The co-main event bout between backyard brawlers Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 (real name Dhafir Harris) at February’s Bellator 149 is largely regarded as one of worst MMA bouts of all-time, but it certainly wasn’t humorous that Harris was sent to a hospital for an extended stay after passing out in the cage. Harris was
The co-main event bout between backyard brawlers Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 (real name Dhafir Harris) at February’s Bellator 149 is largely regarded as one of worst MMA bouts of all-time, but it certainly wasn’t humorous that Harris was sent to a hospital for an extended stay after passing out in the cage.
Harris was in Houston for almost three weeks after the controversial event recovering from cardiac arrest, a broken orbital bone, and severe dehydration, fatigue, an renal failure after a reported 4-pound weight cut to make the heavyweight limit. Now that he’s apparently back to health, he got on Instagram today to briefly describe what happened to him before quickly delting the post.
In the post, Harris wrote that he had two heart attacks and ‘died’ in the fight:
“Yes I trained very hard for this fight and I was in Fighting Shape. But those who knew me they knew that something wasn’t right by the look in my eyes when I stepped into that ring.
“Yes I did have kidney failure during the fight I also had 2 heart attacks which I did code aka Died during the Fight.”
Here’s the post courtesy of a screenshot by @GrabakaHitman on Twitter:
The toll that fighting – and cutting weight – took on “Dada 5000” has the street-fighting legend still in the hospital.
Dada 5000, real name Dhafir Harris, posted an update to his official Facebook page indicating that he is still suffering from the…
The toll that fighting – and cutting weight – took on “Dada 5000” has the street-fighting legend still in the hospital.
Dada 5000, real name Dhafir Harris, posted an update to his official Facebook page indicating that he is still suffering from the effects placed on his body. Harris lost to Kimbo Slice in the co-main event of Bellator 149.
DHAFIR HARRIS – DADA 5000 MEDICAL UPDATE
We had hoped to bring Dada’s fans and supporters news that he would be released today after completing a full week in the Hospital, however, his Doctors have required that he stay through the weekend and into early next week for continued monitoring and observation. If his progress continues as it has he should be released early next week.
We appreciate the outpour of support from fans all around the country wishing Dada a speedy recovery, your kind words and prayers are heard.
We would also like to thank the good people at BELLATOR, the EMT’s, doctors and nurses at the Hospital, his friends and everyone who has worked their best for Dada to get better. Thank you.
Joe Rogan recently gave his opinion on the Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 fight from Bellator 149, and it’s caused a serious stir…. Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 competed in the very ill fated Bellator 149 co-main event last week. The comical slug fest featured the two exhausted heavyweights swinging mostly at air, and finished
Joe Rogan recently gave his opinion on the Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 fight from Bellator 149, and it’s caused a serious stir….
Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 competed in the very ill fated Bellator 149 co-main event last week. The comical slug fest featured the two exhausted heavyweights swinging mostly at air, and finished in highly pathetic fashion after Kimbo missed his ‘knockout’ punch by a country mile. The mixed martial arts community sighed at the circus act that was Kimbo/Dada, but it’s Bellator so we’ve come to expect this.
One person who was particularly tickled by the whole affair was Joe Rogan, who made some comments during an interview that have sparked some controversy. Check out what Rogan said about Dada 5000, and the fighter responding by blasting the UFC color commentator:
Joe Rogan discussing the fact Dada 5000’s heart stopped following his admission to hospital:
“Yea, his heart stopped. It was filled with cheeseburgers and fried chicken and orange soda. He didn’t train. There was no way he trained. I mean, he might have trained for a couple of days. You should have lost 40 pounds before. It’s not like you didn’t know you were going to do this. How about Kimbo? What the f**k was going on with him? That wasn’t even amateur hour. Really? If it was an amateur fight you’d be champing at the bit to fight those guys. ‘I hope they’re in my bracket.’
“All you have to do is dance around for a few minutes and they’re toast. How about that one exchange where Dada just lay down and Kimbo just rolled over on top of him. There was no takedown. I wonder if they were talking to each other. ‘You want to take this to the ground, homie?’”
Bellator 149, which caused some majority controversy, did big ratings for the promotion and Spike TV. Bellator 149 averaged 2 million viewers for the entire 3-hour fight card on Friday, February 19 (9:00-12:04am ET/PT), which shattered the old record held by Bellator 138 with 1.58M viewers. Kimbo Slice vs. “Dada 5000” served as the co-main
Bellator 149, which caused some majority controversy, did big ratings for the promotion and Spike TV. Bellator 149 averaged 2 million viewers for the entire 3-hour fight card on Friday, February 19 (9:00-12:04am ET/PT), which shattered the old record held by Bellator 138 with 1.58M viewers.
Kimbo Slice vs. “Dada 5000” served as the co-main event and was not a very good fight. Both guys were winded and did not put on a very good performance at all. In the main event, Royce Gracie defeated Ken Shamrock after kneeing him in the groin and then finished him off with strikes.
