent will be hard hitting (and glass-jawed) James Thompson.

Tune in to ESPN Tuesday night to see the whole show, or view the video clip below for Kimbo’s segment.