There is always talk about boxers fighting MMA guys and vice versa or guys switching sports. In this case, last week in Las Vegas, former UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez competed in a pro boxing match. He lost a four-round decision to Chad Davis, who had a record of 0-1.

Ricco’s only other pro boxing match came in October of 2006 when he knocked out a guy name Brandon Baker. In the world of MMA, he has a record of 29-9. Rodriguez beat Randy Couture at UFC 39 in 2002 to become heavyweight champion. In 2007, he lost a decision to Ben Rothwell in the IFL world championship finals.

According to a report in the Las Vegas Sun, Rodriguez had Xtreme Couture boxing coach Ron Frazier in his corner and wore a pair of trunks with a Throwdown logo on them. Mike Tyson was in attendance and made fun of the fight:

“Are you going to throw some punches or what?” he asked in the first round.

And later in the bout, Tyson said, “Come on, try to hurt each other.”

What was even sadder about the card was the main event, during which 41-year-old former featherweight champion Kevin Kelley beat Jamie Palma (13-12-1). Kelley, originally from Flushing, gave fight fans many great moments. And while the Flushing Flash has always been a personal favorite of this corner, the ring is no place for a 41-year-old.

I’ll admit it - I’m one of those people who, while at work or in the computer lab at school, tries to sneak a click at the infamous TMZ Web site just to get caught up on the latest celebrity gossip.

Lately, however, it’s been the same old story. Everyone in Hollywood seems to be getting treated for something in rehab, but maybe it’s just a new publicity stunt used to boost celebrity fame. British pop singer Amy Winehouse has definitely made a profit out of treatment with her 2007 hit song “Rehab.”

Celebrity drug use has always been a problem. Actors are prone to drug addiction because they have the money and the access. Fame opens up a world that could either be dangerous or profitable.

Many celebrities have fallen into the glamorous life and have become spoiled with the ability to get whatever they want, whenever they want it. And when I hear another crazy rehab story it makes me think, how could they let this happen? Are they really doing this just to get attention?

Magazines like People have also reported on celebrity drug use and the many ins and outs of rehab. Over the past two years, many of the most ill-behaved celebrities have been seen on the covers of magazines tying to deal with their struggles to overcome drug and alcohol abuse.

Young celebrities caught up in the Hollywood party scene are surrounded by easy access to many drugs. Even the celebrities who look innocent aren’t.

Eva Mendez and Kirsten Dunst, two celebrities with a clean image and whom I would have never guessed to be addicts, both entered into rehab this past month and suddenly popped up everywhere in entertainment news.

Last summer, Lindsey Lohan gained popularity on many magazine covers when she crashed her black Mercedes and received a DUI in Los Angeles. The next weekend she was on almost every magazine cover and entertainment Web site looking passed-out in the passenger’s seat of a friend’s car with a pale face, her head tilted to the side and her mouth wide open. Also hanging from the rear-view mirror of the car were three sobriety medallions from rehab treatment that each indicated 30 days of sobriety. So much for that.

Then the tabloids went crazy to capture Lohan’s out-of-control party habits that led to her long-needed treatment at a facility in Utah.

Another celebrity who has become the most photographed woman in the world right now, because of poor decisions like shaving her head and smashing cars with an umbrella, would have to be the jaw-dropping life of Britney Spears. Articles on MSNBC, Fox News and E! Online, just to name a few, have all ran stories on Spears’ attempts to find help.

Celebrity rehab has even found its way into the business world. Business Week, a Web site dedicated to getting the latest business news, issued a blog on March 27, 2007, by its columnist John Fine using Spears’ rehab drama to criticize other media companies. “Anyone thinking that the fast-growing site TMZ.com is strictly takedown or gawker central (that’s gawker the concept, not gawker the site) evidently hasn’t seen the valentines they’re sending to the nation’s best- known rehab doll,” he said.

Also, a new reality show called “Celebrity Rehab” has aired this year on VH1. It documents the rehab journey of eight celebrities treated by Dr. Drew Pinsky, who is the medical director of the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Southern California. Drew also had a previous show called Loveline, in which he issued advice to questions dealing with relationships and sex.

With the pressure of the media constantly looking over their shoulders, celebrities face extreme pressure on how to maintain their image. Seeing a celebrity enter rehab because they have been depending on drugs and alcohol to calm their nerves should be seen as a chance for them to turn their life around and not as an opportunity for people to make money.

Some celebrities are lucky enough to hit rock-bottom and come back up again, but then there are cases like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley who leave us as legends. So as the saying “sex, drugs and rock and roll” goes, celebrities these days are surely living up to it.

Anna Torres can be reached at atorres@statehornet.com

You can see how Vh1’s Celebrity Rehab sounded like a great idea. It’s simple: combine America’s celebrity obsession with the current trend of self-redemption-themed reality TV shows, get yourself some B-level stars with substance abuse problems (no shortage of those), and put them through the recovery ringer with Dr. Drew Pinsky. It practically produces itself.

Genius, right? Only not really.

There are a number of flaws in Celebrity Rehab’s design, not the least of which is the fact that Dr. Drew might be the biggest celeb on the show. The rest of the cast includes Brigitte Nielsen, pro wrestling’s Chyna, the singer from Crazy Town, Kenicke from Grease, a porn star, a girl who was briefly on Family Matters, and the least famous of the Baldwin brothers.

Oh, and MMA fighter Ricco Rodriguez is also coming to the party late, hopefully with an explanation of why he tried to auction off his UFC heavyweight championship belt on Ebay (my money’s on cocaine).

In other words, when talking about this show with your friends you would likely put air quotes around the word “celebrity” the same way you do when talking about your cousin who is working as a “dancer” to put herself through “college”.

It begs the question: where does entertainment end and exploitation begin? Watching Celebrity Rehab is strangely compelling – the way watching people struggle with addiction often is – but it has little to do with the fact that these people are (according to a very broad definition of the word) famous. It’s more like a watered-down version of A&E’s Intervention.

The fact that this show features celebrities really only encourages us to revel in their pain and feel better about seeing their broken lives on display. To a degree, that’s understandable. Celebrities in our society make a deal with the devil. They receive money, undue adulation, a false sense of accomplishment, but in exchange they give up certain things, like their privacy.

The drug and alcohol-addicted celebrities on this show, however, are really just messed up people who may or may not be using their “recovery” as a way of revitalizing their careers. It’s like everyone is using everyone else in this sordid game. Maybe that’s why I feel a little dirty after watching it