The event peaked during the Slice – Dada fight averaging 2.5 million viewers (11:16pm-11:30pm) and a 2.3 rating with Men 18-34. The main event featuring drew 2.4 million viewers (11:54pm-11:57pm).
The event took place on February 19, 2016, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Despite the lack of quality, the event drew a ton of interest from not only fight fans, but more importantly casual fans, which what every TV network is looking to grab.
The event had Mike Tyson on commentary for one fight as well as several celebrity in attendance and watching from the comfort of their home. While the event did not have great fights, it drew people in massive quantities and paid off for the promotion and Spike TV.
Bellator 149 marks the fourth Bellator event to draw over a million viewers. Bellator 138 (headlined by Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice), Bellator 131, (headlined by Tito Ortiz and Stephan Bonnar), and Bellator 106 (Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler) all drew over one million viewers.
The promotion has not announced the next “fun fight,” which is what Bellator MMA President Scott Coker calls them, but with numbers like this, it’s just a matter of time before we have another event like Bellator 149.
Last week, we expressed the less-than-popular opinion that the booking of Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 in the co-main event of Bellator 149 was perhaps the greatest matchmaking move in the promotion’s history. Our main argument was that, by booking such a clearly ridiculous, freakshow of a fight, Scott Coker was declaring once and for all that his promotion would not be attempting to compete with the UFC in terms of legitimate talent moving forward, but would instead be cashing in on the millennial driven, “so-bad-it’s-good” market that has begun to dominate the film and television industries in recent years.
With Slice vs. Dada now in the rearview mirror, we think it would be safe to say that we were right on the money.
Last week, we expressed the less-than-popular opinion that the booking of Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 in the co-main event of Bellator 149 was perhaps the greatest matchmaking move in the promotion’s history. Our main argument was that, by booking such a clearly ridiculous, freakshow of a fight, Scott Coker was declaring once and for all that his promotion would not be attempting to compete with the UFC in terms of legitimate talent moving forward, but would instead be cashing in on the millennial driven, “so-bad-it’s-good” market that has begun to dominate the film and television industries in recent years.
With Slice vs. Dada now in the rearview mirror, we think it would be safe to say that we were right on the money.
How bad was Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000? Arguably one of the worst fights that the sport has ever seen, yet also on par for what you would expect from two near-40 year-old street fighters with limited MMA training. It was a fight wherein both competitors gassed out within the opening minute, yet valiantly continued (struggled) on for 13 more. It was a fight that appeared to take place underwater and was capped off by a hilarious non-finish that would’ve turned Ric Flair green with envy.
The reactions may have been scathing, but if there’s one thing that Slice vs. Dada did, it’s get us talking. Early indications are that Bellator 149 was a huge hit among its coveted demographics and the fight itself is still trending on Twitter. In its failure to entertain, Slice vs. Dada quickly became the most entertaining fight of the weekend for some of us, and you have to imagine that it was exactly what Scott Coker wanted when he booked it in the first place.
Of course, it didn’t come without a cost. Our gleeful takedown of the fight was soon followed by general concern for Dada 5000, who was carried out of the event on a stretcher and later rushed to critical condition due to renal failure. As it turns out, the 40 pounds that Dhafir Harris had dropped in the lead-up to the fight had taken its toll on his body, and he nearly lost his life as a result. It was a sobering turn of events, and one that has led to even greater backlash from the MMA community. While the finger rightfully has been pointed at Bellator for booking this fight, it could (and should) just as easily be pointed at the Texas athletic commission that allowed Harris to step into the cage after a 5-year absence when his body was clearly not ready for it.
At the end of the day, we highly doubt that Dada’s near-death experience will do anything to curb Bellator matchmaking moving forward. The promotion is shifting ever-further away from “legitimacy” in an attempt to give us guilty pleasure fights, and that’s exactly what it did last weekend. Regardless of how those fights turned out, you can bet your bottom dollar that the reputation of MMA’s second most popular promotion didn’t suffer in the slightest for it. I mean, what else could we have possibly expected? A high-level display of technical mixed martial arts? A slick submission? Outrage may be the fuel that powers the Internet, but it will ultimately be rendered meaningless as long as keep tuning in (and we will).
Of course, then came the evening’s main event, which pitted 49-year-old Ken Shamrock against 51-year-old Royce Gracie. Whereas Slice vs. Dada had at least the potential to end in crowd-pleasing fashion, this fight did not and played out accordingly.
What is there to even discuss, really? Gracie came out in the same flat-footed stance he’s been using since the early 90′s and Shamrock went down in the same mysteriously fishy fashion that he has in his last umpteen fights. Was Gracie’s fight-ending shot below the belt? Will Shamrock’s appeal see the light of day? Who gives a sh*t. We never needed Gracie vs. Shamrock III and we certainly don’t need a fourth go at it, so let’s just be thankful that this thing ended early and without either guy being carried out on a stretcher. In this latest incarnation of Bellator, that’s clearly a higher water mark than we’ll be able to set moving forward.
