Kevin Ferguson is one of the most divisive figures in mixed martial arts. Most people with even a passing interest in MMA are familiar with his backstory. The man known as “Kimbo Slice” gained stratospheric levels of fame nearly a decade ago on the strength of his backyard brawling skills. His YouTube fight videos have garnered
Kevin Ferguson is one of the most divisive figures in mixed martial arts. Most people with even a passing interest in MMA are familiar with his backstory.
The man known as “Kimbo Slice” gained stratospheric levels of fame nearly a decade ago on the strength of his backyard brawling skills. His YouTube fight videos have garnered millions of hits and made him an internet sensation. On the strength of his notoriety as a knockout artist, he has headlined and been featured on cards from EliteXC, UFC, and now Bellator.
But that fame has always far outpaced his actual skills in the cage. In fact, when not beating up amateurs in unsanctioned brawls, Slice has looked downright awful at times. His 14-second knockout loss to journeyman Seth Petruzelli effectively scuttled EliteXC. Look no further for an example of what happens when an organization recklessly invests in Slice.
Following a stint on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ season 10 (in which he lost in the opening round) and a tepid decision victory over UFC washout Houston Alexander in his official debut, Slice was unceremoniously pounded out by Matt Mitrione in only “Meathead’s” second pro bout.
Most recently in Bellator, several years removed from his MMA prime (such as it was), he knocked out the geriatric Ken Shamrock (after nearly being choked out), and then waged one of the worst fights in modern MMA history against Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris.
But worse than merely giving Kimbo Slice fights, Bellator is making him one of their most-promoted fighters. This, despite a litany of arguments to the contrary. That’s where LowKick comes in. We will elucidate those arguments and try to convince Scott Coker and Co. to see the reasons it’s time to get out of the Kimbo Slice business.
Kimbo Slice has made the right decision. It’s well known by now that the top Bellator heavyweight fighter tested positive for the steroid nandrolone and also had an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio after Bellator 149. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation announced on Monday that they have settled with Slice. Slice agreed to a $2,500 fine
Kimbo Slice has made the right decision. It’s well known by now that the top Bellator heavyweight fighter tested positive for the steroid nandrolone and also had an elevated testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio after Bellator 149.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation announced on Monday that they have settled with Slice. Slice agreed to a $2,500 fine and the revocation of his Texas fight license. His license was originally set to expire on March 4, 2017. Also, Slice agreed to waive his right to a hearing and is expected to remain in compliance with “all laws and rules” of the commission.
Slice defeated Dada 5000 in the co-main event at the event. With Slice’s settlement, that fight has been ruled a no-decision.
Bellator 149 took place on February 19, 2016, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The event aired live in primetime on Spike TV while the prelims aired live on Spike.com. The event averaged 1.964M viewers, which shattered the old record held by Bellator 138 with 1.58M. Slice vs. Dada 5000 peaked with 2.5 million viewers.
Fear, not Slice fans, he will be fighting soon. Slice is scheduled to fight James Thompson on July 16 in London. With the fight being overseas, this suspension in the United States will not affect him. Expect Bellator MMA to book him out of the US for future fights
Bellator MMA officials have announced Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson and Paul Daley vs. Josh Koscheck for Bellator 158, which takes place on July 16 in London. Bellator MMA held a press conference on Thursday in London to promote the event, and some news outlets caught up with Bellator MMA President Scott Coker. During the
Bellator MMA officials have announced Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson and Paul Daley vs. Josh Koscheck for Bellator 158, which takes place on July 16 in London.
Bellator MMA held a press conference on Thursday in London to promote the event, and some news outlets caught up with Bellator MMA President Scott Coker. During the interviews, Coker defended the fights that he has booked that included Slice. Some fans hate the fact that the promotion is booking “freak show” fights and some fans love it. However, Coker has justified the reason that he continues to book Slice over and over.
“Kimbo Slice is a character of his own,” Coker told MMA Latest. “He resonates with fans, unlike any other fighter I’ve seen. Who’s the most watched fighter in MMA history? You know what? It’s not Ronda Rousey, it’s not even Conor McGregor – it’s Kimbo Slice. It might be hard for some fans to swallow, but at the end of the day, 7.2 million viewers on CBS live against James Thompson. We’re bringing that fight back here, and I think it’s the fight that fans want to see.”
Coker does have a point with the kind of ratings that these kinds of fights bring in. If you compare the freak show fights that average over a million to the other Bellator cards, which pulls in an average of 900,000 viewers, you can understand where Coker and Spike TV are coming from.
