Kimbo Slice is back in the ring tonight on CBS.
John Pyle/Cal Sport Media
Someway, somehow Kimbo Slice has become "the face of MMA" -- according to him anyway. I say someway, somehow because Slice isn't that great an MMA fighter. In fact, he'll be the first to tell you as much, if you can ever get him away from his handlers. He's a media creation that's all hype and very little substance. The latest example is Slice's fight against 44-year-old Ken Shamrock at EliteXC: Heat in Sunrise, Fla. tonight on CBS (Editor's Note: Shamrock was a late scratch for the fight due to a cut above his eye; Slice is now slated to fight Seth Petruzelli). SI.com's Josh Gross is on location and will be providing a recap later. Me? Well, I talked to Kimbo on the heels of tonight's fight and asked him for his prediction and when we might actually see him in the ring with an established star who's not a decade past his prime.
Markazi: OK, real quick, what's going to happen between you and Shamrock?
Slice: I am honored to fight a legend like Ken Shamrock but all good things must come to and end. Kimbo Slice will not be denied.
Markazi: What's it like for you to be the main event on a nationally televised card again? Is it still a little surreal for you?
Slice: It's cool. I'm stoked about it. It's exciting for everybody. It's a big opportunity. Everyone is considering me to be the face of MMA and it opens the door for a lot of media to get to know me a little bit better and take back to the fans. I always look at moments like this as a good thing. Nothing negative ever comes from this except for the critics.
Markazi: Speaking of the critics, what's been the reception of the other established MMA fighters to your sudden rise to fame?
Slice: To each his own, all these fighters are there own guy. I don't want these guys to feel like I'm taking something from them but damn it a rising tide lifts all ships and all of us as MMA fighters are out here in this ocean and we're fishing. So if that rising tide is coming and it's by way of me, well, damn it let's rise together. Don't bash me for being where I am right now. I never came into this sport saying I want to knock this guy down or take his fame. No, no, no. I'm not that type of guy. For some reason they don't understand it.
Markazi: Was there a moment when it dawned on you that you had become, as you say, "the face of MMA"?
Slice: When I started going into stores and airports and about half of the people there knew who I was. You get a nod from one guy, and another guy giving you a thumbs up and a bunch of kids coming up to you and hugging you, that's when you realize what's going on. I'm representing my whole crew here and I have to keep a clean face here.
Markazi: How have things changed in your life, in terms of the things that you've done and people that you've been able to meet?
Slice: It changed in the sense that I did a couple commercials and movies and I was able to meet the baddest halfback in the NFL in LaDainian Tomlinson and that was amazing. We did a little backyard training old school style and we had fun working out together.
We worked out with old refrigerators, him leg pressing a front of a car and bench pressing some radiators. He's a strong guy, powerful and explosive and he's a cool guy. He's my boy, he's my buddy.
Slice: It's a part of my history. I embrace that. I came right off the street banging and throwing hands right in the backyard. It's all good. I don't knock none of that. I use that. That's where I came from. I wouldn't encourage kids to do it, because I would be damned if I would let my kids go out there and do that but I had to do that to make some money. That's what I had to do. I am proud of it, but I wouldn't encourage it. If guys want to do it, do it right, become trained and become a professional like myself and the other greats like Randy Couture and Bas Rutten and Chuck Liddell and Rampage Jackson.
Markazi: So when are we going to see you in the ring with those guys?
Slice: Ask me after the fight.
Maybe I will, but for now let me ask you guys this: Who wins tonight? Do you even care?
Bar Refaeli
Michelle Damon
Mavs Dancers
College Football, Top 25 Review
Comments (42) Add A Comment
This is garbage. Shamrock is out? Some scrub is in? Not that Shamrock isn't a scrub.... but the weak just got weaker.
BuffaloTF
Total Comments (574)
Apparently NOT! TKO'd 14 seconds...yes 14 seconds into the first round! Slice was down and out.
