KIMBO SLICE TO APPEAR ON SEASON 10 OF ‘THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER’

The UFC has been maligned in the past year or two for their heavyweight division and to be sure there’s many top heavyweights not fighting for the promotion–the most significant being the undisputed best heavyweight MMA fighter on the planet, Fedor Emelianenko and the man considered by most to be #2, Josh Barnett. While the UFC might not have the best heavyweight fighter in the sport, they may soon have the most famous.  Dana White announced on Tuesday that Kimbo Slice will be a contestant on season 10 of the UFC’s MMA reality show ‘The Ultimate Fighter’. A good performance there could see him get a shot at fighting for the promotion.

In the past, Dana White has dismissed Slice and suggested that the only way he’d ever fight in the UFC is by winning ‘The Ultimate Fighter’. Kimbo will get the opportunity to do just that, and combined with the recently announced coaches Rashad Evans and the always entertaining Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson could be the highest rated season in series history. For Kimbo—real name ‘Kevin Ferguson’—its yet another strange twist in his bizarre career as a professional fighter.  Slice first made his name fighting in non-sanctioned ‘street fights’ to supplement his income as a bodyguard for a Miami based adult film production company.  At some point, Kimbo’s entourage started bringing video cameras to his fights and the footage found its way onto the Internet. 

Kimbo quickly became an online ‘cult hero’ before he officially turned pro as a fighter.  He began to train under MMA legend Bas Rutten and made his debut in an exhibition against former heavyweight boxing champ Ray Mercer.  Kimbo won a dominating victory, and his meteoric rise to superstardom was underway.  Not long after, he signed with EliteXC and they quickly made Kimbo the centerpiece of their promotion.  While building a MMA promotion around a fighter with almost no experience likely led to their downfall, at the time Kimbo became a media sensation and Elite XC parlayed his popularity into a prime time network TV deal with CBS. 

Things started out fine for Kimbo as he made short work out of his first two overmatched opponents.  He had a tougher time with PRIDE veteran James Thompson in his third pro fight, with Thompson controlling much of the bout on the ground until Kimbo earned a TKO victory in the third.  Kimbo’s fourth fight was originally scheduled to be against former UFC mainstay Ken Shamrock, but due to a last minute injury he eventually faced substitute Seth Petruzelli.  Petruzelli caught Kimbo with a perfectly placed counter right hook and knocked him out.  That was the beginning of the end for Elite XC, and the promotion was out of business in a matter of weeks.

Following the demise of Elite XC Kimbo kept a fairly low profile.  He made a few appearances in a promotional capacity for the K-1 kickboxing organization in Japan while considering his next career move.  About this time, he parted with trainer Bas Rutten who intimated that Kimbo had let his newfound celebrity go to his head.  UFC president Dana White would occasionally be asked if he’d ever have an interested in Kimbo, which he’d dismiss with the offhanded suggestion that the only way he’d fight in the UFC was to compete in ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality show. 

While it’s unclear when that off-handed dismissal by White became a viable reality, but regardless of how the deal came together Kimbo will be a contestant on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’.  Some have speculated that White is something of a sadist, and is looking forward to embarrassing Slice even further.  More likely, he’s taken note of his incredible popularity and decided to take advantage of it to revitalize a series that has become somewhat predictable and formulaic of late.  It’s really a no-lose proposition for the UFC—if Kimbo doesn’t do well, they were right all along and if he *does* do well they can make some money with him.  In any case, the media coverage and ratings for their MMA reality show will likely be at an all time high.