“One of the greatest moments in the history of MMA was the (Pride Shockwave) Dynamite,” Coker told Combate. “It was an event in Japan where Bob Sapp faced (Minotauro) Nogueira. He did not even know to fight and was beginning, starting workouts. He took the Nogueira and hit the ground in this great struggle.Nogueira the finished, but in Japan, they have this kind of fight the whole time. In addition, Akebono fought Royce Gracie, and this is part of martial arts. MMA does not have to always be what fans “hardcore” want it. I grew up in a system that said, “Hey, these fights happen all the time in the MMA industry.” The most fanatical fans might not see that way, and some do not like. But we have 3.3 million people who watched and liked. Can you say that this kind of fight, thinking “outside the box”, reach an audience even greater for our industry. The most fanatical fans may not agree, but the average US audience saw and liked the show.”
“If we do three or four fights for the most fanatical fans and booked a time when that style … Guys like Kimbo Slice and Bob Sapp … I do not think you have a problem with that (…) I am very excited not by what we did last year or in recent months, but by what we do in the next two, three years.Honestly, the experience I had with Strikeforce … Four, five champions we did in Strikeforce, and also fighters who had not been champions, won the UFC belt. We have a great cast, I’ve been down this road before, and I think I know how to promote.”
It will be very interesting to see how this show does in the ratings.
After breaking his silence on social media recently, Dhafir Harris, better known as Dada 5000, spoke in-depth about his recent Bellator MMA fight against Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson during his appearance on “The Dan LeBatard Show.”
Dada 5000 lost via third round TKO to Kimbo Slice back in February inside the Bellator MMA cage, an infamous fight that saw Dada 5000 officially pronounced dead afterwards.
“When I actually fell inside that ring, Kimbo Slice never touched me,” said Dada 5000 during his appearance on the show. “I had a heart attack. So, when I slammed against the cage and I went down, that was just the beginning.”
Dada 5000 continued, “The heart is a muscle, so when the kidneys shut down and I’m still pushing, the next thing to go was the heart. So when my heart stopped, it’s like, I was out of it. I didn’t remember nothing. When they brought me back, I was inside the hospital and they said that I had two heart attacks — and this is on paper we can provide to you guys. I had two heart attacks and I [flat-lined] twice. And for me, I was just thanking God, like, I’m here for a real reason. Because there’s individuals out there who didn’t go through a fraction of what I went through and they’re no longer breathing.”
Harris would go on to elaborate, continuing his amazing story by walking fans through everything he remembers from fight night on.
“I remember bits and pieces of the second round,” Harris said. “Where I hit Kimbo and he just dropped his hands. And I’m looking at a home-run at that point, but my body was so done, I couldn’t even follow up. Even when he was on all fours, and I was tapping him, I’m thinking, ‘yo, if I would’ve had a little more power, that would’ve been over at that point.’ So I was feeling like I was anxious.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘what is actually going on with me?’ I didn’t know at that time, medically, that my kidneys had locked up on me and that I was having a heart attack. And the last thing that I remember is that I was leaning on him, and he shifted away from me. He swung, but he missed, and I stumbled and I went down. The next thing, I woke up hours later and I was inside the hospital.
“I was dead,” Harris added. “When you talk about your spirit leaving your body, looking at the light, but it’s not your time to go, and you actually get brought back, that was my situation. Because I was pronounced dead, and they kept working, kept working, kept working. And I died minutes apart.”
He acknowledged the fact that his drastic weight cut, which saw him lose nearly 40 pounds in a short period of time, played a big factor in his heath issues after the fight.
“I probably pushed myself,” Harris said. “Instead of taking a couple months, I probably double-timed it. So I wouldn’t say (I cut weight) poorly. I think that my body was not used to that, because I’m not a full-time fighter. So I don’t fight regularly. I’m a promoter, I’m a matchmaker, I do a lot of things inside my organization with BYB and inside the backyard. I’m a part-time dude, so I fight like every couple years. So at the end of the day, I think that my body having so much time being off, and to push it from zero to 60, that could be something to focus on.”
Dada 5000 wrapped up the remarkable story by pointing out the fact that even two months after the fact, he is still on dialysis as a result of the renal failure. Harris also spoke about his family and his faith being major contributing factors to his successful turnaround.
“I come from a spiritual background,” Harris said. “I’m laying on the gurney, the bed. Now, they say when a person is inside of a coma, be careful of what you say because they can hear you but they cannot respond to you. The last thing that goes is your hearing. So I’m listening to the doctors say, ‘well, listen, we have to drill a hole inside of his head. We have to release the pressure on his brain. We have to put this chip or something inside so we can get the response from him that we want.’ And my brothers and them were like, ‘no, you’re not doing that.’ So they were telling me, ‘Dada, if you hear what they’re trying to do to you, move your hand. Move your right hand.’ And I couldn’t. I was stuck.