Main card
Royce Gracie def. Ken Shamrock via first-round TKO (2:22) (live blog)
Kimbo Slice def. Dada 5000 via third-round TKO (1:32) (live blog)
Derek Campos def. Melvin Guillard via second-round TKO (0:32)
Linton Vassell def. Emanuel Newton via unanimous decision (30-26, 29-27 x2)
Emanuel Sanchez def. Daniel Pineda via split decision (28-29, 29-27, 29-28)
Undercard
Justin Wren def. Juan Torres via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Jeremy Mahon def. Davis Sylvester via TKO (R3, 4:22)
C.J. Hancock def. Ruben Esparsa via submission (rear-naked choke) (R3, 1:26)
Adrian Yanez vs. Ryan Hollis via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Isaac Villanueva def. Richard Knepp via knockout (R1, 0:42)
Mike Trinh def. Angel Zamora via submission (armbar) (R1, 3:49)
Jason Langellier def. Anthony Ivy via submission (anaconda choke) (R1, 2:09)
Manny Lozoya def. Jacob Norsworthy via submission (guillotine) (R1, 2:33)
On Friday, Bellator 149 saw the historic return of Royce Gracie facing Ken Shamrock in a rubber match. Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 faced off in the co-main event in a clash of two well known street fighters. The event had mixed reactions and even a controversy of the main event where Royce Gracie won by 1st round TKO. Allegedly, Ken Shamrock was kneed in the groin before he was knocked out before the referee could even see it.
But the main focal point that should be discussed is Dada 5000 and the heart failure he suffered after his loss to Kimbo Slice. According to numerous reports and confirmed by Bellator, Dada 5000 was taken out of the cage in a stretcher after he lost due to exhaustion.
He had severe dehydration and high levels of Potassium after the bout. Dhafir Harris’s family put out a statement that suggested that his extreme weight cut could have been the culprit for his heart failure. Harris is in stable condition now but this is a serious wakeup call for Bellator.
Scott Coker has made no secret that he wants to put on fights that fans want to see.
“We want to put on the most entertaining events possible for you,” Coker said in an open letter to fans. “Our goal is to make every Bellator event big.”
Coker has gone out to make fan favorite fights such as Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock and “King Mo” vs. Rampage Jackson. But Friday saw what happens when things do not go the way they should have.
Dada 5000 had no place to be fighting in a sanctioned MMA fight. His last fight was five years ago and is mostly known for his street fighting credentials. He came in at the heavyweight limit of 265 pounds and clearly showed his fatigue and novice MMA experience inside the Bellator cage. Joe Rogan went to Twitter to call his bout with Kimbo Slice, “the worst fight i’ve ever seen.”
By the mid-way point of the 2nd round, both Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 were exhausted. Both fighters did not have much left in the tank. This is not the type of fight that fans should be seeing on national television. Mixed martial arts should be a display of incredible athletes and their incredible skills.
We did not see many skills or forms of martial arts from Slice and Dada 5000. It was a ‘street fight’ as advertised and saw one fighter suffer a serious medical condition. There is a platform for street fights and sloppy backyard fighting called YouTube. But national television should be a display of true forms of martial arts.
On Friday, Bellator 149 saw the historic return of Royce Gracie facing Ken Shamrock in a rubber match. Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 faced off in the co-main event in a clash of two well known street fighters. The event had mixed reactions and even a controversy of the main event where Royce Gracie won by 1st round TKO. Allegedly, Ken Shamrock was kneed in the groin before he was knocked out before the referee could even see it.
But the main focal point that should be discussed is Dada 5000 and the heart failure he suffered after his loss to Kimbo Slice. According to numerous reports and confirmed by Bellator, Dada 5000 was taken out of the cage in a stretcher after he lost due to exhaustion.
He had severe dehydration and high levels of Potassium after the bout. Dhafir Harris’s family put out a statement that suggested that his extreme weight cut could have been the culprit for his heart failure. Harris is in stable condition now but this is a serious wakeup call for Bellator.
Scott Coker has made no secret that he wants to put on fights that fans want to see.
“We want to put on the most entertaining events possible for you,” Coker said in an open letter to fans. “Our goal is to make every Bellator event big.”
Coker has gone out to make fan favorite fights such as Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock and “King Mo” vs. Rampage Jackson. But Friday saw what happens when things do not go the way they should have.
Dada 5000 had no place to be fighting in a sanctioned MMA fight. His last fight was five years ago and is mostly known for his street fighting credentials. He came in at the heavyweight limit of 265 pounds and clearly showed his fatigue and novice MMA experience inside the Bellator cage. Joe Rogan went to Twitter to call his bout with Kimbo Slice, “the worst fight i’ve ever seen.”
By the mid-way point of the 2nd round, both Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 were exhausted. Both fighters did not have much left in the tank. This is not the type of fight that fans should be seeing on national television. Mixed martial arts should be a display of incredible athletes and their incredible skills.
We did not see many skills or forms of martial arts from Slice and Dada 5000. It was a ‘street fight’ as advertised and saw one fighter suffer a serious medical condition. There is a platform for street fights and sloppy backyard fighting called YouTube. But national television should be a display of true forms of martial arts.
