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Kimbo Slice Dominated by Roy Nelson, UFC Very Impressed with Kimbo Slice
by Ivan Trembow

Well, Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson has had his chance on The Ultimate Fighter, and in the first round of the 16-man tournament, he lost to Roy Nelson by TKO. The fight itself wasn't as ugly as the heavyweight fight on the previous episode of The Ultimate Fighter, but it was pretty ugly in its own right.

So, THAT is the fight that caused UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta to tell the L.A. Times Blog last week, "We've been very impressed with Kimbo’s performance"? What a joke.

And that's the fight that caused Dana White to tell the L.A. Times Blog last week, "Are you going to see Kimbo Slice fight again in the UFC? Yes," as well as, "The ratings do not influence our decision. The guy can either fight or not" (a quote which leaves no explanation for Junie Browning's continued UFC employment).

I was surprised to see the fight go that way, given Fertitta and White's public statements. What is not at all surprising is White's child-like behavior when his favored fighter lost. "Roy Nelson did just enough to win!" White exclaimed. Really? Because it sure seemed like he shut down and TKO’ed the fighter around whom White built a whole season of The Ultimate Fighter.

And Roy Nelson's 44 unanswered punches on Kimbo's head at the end of the first round reminded Dana White of his daughter playfully punching him? That was just an unnecessary low blow by a man who continues to feel no shame from constantly insulting the professional fighters who work for him.

Of course, whether or not Kimbo got TKO'ed in his fight first isn't what really matters, right? It's the ratings. The UFC and Spike TV have gone from publicly mocking Kimbo and even Kimbo's ratings-drawing power in press releases and public statements when he was fighting for EliteXC, to now fully using that ratings-drawing power for themselves, even though he's still not actually much of a fighter.

Despite saying before this season of TUF that the only way Kimbo would be a UFC fighter is if he went on TUF and won the tournament, the UFC has now amended that position, affirming what many people thought all along, which is that Kimbo is going to be a UFC fighter in the future, no matter how poorly he performs on TUF.

The biggest farce of all is the fact that Kimbo is still going to be a UFC fighter in the future, despite that performance, and despite his performance against Seth Petruzelli, despite the claim that the UFC would never push an un-talented fighter for ratings purposes.

I also want to be clear that I have nothing against Kimbo personally; he has just taken the opportunities that have been given to him. The problem is the con-men who have pushed Kimbo far more than his talent has warranted, from the beginning of his career to now and well into his future career in the UFC.

So, what's the over/under on how much money it would be worth for the UFC if one of the other contestants on the show just happened to come down with an injury that caused them to have to withdraw from the competition, which would lead to another contestant coming back (like, I don’t know, maybe Kimbo Slice). They already hinted at that in the preview for the next episode. Let the "farce" continue.

Labels: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

posted by Ivan Trembow at 11:20 PM

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