Kimbo Slice in MMA
Is Kimbo Slice Good for the Sport?
by Eric Davidson
As most of you are aware (unless you’ve been watching scrambled clips of MMA bouts from a cave) one of the newest faces to hit the sports arena is the infamous Kimbo Slice, who will take on James Thompson in CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights on May 31st on CBS free television.
The famously brutal street fighter made a name for himself in the underground world fighting consensual conflicts in urban environments which were later posted online. Perhaps one of the more famous engagements ended with him knocking a man’s eye out of his socket; which still didn’t end the fight for unknown reasons. His recent entry into the mixed martial arts territory caused mixed emotions from die-hard fans. Many were thrilled to see Kimbo enter a more professional fighting arena, whether to say “I’ve been following this guy since he was a street fighter,” with some added pride, or just to watch him pummel “professional” fighters who’ve been training for years.
Others saw it as a gimmick, a publicity stunt by the EliteXC to bring a virally famous face into their MMA atmosphere. Especially when he began by fighting former champions a little past their prime, (i.e. a visibly older Tank Abbott) perhaps just to fatten his fighting record before throwing him up against some more notable competitors. Some have already showed some distain for EliteXC’s flashy entrances with dancing girls, hinting that instead of being viewed as a sport it is considered as just another form of mindless entertainment. Even MMA legend Chuck Liddell has taken a stand against the Kimbo Slice craze, suggesting that Kimbo isn’t nearly as good as he’s being hyped up to be. Liddell even states:
“All I said is fight to someone real. The only guy he lost to in his street-fight things came into the UFC and lost. Fight a guy that is real and fight a guy… who has a few wins in MMA, and then talk about it.”
Regardless of the hype or anti-hype, you can’t deny his strength. Watching him pound into Tank Abbott and Bo Cantrell makes any viewer realize the authority behind his fists.
Born Kevin Ferguson in Miami, Florida, Kimbo was a star defensive football player before ending a year and a half stint at the University of Miami (where he surprisingly didn’t play football). Afterwards he worked as a body-guard for RK Netmedia, a Miami-based pornography company who even feature’s Kimbo as an escort in a select group of videos (or so I’m told). It wasn’t until a match between former Boston Police Officer Sean Gannon that they were both propelled into the MMA arena. Gannon, as stated by Liddell, lost to Brandon Lee Hinkle in a brutally bloody match fromwhich Gannon has yet to return.
For the MMA purists watching an internet famous street brawler may not be what you’re looking for in a sport that is constantly gaining a respectable reputation; especially with such sportsman-like displays from people such as Matt Serra, George St. Pierre, and even Gina Carano, who had a quick “no” response to a question involving her posing in Playboy. No matter what the sport, its degree of class is always defined by its participants, so the question is:
Is Kimbo Slice, the self-made street fighter/pornography body-guard/father of six from Miami going to be good for a sport that is still struggling to keep a reputable image?
Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young Speak on Upcoming Bout
Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young joined EliteXC president Gary Shaw to address reporters today in anticipation of thei May 31st event, CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights.
Both women were very positive in their comments about their upcoming fight. Carano, who just finished her obligations with American Gladiators a week ago, is now back at Randy Couture’s Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. She told reporters that she is now weighing 155 and by fight time will be in the range of 5 or 6 pounds of the 140 pound weight limit for the fight, and will cut weight prior to come in under 140. Carano stated:
“Extremely honored to fight on the CBS card. I think it’s one of the best matchups I’ve ever had. I’m excited to be getting back to what my passion is, which is fighting.”
Gina Carano’s opponent Kaitlin Young is a kinesiology major at the University of Minnesota and told a curious reporter that she has a 3.0 GPA. She stated that after this semester ends she will be going to school just part time so she will be able to concentrate on her MMA career. Young had this to say in her opening comments.
“Like Gina, I am honored to be fighting on this CBS card. It’s going to be a great stylistic matchup. Training’s been going very well. I had a lot of notice so I’ve had a lot of time to prepare.”
