Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson In The Most-Anticipated Episode In “The Ultimate Fighter” Franchise History (Photo Courtesy of Spike TV)
Kimbo Slice, the former YouTube sensation, and current aspiring UFC fighter, makes his first trip into the famed UFC Octagon® against former IFL champ Roy Nelson on the upcoming episode of “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” on Wednesday, September 30 at 10:00pm ET/PT. The third episode of the new season, the highest rated ever thus far, was taped in early June.
Slice, a member of Team Rampage, will be taking on Nelson from Team Rashad, a fighter with arguably the most impressive resume among this season’s cast. The winner of the bout advances and will need two more victories to qualify for the live finale on Saturday, December 5 from Las Vegas and a chance to win a six-figure contract with the UFC.
Tale of the Tape:
Kimbo Slice:
Age: 35
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 235 lbs
Hometown: Nassau, Bahamas
Trains: Miami, FL – Team Kimbo
MMA record: 3-1
One of the most intriguing figures in the history of mixed martial arts, Kimbo Slice was born in the Bahamas and moved to Miami with his mother and two brothers. A natural athlete, Slice was a star linebacker at Miami Palmetto High School and was later awarded an athletic scholarship to the University of Miami, although he did not play a down there and left after just a year and a half. After college, Slice struggled to make ends meet, and lived out in his car when employment was impossible to find.
Slice eventually found work as a bodyguard and used his natural fighting skills to protect his clients. In Miami, word spread about Slice’s explosive punching power and soon he was a part of an unsanctioned street fighting circuit: all striking, no grappling and the crowd that showed up would decide a winner if both men were still standing at the end of the battle. More often than not, Slice was the one standing, and he became a YouTube sensation as his exploits were videotaped and posted at the speed of broadband for all to see.
Millions of YouTube views later, Slice transitioned into mixed martial arts in order to provide for his fiancée and six children. He fought for the now-defunct EliteXC, headlining the first ever mixed martial arts card on broadcast television. He compiled a 3-0 record before losing to Seth Petruzelli in front of millions of viewers.
Roy Nelson
Age: 33
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 265 lbs
Hometown: Las Vegas, NV
Trains: Las Vegas, NV – Team Big Country
MMA record: 14-4-0
Roy “Big Country” Nelson wants viewers to take one look at him and underestimate him because of his physique. It makes it all the more sweet for him when the referee raises Nelson’s arm at the end of the bout.
Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nelson has always been a gifted athlete. He wrestled and played football and baseball at Cimarron Memorial High School before graduating in 1994. He became a martial arts fan after seeing “The Karate Kid” at a young age and began training in karate and kung fu. He began watching the UFC® in 1994 and, in 2000, began training in jiu-jitsu with one of the sport’s top coaches, John Lewis in Las Vegas. Nelson also served as a training partner to many of the top mixed martial arts fighters in Las Vegas.
Four years later, he made the transition from trainer to fighter and made his pro debut. With a devastating mixture of striking, ground and pound, and submission skills, he has compiled a 14-4 record and held the now-defunct IFL’s Heavyweight title. “Big Country” sustained two recent losses to notable mixed martial arts heavyweights including a KO to former UFC® champ Andrei Arlovski last October and lost a three-round decision to Jeff Monson in March.
i want kimbo to knock him out.see james mcsweeney getting in ramps face.
McSweeny needs to remember that’s “Rampage” Jackson…he’ll get his bell rung quick like.
I too hope “Kimbo Slice” KO’s “Big Country”…
They’re listing Kimbo at 235, even though he looks pretty big, so Roy will have at least thirty pounds on him.
Pretty impressive credentials for Big Country, including a black belt under Renzo Gracie, which I didn’t know. He’s gone 13-4 in MMA, which is good, but has two losses the last two times out. Read that the loss to Monson, who’s consistently inconsistent, was controversial, but the knockout against Arlovski can’t be argued.
Kimbo has worked with Bas Rutten, has essentially no wrestling or BJJ pedigree, and aside from his well publicised street fights, has little or no experience or training that would lead me to think he has a real chance against Roy Nelson. Aside from a hell of a puncher’s chance, don’t see this working out well for Kimbo, especially if Nelson takes it down to the mat.
That said, I too would like to see Kimbo advance, as I think there’s a lot to be said for strength of character, which Kimbo is demonstrating by taking part in TUF 10. Nelson is a serious opponent, so if Kimbo does get by him, it will answer a lot of questions as to how far the internet sensation might be expected to go in this tournament, and perhaps beyond.
that black belt is oly good for going round his waiste after kimbo catches him with some shot’s.i am happy if kimbo loses altough i dowant him to win but if rampage loses 3 in a row and evans keeps the hammer we will see the temper tantrums we all know rampage has.
You guys are all talking like nelson has no boxing game whatsoever. Kimbo hits hard, but he’s not even that technical with his hands. Also, he trained with Bas for a relatively brief spell, but Bas even said he was unhappy with the way Kimbo wasn’t learning. I think Roy has this in thte bag, and I also think he can hang with Kimbo on the feet.
kimura what your are saying is right and intelligent but kimbo is knocking him out.i feel it,i want to see it for some reason.