LGP on the Offensive
Pittsburgh , PA
Total Comments (3010)
KIMBO SLICE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
svtjer
Coral Springs, FL
Total Comments (246)
5 seconds..Kimbo is knocked out....if this doesn't finish off EliteXC, I don't know what will, Gina Carano is HOT! I don't care if he didn't prepare for the fighter, he got powned...go back to fighting nobodies loser, that's all you will ever beat.
Sean Connery
Pemberton, NJ
Total Comments (634)
he got knocked the **** OUT!
Sean Connery
Pemberton, NJ
Total Comments (634)
LGP, are you sure it wasn't less than 14 seconds? lol
Sean Connery
Pemberton, NJ
Total Comments (634)
It sure seemed like less, but the official announcement was 14 seconds.
LGP on the Offensive
Pittsburgh , PA
Total Comments (3010)
o men im a bahamian and i just watch the fight and ken punk out so kimbo had a random fight and he got baet in 15 sec come on man.thats no fair he really were traning for ken and theyput a pop up fight who is so faster than him. that run me so hot im disappointed
Wayne Martin
Total Comments (57)
Kimbo Goes Down in 12 SECONDS by a man with pink hair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How embarrassing, in front of the home crowd in Florida!!!!!!!!!!! This is the worst day of his life!!!
QJ15
Brooklyn, NY
Total Comments (2)
That was weird. It didn't look like that hard of a shot that dropped him either. It was short, quick and right were it needed to be though. Happens to the best of them, but Kimbo ain't one of the best now, is he?
MadridistAmericano
Decatur , GA
Total Comments (900)
you sound like a Kimbo Slice fan, Wayne Martin, you are the first of many soon to be Kimbo excuses, do you think Petruzelli trained for Slice? It didn't seem to bother him any! This is just what thousands of true MMA fans and fighters predicted for so long that Kimbo would finally fight someone with half an ounce of talent and lose. I don't think fighting Ken Shamrock would have been much different...tick..tick tick..it's your 15 seconds of fame ticking away Kimbo!! I can't stop laughing!!
Sean Connery
Pemberton, NJ
Total Comments (634)
Man, my grandma could've knocked Kimbo out in that fight!!!
QJ15
Brooklyn, NY
Total Comments (2)
ive never seen anything so embarrassing in a boxing ring.
Offensively Minded
San Jose, CA
Total Comments (681)
ive never seen anything so embarrassing in a boxing ring.
Offensively Minded
San Jose, CA
Total Comments (681)
I was reading comments from him in the interview where he refers to himself as a "professional" and mentions himself in the same light as Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Rampage Jackson, and Bas Rutten...the arrogance...
Sean Connery
Pemberton, NJ
Total Comments (634)
You Tube street fighter champion goes DOWN! WOW.... from a fighter in the audience? lol Wow they built him up so BIG! poor suckers bet all their money on this phony! lol
At least he gets a paycheck to buy more gold , to put around his big head.
Don't worry suckers, he had a good excuse! I trained for the old man , not a young man! lol
nddallas
Dallas , TX
Total Comments (1)
that was funny!!! what a waste, did he even land, yet alone throw a punch??? I thought he was so B_A_D. So if he took this fight without training for his opponent what kind of training do you do for your opponent in a streetfight??? I mean, some of the students I teach could have beaten up some of his internet foes. his gimmick is done. and people thought he could HONESTLY hang with Lesnar. Please.
Snakeace
Sarver , PA
Total Comments (171)
Tyson > Kimbo
MMA just lost 15yrs of progress with that result.
SUKKERS!!
TorFan
Total Comments (673)
he got punked thats for sure, But honestly I wouldn't F%$# with him
Devin 65
Midwest City, OK
Total Comments (111)
Kimbo "the face of MMA" ? A-Rash, only you would make a ridicules statement like that. I've never heard anyone say Kimbo was the face of MMA.
Hank Hill
Arlen, TX
Total Comments (7390)
Comment
Remember to keep your posts clean. Profanity will get filtered, and offensive comments will be removed.