Written by Tom Ngo
Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson has done everything right since coming to the UFC, except prove he can compete on MMA’s biggest stage. Following his lopsided 2ndRound TKO loss to Matt Mitrione at UFC 113 , president Dana White said it’s time to let the street fighter go.
“That’s probably Kimbo’s last fight in the UFC,” said White of Slice’s sixth professional contest. “Kimbo made it farther than I thought he would.”
Kimbo’s claim to fame came in 2005 when a handful of his video-taped backyard brawls made him a YouTube sensation and a household name. Slice parlayed that hype into a mixed martial arts contract with the now-defunct EliteXC promotion in 2007.
Following victories over Bo Cantrell, David Abbott and James Thompson, respectively, Slice was dropped in 14 seconds by light heavyweight Seth Petruzelli at “EliteXC: Heat” in 2008 – taking the company’s future down with him.
In 2009, White offered Kimbo a spot on the 10th season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Kimbo gladly accepted and lost fairly early in the tournament, however Spike TV enjoyed its highest ratings ever for an original program.
Kimbo followed that up with an uneventful win over Houston Alexander this past December, however that too set a Spike TV record.
“He came in. He couldn’t be a nicer guy. He took this fight serious, trained, went after it,” said White. “His first fight wasn’t the YouTube fights you saw, but he won, won that fight, deserved another fight in the UFC and he lost.”
Kimbo holds a 4-2 record and will likely catch on somewhere fairly quickly given his drawing power.
