Should Kimbo Slice Have Been Cut?
Kimbo Slice
After Kimbo Slice was less than spectacular against Matt Mitrione, UFC president Dana White has reportedly cut the YouTube streetfighting sensation from the UFC. When asked about Kimbo’s performance at UFC 113, White reportedly stated that “he’s done … and we’ll probably cut him from our UFC roster.”
Can somebody remind me please, what was the purpose of signing Kimbo Slice to the UFC in the first place? Now, I do know that the UFC has cut fighters who have been disappointing in their output and performance as a fighter. One recent example was Rolles Gracie, of the famed and revered Gracie family. Gracie was clearly not prepared physically and mentally to fight in the UFC.
Perhaps I shouldn’t try and separate the two scenarios, however. I can’t say that I would totally blame Kimbo for his inability to put together a win streak in the UFC. Kimbo has improved his mma skills, and the truth is that he’s still borderline amateur skills for mma competition. But a situation like Kimbo is different and should be viewed accordingly.
For one, you have Kimbo fight a guy who outweighed him by at least 45lbs. Kimbo hasn’t evolved enough to believe that he should only be focused on fighting at 205lbs, and possibly a catchweight of 215lbs, as in his first UFC fight against Houston Alexander. And then, you cut him after he goes just 1-1, yet there are other fighters with the UFC who have far worse win percentages, and have been unspectacular as well.
Perhaps Kimbo is better off without the UFC. His skill level as an mma fighter isn’t up to par with the UFC’s cut-throat mentality. There’s no real minor leagues for such talents inside the UFC. It almost seems that Dana White wants to appease the fanboys with a keyword who have always called Kimbo a sideshow or a guy who’s only fighting in the UFC because he can draw more of an audience than 90% of the fighters in the UFC.
Situations like this really make me want to root for James Toney to take out Randy Couture. And hopefully, Strikeforce will come calling for Kimbo. There’s thousands of fans who want to see him fight!
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Let’s cut this whole thing down to what it really is. Kimbo was signed to the UFC to draw an audience. Plain and simple. And you can damn sure bet he was signed for a higher price than any other “rookie” fighter in UFC history.
Kimbo’s first fight, against Houston Alexander, was a total snorefest. Not at all entertaining. In his second fight, he showed absolutely no skill. He looked like the backyard brawler that he started out as. I believe he would have beaten Matt Mitrione if they had fought on The Ultimate Fighter. Yet Mitrione so dominated him at UFC 113 it was ridiculous. Which means that Mitrione has been working on his own skills and either Kimbo has not been learning anything new, or he just doesn’t have the skill to implement his newfound knowledge.
In the end, I believe that Kimbo was cut from UFC mostly due to the size of his contract in comparison with the performance he gave. It is very possible that, if he had an entry-level contract, he may still be in the UFC.
Kimbo may end up in Strikeforce, as you say, and that is probably the best place for him. It will help Strikeforce’s ratings (maybe) and he will face lesser opponents that he may be able to beat and, therefore, advance his rankings. But if his performance on Saturday was any indication, I don’t think we’ll see him back in the UFC any time soon….
He never brought to the octagon what he brought to the ring in PRIDE. So far I haven’t seen the quality fighting in the Pride fighters who have come to the UFC. They some how lost that drive they had in Pride. There are a few but Kimbo was dissappointing. I was actually hoping he would of done better!
Awesome, that’s exactly what I was scanning for! You just saved me alot of digging around