Kimbo Slice: Boxing Career, MMA & More

By Geno McGahee

Kimbo Slice, 5-0, 4 KO’s, recently took on Jesse Porter and scored a 26 second knockout. Out of Slice’s four knockout victories, three of them were in the first round. What separates Slice from other heavyweights is his ability to captivate an audience. What began as a street fighting campaign on Youtube turned into a successful MMA career and now he has unleashed his fury on the boxing world.

Make no mistake, the 38 year old street fighter is not a legitimate threat to the heavyweight division. He was never near the top of the MMA world. He is just fun to watch and what heavyweight in today’s boxing world can you say that about? Floyd Mayweather, JR., looks at boxing as show business and Slice fits in, bringing appeal to the masses with his intimidating look and demeanor.

Slice, as long as he keeps plowing over mediocrities, will make money in boxing. The closest comparison would be the career of Butterbean, a journeyman heavyweight with charisma that plowed over non-boxers and no-hopers, en route to a very financially successful career. The promoters were very smart with the Bean, matching him as carefully as possible and hinting at a serious run at the heavyweight title, which was never serious.

There were plenty of heavyweights with more talent than Butterbean, but the crowds loved the fat man in there and flocked to see him. Bean heavily benefited from being placed as the opener to many Pay Per Views, and it was a good way to open the night. As Slice progresses, I could see this as a potential push to his career. If a PPV had a great main event, a couple of decent supporting bouts and a Slice fight, it would be great fun.

Slice is fighting once every two months, which is a great schedule for him. In his MMA career, he was matched with shot has-beens like Tank Abbott. They could take the same approach to his boxing career. There are plenty of heavyweights that have been around for far too long that he would have a shot against.

I think that we will see Slice build a record to about 15-0 before they get him in there with a fighter that has a pulse. For now, we will watch him plow down fighters that turn into a deer in the headlights when they see this muscle-bound monster running at them. There is great potential in the career of the former backyard fighting champion, turned MMA fighter, turned boxer. If managed correctly, he could make a lot of money and the fans will have a lot of fun watching him fight.