For Jose Canseco, the brand of shame he recently thrust upon himself and the sport of baseball just wasn’t enough. This past weekend, he stepped into the ring and embarrassed himself once more when former football player Vai Sikahema KO’d the sultan of steroids in the first round of a celebrity boxing match in Atlantic City.

Canseco previously flirted with the idea of entering the mixed martial arts circuit in some capacity. He also claimed to have a background in martial arts. But after getting flattened by Sikahema, it is quite obvious he should stick to selling books and tattle-taling on the baseball’s behemoths. Despite being 6″4 and having a tremendous size advantage over the 5″9 Sikahema, Canseco couldn’t make it out of the first round. So how on earth would ever expect to last ten seconds inside the cage?

Nevertheless, Canseco isn’t the first athlete to flirt with the idea of trying his hand in the mma circuit. Usually, it is boxers who ruminate the possibility of entering the cage. Yet, such ruminations are nothing more than an insult to professional mixed martial artists.

The idea that a professional athlete can make the transition from one sport to another is simply preposterous. Michael Jordan, arguably one of the best athletes in history, learned that hard lesson firsthand when made a miserable attempt at playing minor league baseball.

To be a professional athlete takes an enormous amount of hard work and dedication. Mixed martial arts takes the same hard work and dedication of any sport, perhaps even more. So when athletes toss around the idea of stepping inside the cage, they are implying that mma may not be on the same plateau as other mainstream sports. It’s safe to say that less than a minute in the cage would probably make believers out of all of them.

So while narcissists like Canseco shoot off at the mouth, the cold hard fact is that the cage is no place for someone who is not extensively trained in the realm of mixed martial arts. For if Canseco can not last one round with an undersized former amateur boxer, how could he survive against a highly trained professional mixed martial artist? It’s a good lesson for athletes in all walks of the sporting world.

Tags: Jose Canseco, Vai Sikahema