Reaction to Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson
Ah, those clever people over at Spike TV and the UFC! Clever editing, tons of buzz, tons of promotion, all done to give us the illusion that Kimbo had a shot to beat Roy Nelson on tonight’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter. In reality, the majority of us knew that wouldn’t be the case, but still many of us in the MMA community have been analzying still frames of promos like it was the Zapruder film. “It looks like the punch lands flush!” “I saw a promo where Kimbo was ground n’ pounding Roy!” We were taking quotes from Kimbo, Dana White, Rashad Evans, and Roy Nelson trying to figure out if any word could be a clue to the outcome of the fight. We were all duped.
Yeah, don’t feel stupid, I did it too. The promotional machine did it’s job however. The episode more than likely had more viewers than any other fight in the history of the UFC. However, all of us who watched the show saw a fighter who still hasn’t learned the basics of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or any kind of ground game, and another fighter who was less than overwhelming against a MMA rookie.
In fairness to Kimbo, his standup looked slightly better than the last time I saw him fight. He even through a leg kick in there. His takedown defense was adequate in the first round, even though Nelson outweighed him by 35 pounds. As soon as the fight hit the ground though, Kimbo was done. The fight could have been stopped at the end of the first round as Nelson had Kimbo in a crucifix and was raining down light shots. None of them were doing any damage, but Kimbo wasn’t defending himself. Referee Herb Dean allowed the fight to enter the 2nd round.
The 2nd round began with some more standup, but after getting hit with a couple shots, Nelson quickly took Kimbo down again. He got the same crucifix position, and was able to do enough damage this time to end the fight. He was far from dominant, but his only goal was to survive the fight and not get hurt so he could continue in the next round. Mission accomplished. He still has the best background of any guy on the show, and is a heavy favorite to win the UFC contract.
As for Kimbo’s future, I’m pretty certain he’ll have a home in the UFC. Hopefully he continued to work on his ground game throughout the rest of his time on the show, and there is speculation he’ll come back in the competition as an injury replacement. Either way, he’s scheduled to fight in December, likely at the Ultimate Finale on Spike TV. He’s been training at American Top Team in Florida, one of the top camps in MMA and home to fighters such as Thiago Alves, Thiago Silva, Mike Brown, Jeff Monson and Luis Cane, among many others. Hopefully Ricardo Liborio is working on basic things that can help him at least defend himself on the ground.
There has been talk about Kimbo possibly dropping some weight and competing in the light heavyweight division. I don’t think he has anywhere close to the speed he’d need to compete at that class, but he seems willing to try it if the UFC asks. If Slice can become a mid-level Heavyweight or light heavyweight in the UFC, all parties involved will consider this whole experiment a major success.
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- Kimbo Slice vs. Matt Mitrione Likely for UFC 113
- Kimbo Slice preview video for “The Ultimate Fighter” season 10
- The Ultimate Finale 10 Recap
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