How deep does this feud get? Deep as the abyss.
In case you forgot that Bellator 149 was a thing that was happening this week, and in case you forgot how strange this sport can be even in the larger organizations.
As expected in this longtime feud between Dhafir Harris (a.k.a. Dada 5000) and renown street fighter and ex EliteXC/UFC fighter Kevin Ferguson (a.k.a. Kimbo Slice), tensions were going to reach a tipping point when finally put in the same place at the same time. So when the Bellator 149 press conference came around, one of the strangest interactions in recent MMA history became what will likely be an instant classic in terms of bravado and two fighters bringing forth a true demonstration of establishing dominance over each other.
The exchange began at about 09:30 of the presser video above, when Kimbo was asked question that he offered to have Dada answer first. As soon as Dada began answering, Kimbo interrupted him and the entire spectacle only got stranger from there.
“You fool!” Kimbo shouted over Dada 5000’s answer. “Shut up, man! You ain’t got s–t to say. You looked like s–t in your training yesterday. Nothing you can do can hurt me, bro. These people ain’t going to be here to protect you Friday, Dada.”
Dada responded in kind: “Listen here, I’m gonna put my hands on you, and you’re gonna know what it feels like to be helpless for the first time in a long time in your life. At the end of the day you ain’t never meet nobody that’s gonna hit you as hard as me.”
Kimbo remained defiant: “You fucked with Ferg. You called me out. You called out Kevin Ferguson, bruh.”
As Scott Coker attempted to shift the conversation elsewhere, we hit the apex of the afternoon’s events.
“Pull your pants down, let me see the size. I’ll show my nuts right now. Let me see your nuts. You got baby nuts, Dada. You got baby nuts. I bet you my nuts are bigger than yours. Come on. You ready?”
Items of note from this video aside from the obvious anger between the two men include the facial reactions of the three men in the middle. Ken Shamrock seemed genuinely amused, Scott Coker (true to form) appeared to have the wait-and-see approach he seems to apply to a lot of situations like this, and Royce Gracie – a man known mostly for his fearlessness – seated with some apprehensiveness and waiting to see if in fact the large man next to him was about to pull out his genitalia just inches away from his face. Can’t armbar your way out of that.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a paragraph I never thought I’d have to write in my entire adult life. Can’t tell you how proud my father is right now.
Bellator 149 goes down this Friday evening live from the Toyota Center in Houston, TX. Here’s hoping they’re both wearing adequately sized cups.