Kimbo Slice

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Background and Ray Mercer
3 Professional Debut and EliteXC
4 The Ultimate Fighter
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson (born February 8, 1974) is a Bahamian and American professional mixed martial artist and is most popular for his street fights on Youtube.

He stands 6 ft. 2 in. (188 cm) tall and fights in the heavyweight division at approximately 235 lbs..

Slice is an EliteXC veteran and currently competes as a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights.

Background and Ray Mercer

Kimbo Slice rise to fame in 2003 when his unsanctioned street fights were broadcast on YouTube. The videos showcased Slice calling out neighbourhood tough guys and then battering them stupid.

The most famous of Slice's street fights came against Boston police officer, Sean Gannon. Gannon had dabbled in a bit of MMA and used a standing guillotine choke to wear Slice out and eventually knock him to the mat with punches. This fight was Slice's first on camera loss and gave both fighters a surge in popularity.

With the YouTube notoriety behind him, Slice turned his focus to MMA in 2007. He began training with former UFC heavyweight champion, Bas Rutten and decided before plunging head first into a professional career, he would have an exhibition bout. The exhibition bout came on June 23, 2007 against former WBO heavyweight boxing champion, Ray Mercer. Slice surprised many by submitting Mercer with a guillotine choke in 1:12 of round 1.

After the bout, Slice called out UFC legend, David "Tank" Abbott, who immediately accepted.

Professional Debut and EliteXC

Slice was scheduled to face Tank a few months later as part of a Palace Fighting Championships event but the bout fell through when the event was cancelled. A few weeks later Slice signed with EliteXC with his debut to come at EliteXC: Renegade on November 10, 2007. Originally to face Mike Bourke, an injury forced Bourke out and he was replaced by journeyman, Bo Cantrell. In what didn't amount to much of a fight, Slice rushed Cantrell and landed some strikes while Cantrell simultaneously fell to his back and tapped out, giving Slice the win in just 19 seconds.

In February, 2008, Slice got the match up he wanted against Tank Abbott as the main event of EliteXC: Street Certified. In a quick and furious bout, Slice shrugged off a Tank takedown attempt and was docked a point for shots to the back of the head. When the bout restarted Slice connected with a vicious right hand that dropped Tank cold.

With Slice's popularity building with each fight, EliteXC opted to use him as the main event of the first ever mixed martial arts show to be aired live on network television, EliteXC: Primetime. Slice was matched up against PRIDE veteran, James Thompson and found himself in a very competitive fight as Thompson opted to use his wrestling and get the fight to the floor. Slice landed some damaging shots on the feet but found himself on the bottom for the majority of the first two rounds eating punches and elbows. Slice headed out in the third round and landed some heavy punches that busted Thompson's cauliflower ear and dazed him. The referee had seen enough however and halted the bout before Thompson hit the mat, giving Slice the controversial TKO victory.

Slice was next tapped to headline EliteXC's third CBS show, EliteXC: Heat against UFC Hall of Famer, Ken Shamrock in October, 2008. Just five hours before the bout was to get underway though, Shamrock was not cleared to fight due to a cut suffering in sparring. TUF 2's Seth Petruzelli was called up from the undercard to replace Shamrock. A nervous looking Slice entered the cage and after rushing Petruzelli he was caught with an off balance jab that nevertheless dazed him and knocked him to the mat. Some follow up punches saw the bout stopped marking Slice's first professional loss.

The event would be the last one for EliteXC as controversy erupted around some comments from Petruzelli that he was paid to fight Kimbo standing while the promotion leaked money like a siv.

The Ultimate Fighter

In the months following the Petruzelli loss, not much was heard from Slice as the dust settled on the EliteXC collapse. Rumors began to circulate in 2009 that Kimbo had changed his focus to boxing but then in a completely unexpected turn of events, it was announced that Kimbo had signed on as one of 16 heavyweight contestants for The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights.

The move generally applauded in the MMA community with UFC president stating that the only way Kimbo Slice was to get in the UFC was via The Ultimate Fighter.

Mixed martial arts record

**Professional Breakdown**
4 matches	3 wins	1 losses
By knockout	2	1
By submission	1	0
By decision	1	0
Draws	0

Record

Result	Opponent	Method	Event Title	Date	Round	Time	Notes
Loss	Seth Petruzelli	TKO (Punches)	EliteXC: Heat	10/04/2008	1	0:14	Petruzelli took the bout on five hours notice after Ken Shamrock pulled out of the bout due to a cut.
Win	James Thompson	TKO (Punches)	EliteXC: Primetime	5/31/2008	3	0:38	-
Win	Tank Abbott	KO (Punches)	EliteXC: Street Certified	2/16/2008	1	0:43	-
Win	Bo Cantrell	Submission (Punches)	EliteXC: Renegade	11/10/2007	1	0:19	Professional MMA Debut