Gary Shaw had many comments on the call regarding women’s mixed martial arts. When asked why Elite XC has been so interested in women’s MMA, Gary Shaw commented, “If women can fight in wars and die for their country, there’s no reason they cannot fight MMA”. When asked what plans EliteXC has in the coming year, Shaw responded that they are considering an all women’s show and a women’s title.
The fight between Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young will be the third fight televised on of the night on May 31st.
- Caleb 
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Breakdown of DREAM 3
Results are in from today’s DREAM 3, which took place in Japan over the weekend.
Here is a snapshot of how our predictors performed here on MMAPredictions.com for the event overall, which you can see by going to the card’s detailed results page.
- 198 MMAPredictions users predicted on tonight’s card, a lot less than took part in DREAM 2.
- Due to several surprises, DREAM 2 had no one predict all the fights correct. However in DREAM 3 lots of those 198 predicted every fight correctly.
- The average of all our users’ prediction accuracies for the card’s 7 fights on MMAPredictions was 75.4% making this card very predictable. Since MMAPredictions’ inception, the average prediction accuracy across all fight cards is in the low fifties.
Most easily-predicted fight outcome: Jason Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata. Ninety-nine percent of our users correctly predicted that Jason Miller would beat the Japanese fighter, whose record is now 2-4-0.
Most surprising fight outcome: Caol Uno’s defeat of Mitsuhiro Ishida. Just 32% of folks thought Uno could defeat Ishida, who did so by rear naked choke.
Next up on MMAPredictions.com is the International Fight League’s event IFL: New Blood New Battles which takes place on May 16th in Connecticut.
- Caleb
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DREAM 3 Draws Near
DREAM Tournament belts. Photo courtesy FEG / Monty DiPietro.
This weekend’s DREAM 3 draws closer with a few twists and turns that deserve mention.
- Nagata is out. Katsuhiko Nagata is no longer visible on the official DREAM website’s page for this event, so he’s been pulled here on MMAPredictions.com, where he was shown to be fighting an unnamed opponent.
- The Nick Diaz Saga. Early on Wednesday our friends at FiveOuncesofPain.com reported that Cesar Gracie had told the Sherdog Radio Network that Nick Diaz may indeed still be fighting on the DREAM 3 card. However later Gracie mentioned that Diaz would not be fighting on the card. Late Wednesday Sherdog reported that Gracie will indeed be fighting Katsuya Inoue.
Just a heads up for MMAPredictions folks who will make their predictions for the event: I have some family obligations and will be traveling from San Diego to North Carolina all weekend. I will be back online and updating the website as soon as possible. Please be patient!
- Caleb
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IFL Opts for New Ring Design, Announces Next Event
Today the IFL held a conference call with the press to announce several changes to its initial plans for 2008. First and most visible will be a new fighting enclosure, called The Hex, which is a six-sided boxing ring. The Hex is being built by Throwdown in Las Vegas and fighters will have an opportunity to train on it before their next IFL fight.
According to IFL CEO Jay Larkin:
From a production and live event standpoint, the ring has proven to be the most fan and media friendly environment, as well as providing the safest possible environment for our athletes. The Hex allows for the larger surface that is utilized in other MMA organizations while still retaining the advantages we have enjoyed with the ring.
Also of note is that the next IFL event will be in August, despite the IFL having booked a Las Vegas venue for June 27th. No IFL fights will take place after the IFL’s next event, IFL New Blood, New Battles on May 16th at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut until August. Fights for the August show will be announced in June.
Larkin addressed whether the IFL has been for sale by saying, “everything is for sale… Microsoft is for sale, the hot dog cart outside our office is for sale… We remain open to offers that make sense for the company.”
Another theme in the conversation was that of cross promotion. Larkin and IFL Director of Fight Operations Bas Rutten pointed out that IFL fighters Rory Markham and Mark Miller will be taking part in Adrenaline MMA’s upcoming debut show in June. Larkin stressed that the IFL is always open to cross promote with anyone, including the UFC although he said he does not see interest from the UFC in the matter.
Larkin stated that he had had conversations with EliteXC president Gary Shaw about loaning Jay Hieron to EliteXC and was ready to do so but Hieron had an upcoming fight obligation with the IFL at the time.
- Caleb
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