If Mixed Martial Arts contenders want to be treated as athletes and not as thugs, and if its top dogs want the sport to gain credibility among other professional athletes, they have to set some standards.One man in particular seems determined to make MMA’s strive for integrity a much more grueling process.He’s been called an Internet legend, “The King of Reality,” and “The King of Web Brawlers.” And he was set to take on one of MMA’s biggest heroes, the legendary Ken Shamrock last Saturday, Oct. 4.Some say Kevin Ferguson — better known as Kimbo Slice, the 6-foot-2-inch, 250 pound, bare-knuckle street fighter — is a legitimate competitor. Some call him the next big thing in MMA. Others, like myself, don’t buy it.Chuck Liddell, former Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion, thinks he’s a joke, according the United Kingdom’s edition of The Sun.ESPN’s LZ Granderson had even less to say about Slice, referring to his career as “misguided,” “downright disgusting” and “a low point for black Americana.”His  picture of the consequences that come with the fighter’s success shows Slice’s commercial branding is eerily similar to the literal branding of his enslaved ancestors.The likes of Slice and his contemporary counterparts in black culture, and indeed American culture, are destroying all the gain of the civil rights era, according to Granderson. And they’re being replaced with a sense of entitlement, false dignity and unwarranted confidence so ordinary among today’s youth.It’s fighters like these that give MMA such a bad rap — which is why people like Sen. John McCain have worked so diligently to shut it down.Slice’s attention-starved ego bears a share of accountability for stereotypes in America.Fighters like Slice and Bob Sapp, a 6-foot-7-inch, 397 pound K-1 kickboxing champion, bear the brunt of responsibility for “jokes” that refer to blacks as caged animals.Sapp’s nickname is “The Beast from the East,” and he is often depicted as a wild animal in MMA bouts. He’s even devoured bananas in the ring.And I’m not the only one making that connection between athletes and racism.USA Today accused LeBron James of being “racially insensitive” for allegedly posing like King Kong on the cover of Vogue magazine.It was the first time a black man had ever graced the cover of Vogue, but it quickly turned from celebration to disgust when James was blamed for conjuring up images of “a dangerous black man,” according to USA Today.The article documented a University of Maryland professor’s assessment of the image as reinforcing “the criminalization of black men.”The reason there hasn’t been a similar uproar over Slice and Sapp is their lack of star power compared to James.James is a role model while Slice is a street-fighting thug turned Internet hero. Sapp is a failed NFL player who now fights in Japan in a league few care about.Despite the ever-increasing hype surrounding MMA, it will be a long time before its athletes are held to the same standards of other professional sports stars.”What happens on the street stay on the streets,” Slice told the Boston Globe. “If I don’t make dollars, then the fight don’t make sense.”These aren’t the words of a role model, but of a man whose only motivation is money instead of an undying passion for the sport.Speaking of cage-fighting, Slice said, “I’m an animal. It’s going to be like a second home.”Need I say more about forcing stereotypes?Slice isn’t even a great fighter. Sure, he beat senseless a bunch of guys on the Internet and the legendary Tank Abbott. Yawn.Don’t forget he lost to former UFC fighter Sean Gannon who served him his first slice of real MMA combat. Slice couldn’t hang with a fighter who used more than just his fists.And if you’re wondering who Sean Gannon is, well, there’s a reason for that too.Slice’s original opponent last Saturday, Shamrock, was one of the earliest stars of the sport, and for a time was considered “The most dangerous man in America.” But he hasn’t won a fight in over three years, is 0-5 during that time and has only won two matches in roughly a decade.It’s been a while since I’d rooted for Shamrock — almost as long as it had been since he won a fight— but I imagine my sentiments are expressed in the old saying “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”But because of a last-second injury suffered during a warm up before the fight, Shamrock was declared unfit to compete. Slice was scheduled to fight a replacement, Seth Petruzelli, hours before the fight began.Petruzelli knocked out Slice in 14 seconds.That’s what I call a role model.—-Contact Daniel Lumetta at [email protected]