Kimbo Slice to fight Ken Shamrock in main event of Elite XC CBS show

Internet street fighting sensation turned professional mixed martial artist Kimbo Slice will face one of the sport’s pioneers—Ken Shamrock—in the main event of the EliteXC “Saturday Night Fights’ show to be broadcast on CBS October 4th.  The event will originate from the Bank Atlantic Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Kimbo Slice—real name Kevin Ferguson—parlayed his video taped “street fights” first into Internet fame before turning to professional MMA where he became a full fledged phenomenon.  Watching his poorly shot videotape brawls against nightclub bouncers and Rastafarians held in backyards and boat dealership parking lots, it was evident that Kimbo had some serious potential.  His desire to become a professional fighter was given legitimacy by his training relationship with Bas Rutten, a legitimate MMA legend and one of the best fight minds in the world.  Rutten began working with Kimbo in preparation for his debut, an exhibition against former heavyweight boxing champion Ray Mercer.  While Mercer didn’t look like he’d “come to fight”, Kimbo received credit for perfectly executing his fight plan to negate the skills of a professional boxer before taking him to the mat and submitting his opponent with a rear naked choke.

Shortly after the Mercer fight, Kimbo signed with EliteXC and has quickly become a mainstream superstar.  Not everyone is happy about this fact, as many serious MMA aficionados contend that Kimbo projects the wrong image for a sport struggling to gain acceptance.  They further contend that his popularity is a detriment to more deserving fighters who’ve “paid their dues”.  The fact of the matter, however, is that people want to spend money to watch Kimbo and in the fight business that’s the most important validation of all.

Since defeating Mercer, Kimbo has run his professional record to 3-0 with dominant wins against overmatched Bo Cantrell and Tank Abbott.  He faced his toughest challenge against PRIDE veteran James Thompson at the first EliteXC show on CBS when he was taken down and appeared to be on the verge of a TKO loss.  Kimbo recovered, however, and ended the fight in the third with a brutal punching barrage that resulted in Thompson’s ear being partially torn from his head.  Despite the victory, the less than impressive showing against a fighter hand picked for his reputation of having a “glass jaw” only served to embolden his critics.

Ken Shamrock may be the perfect opponent for Kimbo at this time.  Shamrock was a pioneer of the sport, first in the Japanese shoot wrestling promotion PancraseKing of Pancrase titleholder) and later the UFC.  He lost by submission to eventual champion Royce Gracie in the semifinals of UFC 1, and would fight him again at UFC 5 with that bout ending in a 36 minute draw.  Simultaneously, he became very successful as a professional wrestler with the WWE and TNA.  Many fans aren’t aware that he began his fighting career as a professional wrestler in small regional circuits under the “stage name” Vince “Mr. Wrestling” Torelli.  Shamrock held a number of championships in both major US promotions including the WWE tag team championship (with “Big Boss Man” Ray Traylor), the WWE Intercontinental title and the prestigious NWA heavyweight title while in the TNA promotion (the lineage of the NWA title dates back to 1905 and has been held by legends like Lou Thesz, Jack Brisco, Harley Race and Ric Flair).  (where he became the first ever

At 44, however, Shamrock is clearly on the downside of his competitive career.  He hasn’t defeated a quality opponent in over a decade and has lost 5 straight fights—all by first round TKO-- and 8 of his last 10.  In the later part of his career he’s abandoned the more tactical approach that allowed him to compete with fighters like Royce Gracie in favor of a brawling style.  Still, he’s a big name in the sport and one that is well known to the casual fans that Kimbo attracts.  He’ll likely try to stand and brawl with a bigger, younger, stronger fighter and will all but certainly be another Kimbo KO victim.