(This piece appeared in 8CountNews on June 13, 2009)

by Mark Lorenzana

A few months ago I wrote an article about Kimbo Slice and his fall from the MMA world following a disappointing loss to unheralded last-minute replacement Seth Petruzelli. In the article, I speculated on Slice’s future following his loss and the subsequent bankruptcy of Elite XC: “It remains to be seen whether Kimbo Slice can pick up the pieces of his MMA career, a career that was prematurely cut short by a last-second replacement that he outweighed by 30 pounds. It remains to be seen whether another promotional MMA outfit will express interest in him and pick him up. Perhaps the Kimbo Slice and Elite XC debacle should be a lesson to everyone in the MMA scene.”

It appears that I spoke too soon. It seems that Slice is slated to join the forthcoming season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s reality TV series. “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” will feature Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson as the opposing coaches.

What makes this recent development doubly interesting is that when Slice was still fighting for Elite XC as its poster boy, Dana White had been dishing out some pretty nasty comments directed at the former street fighter.

“Sean Gannon beat him in a street fight,” said White in a previous interview. “Everyone saw what happened to Sean Gannon when he fought a guy that no one ever heard of (a decisive TKO loss to Branden Lee Hinkle in the UFC). Gannon was in the hospital for three weeks. That’s what would happen to Kimbo Slice if he fought in the UFC. He would get hurt bad – real bad.”

White then added that the only way Slice could fight in the UFC was if he joined and competed in “The Ultimate Fighter”.

Well, Slice didn’t waste any time and has called White’s bluff.

So to paraphrase White, will Slice get hurt bad – real bad, when he finally locks horns with the other Ultimate Fighter contestants?

It’s hard to speculate, and only time will tell. It’s safe to say, however, that the fighters that will be joining the tenth installment of “The Ultimate Fighter” will not be the same come forward brawlers that Slice destroyed in his Internet videos. Those guys would have had several fights under their belts already and would have already competed in several MMA events.

Take for example just a few of the participants of “The Ultimate Fighter 10”, Roy Nelson, Marcus Jones, Wes Sims, and Justin Wren.

– Nicknamed “Big Country”, Roy Nelson sports a 13-4-0 win, lose, draw record. He competed in the heavyweight division of the now defunct International Fight League where he was its last heavyweight champion. Nelson fought against the likes of Andrei Arlovski (at Elite XC Heat) where he was knocked out in the second round. His recent fight was part of Roy Jones Jr.’s hybrid boxing/MMA card “March Badness” on March 21st. He was defeated by ADCC Champion Jeff Monson by unanimous decision.

– A former NFL defensive tackle, Marcus Jones played college football for the University of North Carolina and has played six years of professional football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Jones made his professional MMA debut on October 26, 2007, in World Fighting Championships 5 with a victory over Will Mora. He trains at Gracie Tampa with instructor Rob Kahn. Jones sports a 4-1-0 fight record.

– Towering at 6’10”, Wes Sims is one of the tallest MMA fighters today. He has fought (and lost) three times in the UFC, two times going against Frank Mir and one time against Mike Kyle. His fight record stands at 20-11-1 with two no contests.

– Justin “The Viking” Wren has been competing at local MMA events and won his first three fights by knockout before taking his first and only loss to date. Wren then won three more fights and his current record stands at 6-1-0.

Indeed, Slice will have his work cut out for him. During his short stint at Elite XC, he was pitted against brawlers and fighters past their primes such as a shot Ray Mercer and an aging Tank Abbott. To reiterate my point, he will not have the same superstar status that he once enjoyed. He will have to go back to square one and start afresh.

Sometimes the best way to the top is not to go through shortcuts. Oftentimes, the long, grueling road builds more character, and eventually brings those who hunger for it, redemption.

(This piece appeared in 8CountNews on March 16th, 2009)

by Mark Lorenzana

I’ve been in marketing for almost five years now and as an advertising copywriter it’s my job to write copy that helps sell products. Now it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that in my profession, you need to know how to hype up your product so that customers wouldn’t think twice about digging into their pockets and shelling out their hard-earned cash to make that all-important purchase.

In the fight game, marketing is an important tool to get fans into the stadiums, arenas, and closed circuits. Also to get them to purchase the pay-per-views. If you don’t promote the fighters, if you don’t endorse the fights and events, people won’t buy tickets and nobody gets paid.

However, marketing can only do so much. If a product does not live up to its standards, no amount of publicity will be enough to sell it.

The same can be said for fighters, especially in Mixed Martial Arts. Take Kevin Ferguson, or more popularly known as Kimbo Slice, for instance.

Kimbo earned his notoriety as an Internet underground street fighter a few years ago. By sheer word-of-mouth, he became an Internet sensation. Kimbo eventually worked his way into Mixed Martial Arts, and was even trained by retired MMA fighter Bas Rutten. In Kimbo’s street fight videos, he relied primarily on his fists, knocking out, bloodying, and bludgeoning his opponents into submission, thereby building up his fearsome reputation.

In Kimbo’s first legitimate MMA fight, he went up against retired boxer Ray Mercer in Cage Fury Fighting Championship 5. Kimbo submitted Mercer in the first round via Guillotine Choke, displaying a versatility

nobody thought he had. In his next three fights (all for the defunct Elite XC) he won by submission, knockout, and TKO against Bo Cantrell, Tank Abbott, and James Thompson respectively.

By then, Kimbo was already earning several thousands of dollars per fight as Elite XC’s poster boy. His fan base was also starting to grow. But so were his critics.

Not a few MMA experts pointed out that Kimbo has been fed a steady diet of tomato cans inside the cage. In other words, Kimbo slice was still largely an unproven Internet star, his victories notwithstanding: Rey Mercer looked shot, Tank Abbott was old and out of shape, and Kimbo’s TKO victory over James Thompson can be legitimately argued as a premature stoppage. Still, the Kimbo hype machine was in full swing, and a lot of people were buying it.

Kimbo’s last fight in Elite XC (and his last fight so far in his MMA career) was against Seth Petruzelli. The fight happened in October of last year. Kimbo was originally slated to face Ken Shamrock but the latter pulled out of the fight when he was cut above the left eye during warm-up. Petruzelli took the fight one hour before the event began. Kimbo only agreed to fight Petruzelli after receiving a raise in pay.

Despite being outweighed by almost 30 pounds, Petruzelli defeated Kimbo via TKO 14 seconds into the fight. Petruzelli caught Kimbo with a short jab to the face and Kimbo dropped to the floor and got pounded out. The visibly disoriented Kimbo held on to the referee’s legs, trying to take him down while Petruzelli ran around the cage in celebration.

By the end of October 2008, EliteXC was forced to file for bankruptcy. Many in the mixed martial arts community attribute EliteXC’s failure due to Kimbo’s loss to Petruzelli.

In an interview a couple of days after the fight, Petruzelli admitted that the Elite XC promoters offered him cash incentives to dissuade him from using certain fighting techniques against Kimbo: “The promoters kinda hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and throw with him, they didn’t want me to take him down. Let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try and stand up (and) punch him.”

It remains to be seen whether Kimbo Slice can pick up the pieces of his MMA career, a career that was prematurely cut short by a last-second replacement that he outweighed by 30 pounds. It remains to be seen whether another promotional MMA outfit will express interest in him and pick him up. Perhaps the Kimbo Slice and Elite XC debacle should be a lesson to everyone in the MMA scene.

It’s safe to say, however, that in the fight game, in the hurt business, a fighter is only as good as his last fight. And no amount of marketing will change that; no amount of hype will prove otherwise.