Big Country should, by all accounts win this, but as we all know all it takes is one punch to change a fight. Remember Roy got ko’d by Arlovski, not that Kimmy is AA, but he does have that ko power. Gonna be a good one either way! Can u say highest tuf rating ever?
Forums? Anyone have the 411?
Cisco,,,forums here. The last in heard was that this was taking a lot longer than expected, duh. I miss the opportunity to create and throw our views out there on stuff we’ve created. The thing that really sux is that a lot of us have become regulars here and wouldn’t have that anywhere else. I dig that, i don’t know how the rest of u’s feel but i do dig the familiarity of this site and the members here. We talk smack, sometimes get heated…mu shin is our “guru”, Daley is from the UK (* international flavor), a lot of you guys have fought and are fighters and I admire that. I’ll be 40 next year and I no longer can handle the training aspect it would take to be a fighter…but oh how cool it would be…sorry got off on a tangent
It’s cool Cota, you’re absolutely right it’s a shame they haven’t put their forums back up yet. I mean, they put this fancy new interface on their website, but it really hasn’t amounted to much. The stories are either unoriginal or uninspiring, and they have these new reoccurring feature articles that they don’t follow up on. They said the “Court of MMA” thing would be an every two week thing, but no it’s been almost three months sinc ethey put the Fedor story up and even that wasn’t anything we all haven’t heard a million times.
I like what you guys are sayin and i agree that we need the forums back because thats where we really had some great and heated discussions. But enough with the past, i see no way that roy can’t win this fight on the feet or ground unfortunatly for me i had these to battling for the 6 figure contract at the finale. By the way daley not trying to dis your boy mcsweeney but his thai boxing is shit he needs to work on his cardio to. I know how mad you can get when someone disses a u.k. fighter and im the same way with minnesota guys but i think mcsweeney needs to tighten his game before going to the ufc
mcsweeney has better kickboxing than he showed,i watched a few of his fights and he is a very agressive striker.he looked scared to strike in that fight but i dont blame him because he is awfull on his back,the gameplan was counter strike i think so he didnt leave himself to be took down,his cardio has never been the best,he was beating neil grove untill he got tired.he would be finished with nelson and that wrestler who won the first match on the shows first episode,i cant remember his name,the one that trains at matt hughes camp.i am rooting for mcsweeney and kimbo so im being treated early on to see how my favourites do.j-cota i was reading bout the regulars,i enjoy coming on here and reading what people think on the latest news and fight announcments aswell as what you thought of certain matches.i do miss these forums.hector said they needed to change and couldnt stick with the old format,i cant remember the reason,obviously to make the site better but i really liked the old way with the forums,avatar,sidescreen,favourite fighters.i would love to go back to that format.we had more members then aswell,a good half of us have stuck with madness,i did because i couldnt go to another site and talk mma with a bunch of strangers.im a madness member for sure.this is where i started my mma chat and i built a respect and intrest in what you guys think bout mma.
Hey Cisco…
It’s in the works… We have had some issues with our programmers so we are a bit backlogged and we own several sites so we are in line…
I will keep you posted but it’s at the TOP of my list!!!
Hec
This is Hectors response, I have all the confidence that they’ll get it going. We just gotta be patient, which I haven’t been, but if he says it’ll be back then I take his word for it.
Jc, I feel ya bro, I hit 32 this year and would’ve loved to have given it a go. With all the responsibilities it’s just not plausible to train full time, especially with a six day work week.
Btw, speaking of avatars Daley, Mushin how’d you get yours on?
Daley i looked up mcsweeney’s record and i thought he was gonna run through wes shivers. I hope we get the forums back pretty soon like everyone else said this is the only mma site im a proud memeber of i even voted for it in the fighter’s magazine catagory for best online mma resource or some shit like that. I almost even thought about joining that bitch site sherdog all u guys talked about but i’d rather wait for madness to get back on its feet
i think mcsweeney will be used for the uk fight cards to add a good striking match to the card.he is improving his ground as shivers didnt do anything to mcsweeney on the ground and ive seen smaller guys on top opf mcsweeney and dominate him.if mcsweeneys ground game improves as it looks since being at the jackson camp he could be a threat.he’s very passionate about achiving things in mma so i think he will work that cardio and ground frank mir and lesnar or nog on him and he aint going to last.
Well can’t say I’m suprised by the outcome, but I am suprised how crappy Nelson looked. I thought he would’ve had an easier time with him. Disappointed with Herb Dean, that fight shoulda been over at the end of rd 1. Then Dana covering up for him, that’s some bs. If it would’ve been anyone else that fight would’ve been over then and there and Dana would’ve never defended that bs. Kimbo really needs to work on that ground game if he wants to stay relevant or learn from Chuck on how to keep it standing!