Kevin Ferguson in TUF10

Staying on the topic of the UFC from the last post, it appears that Kevin Ferguson is going to appear as one of the fighters in UFC's reality show, The Ultimate Fighter. I have talked about this show before, but it was about two months ago so lets brielfy recap what exactly the show is before we dive any deeper into it. Each season has sixteen fighters, typically in the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight divisions and if you win your fights you advance farther and farther into the tournament. The fighters all live in the same house and they are split off into two teams that have coaches that are UFC fighters who pick the teams the same way teams are chosen in the schoolyard. The man reason I became interested in the show in the first place is because in my sophomore year of college, my roommate really liked it and it was basically the only show he ever wanted to watch, so we would watch it and I really got into it. The winners of the show are given guarenteed contracts where they make a good amount of money which tends to vary from season to season. But if there is one thing that this show has produced, is good fighters. The show has produced great fighters such as Forrest Griffen, Kenny Florian, Rashad Evans, Michael Bisping, and many others. But it appears that the only person on the upcoming season that anybody will even be caring about is Kevin Ferguson.

But who the hell is Kevin Ferguson? I'd bet you've heard of him one way or another under the name "Kimbo Slice." It was announced recently that Kimbo will be one of the fighters in the 10th season of TUF. This has spawned many mixed reactions by sports junkets of all types. Not much more than a year ago, Kimbos face was all over the sports world where he was the poster child for the EliteXC brand of Mixed Martial Arts which was broadcast on CBS. Now, not to play the spoiler, if you don't know what happened to his career, here it is:

Let me quickly set up the clip: Kimbo Slice is set to fight Ken Shamrock in the Main Event of the evening, however due to a cut that Shamrock received during pre-fight warm ups, he was taken off of the card and Kimbo agreed to fight Petruzelli one hour prior to the start of the fight.


And as you can see, Kimbo lost in 14 seconds after making an ass of himself after not returning the pre-fight fist pound offered by Petruzelli. Like the rest of the world, I was shocked as can be initially. Petruzelli was backing up and had put his foot out to try and keep the monster that is Kimbo off of him and in the act of doing so, threw out a quick jab and caught Kimbo on the chin which stunned him, and the rest is history.

Kimbo was a huge controversial topic in MMA prior to this fight because at that point he was 3-0, but had for the most part fought against bums who he should have beaten. He was not challenged in any sense of the word. Even going into the Shamrock fight, there was controversy because like Kimbos other fighters, Shamrock was way over the hill and washed up.

People loved Kimbo, and people loved to hate Kimbo, but however you Slice it(ha, get it?), his name brought the money. I don't blame EliteXC for doing what they did, because they knew as soon as he lost, especially against someone who is washed up or someone he should easily beat, people would not care about him anymore. But one thing is for sure: he brought in some serious revenue. People wanted to see him fight, and slapping his name on the card for a fight brought in the viewers(It also didn't hurt that EliteXC had a women's division which featured one Gina Carano... sex appeal FTW!). But after Kimbo lost to Petruzelli, the EliteXC went bankrupt and Kimbo has not fought professionally since.

TUF 10 is most likely Kimbo Slices last chance at becoming a big name professional MMA fighter, and it is surprising that the UFC, THE premier brand of MMA fighting in the world, would give him this shot. However, UFC President Dana White knows the business end of things and realizes the opportunity that comes along with having him on TUF and fighting under the UFC name. Not like TUF and the UFC needed the ratings, but they are about to get that much higher if Kimbo can win some fights. One thing for sure, I will be rooting for Kimbo. Who cares if he got his success by beating up less than average Joe's in peoples backyards for cash, he did nothing illegal by Florida state law. Kimbo is hardly the first to make a name for himself off of the internet, if anything I'd say I was jealous of him due to the fact that I haven't made my money off of the internet yet. Either way, when the bell rings on Kimbos fight in TUF, I for one, will be watching. Although, I hope he touches gloves with his opponent before the fight.

----

- In other news, let me admit that I am officially addicted to Twitter. At first I had absolutely no clue what it was, but after using it for around a month and actually seeing what you can get off of it, I love it. Clearly it would be better if I had a phone that could access the internet and be able to read off of and post tweets, however as of right now I'm more than content. The reason it is so appealing is because you feel like you are interacting with Celebrities. Just four hours ago from writing this, Shaq tweeted this to the world: "thats right i am saying it today and today only, i want kobe bryant to get number 4, spread da word" If you ask me, that is pretty big of him to say that. Then two hours ago he tweeted saying that there was more to the modern Laker dynasty than Kobe and Shaq, tweeting "Why yall messin around I kno if it wasn't for big shot bob, I know we wouldn't got two of those rings, thanks horry" I think it is safe to say that the Shaq and Kobe feud is over, at least in Shaq's mind. Shaq is just one of the few celebrities that I follow, and like mentioned before, it feels like you're talking to the celebrities through this site.

- Good luck Randy Johnson, on going for win number 300 tonight against the Natinals, however it is unlikely if the game will start tonight due to severe rain.

- Good luck Ichiro, on trying to extend the hitting streak to 27 games. (My most recent Streak for the Cash pick was that he would extend it tonight.)

-------

Follow me on Twitter!

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Suggestions? Want to get your words on my blog? Send me a tweet or an Instant Message on AIM at "I3rian 87" to send something my way!