Frumpzilla

Herschel Walker doesn’t exactly look like he’s 47 years-old, does he?  In fact, at least relative to the commonly held belief that the younger you are the better you can look, I’d say he looks a lot closer to my peak potential during my neo-natal days.

But you can’t judge a book by its cover, right? Herschel being my childhood hero/sports idol, I was kind of worried when I first heard about his new MMA aspirations.  I was worried still after I saw the weigh-in photos, despite the relatively unimposing look of the guy he’d be fighting.  Even the tattoo of stylized poultry that graced Walker’s opponent did nothing to alleviate my concerns.

Still, I love the guy, so I had no choice but to cautiously tune in last night, prepared for the worst…(Video and some additional “analysis” after the jump)

Okay, so the analysis isn’t exactly MMA specific.  I’ll admit it, I’m not a huge fan of the sport; never really taken the time to educate myself about it.  That’s not to say I don’t respect it, of course, just that I probably don’t possess the skill set to offer any meaningful commentary. From reading what those that apparently do follow MMA have said, however, I guess Herschel pretty much dominated this one, or something.  How much of an accomplishment that was appears to be a topic of debate, but then that’s not the biggest storyline here, IMO.

Herschel finding success in yet another “hobby”  is what I find most interesting.  Notwithstanding all his football accomplishments, let’s see: he’s danced ballet professionally; been a member of the U.S. Olympic Bobsled team; released fitness videos; developed a profitable food services enterprise; and, now, won his first (and hopefully last) professional MMA fight, amongst other things. I mean, maybe the whole multiple-personality thing plays into this, or at least lessens the tax one would think is imposed on those with merely one identity attempting to take on so many pursuits at such a high level.  Either way, Herschel may be one of the more bizarre “renaissance men” of the modern era.

So why hope this was his last foray into the MMA arena?  Well, I guess I have my own, selfish reasons for that.  For one, I obviously don’t want to see him get his ass kicked, and I have to think that’s probably inevitable if he continues down this road.  Moreover, I’m not too sure how I feel about him handing other people’s asses to them either. 

It’s funny: Seeing clips of him pound opposing defenders and defenses, and steam rolling guys like Bill Bates the way he did back in 1980, is something that will never grow old.  Seeing him straddle half-naked men and pound their faces with his fists, putting them in submission holds, or whatever it is he’d be doing to win those contests, however, is something I must say I find inescapably unsettling (regardless of how humble he may be about it afterwards).