I don’t want to spoil the result for anyone who hasn’t seen the episode…so post after the jump if you’re on the blog page. If you already clicked through, don’t read any further.
Tonight was the big night. Kimbo Slice fought Roy Nelson in the first round of the TUF 10 tournament. The episode itself was actually pretty entertaining. Rampage had more hilarious one-liners than I can count. Kimbo had a few philosophical moments, sort of, his enemy is actually himself, his “inner me.” We learned big Marcus Jones is a sensitive man who absolutely loves flowers and gardening. And we found out Kimbo Slice is pretty much the same fighter he’s always been, though in his defense, this fight took place pretty early in the show, so that should probably be expected.
Problem was everyone who already knew what happened kept talking about how impressive Kimbo Slice was. Maybe to trick us into believing he actually had a chance, or maybe he comes back as a replacement and puts on a better performance (Spike is already promoting that angle to keep up ratings), I don’t know, but tonight I was not impressed.
What was supposed to happen, happened. Kimbo managed to briefly corner Roy and land a few punches in the first round, he hit him with a few in opening moments of the second, and even exhibited fairly decent takedown defense in the first, but that was about it. He never did anything that made me think, wow, Kimbo is good enough to be in the UFC. Roy got him down in both rounds, put him a very dominant crucifix position twice and dealt unanswered, albeit rather weak, blows until the ref stopped the fight. That’s how it was supposed to go down, and that’s fine for Kimbo, he’s still learning, I’m not trying to knock him, he’s actually very likable. I just don’t see him having a successful career in the UFC unless he shows remarkable improvement, and at his age, that’s a huge question mark.
To his credit, Roy was a big step up in competition for Kimbo, but it’s not going to get any easier for him in the UFC. Let’s be honest here, if he was anyone other than Kimbo Slice, he probably wouldn’t be fighting in front of a live UFC audience in December based on his performance tonight.
What do you think? Am I being too hard on Kimbo?
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I thought i would never say this but kimbo did alot better than i ever saw him doing – the stand up was good but as soon as it hit the ground his brain shut off, i mean not even basic – VARY BASIC ground movement. it was sad to see that two times roy gave him the eazy basic reversal and at one point only had his arm and kimbo’s body was all but out and he just did’nt know witch way to turn – i’ve never been high on kimbo but somebody please tell him to go to westling camp and he will be worlds better !
Well, the UFC tends to bring back a lot of TUF fighters to fight on at least one more card – and honestly as horrible as Kimbo is, I would rather watch him than Dave Kaplan or any Browning brother.
I was impressed with the power his punches have, but the guy needs a boxing trainer and about 5 years of wrestling practice packed up into a few short months.
Not too hard at all. Kimbo will NEVER be good on the ground. They will put him on the finale so people will watch because let’s face it, the talent on this season’s show is pitiful. But Kimbo will lose that fight too, and that will be it for him. They may put him on the payroll to keep him from Strikeforce, but you won’t see him on a PPV.
This Kimbo virus has basically run it’s course now. I’ve been telling everybody; Kimbo is a joke. He’s not a professional fighter, and he never will be. I do tip my hat to the guy for coming over to the UFC. It shows he’s got guts, but this time guts weren’t enough.
Time for him to shave the beard huh Berezandky? lol I agree with you.