Kimbo Needs a Second Opinion

The Big Black Buck — as Rashad Evans refers to Kimbo Slice — might want to re-watch his fight against Roy Nelson. Why? Because here is what Kimbo said before the show aired on Wednesday night:

“This fight is very exciting. This is probably, I would say, not hands down, but pound-for-pound a good fight, one of my best fights…I was impressed with my performance. I was impressed with everything. I’m not crying about nothing.”

Perhaps that was some salesmanship on his part. But if he truly believes that he might want to get a second opinion. Like mine. Before that though, you can check out the fight here if you want to watch it.

Slice was basically dominated by Roy Nelson. Slice moved well and had some decent takedown defense. But he was not the aggressor and certainly didn’t land anything devastating. At the end of the first round, Nelson took Kimbo down and trapped an arm to get him in the crucifix position with :32 left. He started punching Slice at around :27. Though the punches from Nelson were not punishing, they were landing and Kimbo was unable to defend himself. The fight should have been stopped before the end of the round.

In round 2 Nelson had his way again with Kimbo, this time sealing the deal. Not everyone was impressed with Nelson’s win or his methods. From Bloody Elbow:

Nelson knew that it was simply a matter of Kimbo intelligently defending himself, which was an impossibility with both hands locked down. I found it a bit disheartening to hear Nelson state that he would simply go for those unanswered shots while knowing that a lot of power wasn’t needed. I understand that it’s part of the rules, and perhaps Nelson was simply trying to be the “nice guy” in the entire situation by stopping Kimbo in the most non-damaging way possible.

Why is it disheartening? Because Nelson actually used the conventional game plan for Kimbo? He’s going for a six-figure deal with the UFC. Should he have stood and banged with Kimbo to appease the masses? Not at all. He wants to win, period. Nelson wasn’t trying to be the “nice guy” in anything. He’s trying to move his career forward. There’s nothing disheartening in that. Any other gameplan would have been foolish.

And as nice a guy as Kimbo seems, the truth remains that if he was not all over You Tube and and a headliner on the Elite XC bouts, he’s nowhere even close to sniffing a spot on TUF, let alone a UFC deal.

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