“I was screaming to the top of my lungs, no, do not let them do that to me. And I’m going to tell you something, my will to live superseded anything else. I really just focused on my hands, and I moved my hands, and they were like, ‘doc, look, he’s moving his hands! Move your other hand.’ And I moved my other hand.
“The doctors were like, ‘wow, it’s a miracle. Like, no, it’s God. You haven’t seen anything yet. And later that day, I’m laying back and my eyes just opened up a little bit, and then I actually opened them up. They had tubes and everything running down my throat. They had originally written me off.”
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the quotes from Dada 5000’s appearance on The Dan LeBatard Show.
After breaking his silence on social media recently, Dhafir Harris, better known as Dada 5000, spoke in-depth about his recent Bellator MMA fight against Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson during his appearance on “The Dan LeBatard Show.”
Dada 5000 lost via third round TKO to Kimbo Slice back in February inside the Bellator MMA cage, an infamous fight that saw Dada 5000 officially pronounced dead afterwards.
“When I actually fell inside that ring, Kimbo Slice never touched me,” said Dada 5000 during his appearance on the show. “I had a heart attack. So, when I slammed against the cage and I went down, that was just the beginning.”
Dada 5000 continued, “The heart is a muscle, so when the kidneys shut down and I’m still pushing, the next thing to go was the heart. So when my heart stopped, it’s like, I was out of it. I didn’t remember nothing. When they brought me back, I was inside the hospital and they said that I had two heart attacks — and this is on paper we can provide to you guys. I had two heart attacks and I [flat-lined] twice. And for me, I was just thanking God, like, I’m here for a real reason. Because there’s individuals out there who didn’t go through a fraction of what I went through and they’re no longer breathing.”
Harris would go on to elaborate, continuing his amazing story by walking fans through everything he remembers from fight night on.
“I remember bits and pieces of the second round,” Harris said. “Where I hit Kimbo and he just dropped his hands. And I’m looking at a home-run at that point, but my body was so done, I couldn’t even follow up. Even when he was on all fours, and I was tapping him, I’m thinking, ‘yo, if I would’ve had a little more power, that would’ve been over at that point.’ So I was feeling like I was anxious.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘what is actually going on with me?’ I didn’t know at that time, medically, that my kidneys had locked up on me and that I was having a heart attack. And the last thing that I remember is that I was leaning on him, and he shifted away from me. He swung, but he missed, and I stumbled and I went down. The next thing, I woke up hours later and I was inside the hospital.
“I was dead,” Harris added. “When you talk about your spirit leaving your body, looking at the light, but it’s not your time to go, and you actually get brought back, that was my situation. Because I was pronounced dead, and they kept working, kept working, kept working. And I died minutes apart.”
He acknowledged the fact that his drastic weight cut, which saw him lose nearly 40 pounds in a short period of time, played a big factor in his heath issues after the fight.
“I probably pushed myself,” Harris said. “Instead of taking a couple months, I probably double-timed it. So I wouldn’t say (I cut weight) poorly. I think that my body was not used to that, because I’m not a full-time fighter. So I don’t fight regularly. I’m a promoter, I’m a matchmaker, I do a lot of things inside my organization with BYB and inside the backyard. I’m a part-time dude, so I fight like every couple years. So at the end of the day, I think that my body having so much time being off, and to push it from zero to 60, that could be something to focus on.”
Dada 5000 wrapped up the remarkable story by pointing out the fact that even two months after the fact, he is still on dialysis as a result of the renal failure. Harris also spoke about his family and his faith being major contributing factors to his successful turnaround.
“I come from a spiritual background,” Harris said. “I’m laying on the gurney, the bed. Now, they say when a person is inside of a coma, be careful of what you say because they can hear you but they cannot respond to you. The last thing that goes is your hearing. So I’m listening to the doctors say, ‘well, listen, we have to drill a hole inside of his head. We have to release the pressure on his brain. We have to put this chip or something inside so we can get the response from him that we want.’ And my brothers and them were like, ‘no, you’re not doing that.’ So they were telling me, ‘Dada, if you hear what they’re trying to do to you, move your hand. Move your right hand.’ And I couldn’t. I was stuck.
“I was screaming to the top of my lungs, no, do not let them do that to me. And I’m going to tell you something, my will to live superseded anything else. I really just focused on my hands, and I moved my hands, and they were like, ‘doc, look, he’s moving his hands! Move your other hand.’ And I moved my other hand.
“The doctors were like, ‘wow, it’s a miracle. Like, no, it’s God. You haven’t seen anything yet. And later that day, I’m laying back and my eyes just opened up a little bit, and then I actually opened them up. They had tubes and everything running down my throat. They had originally written me off.”
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the quotes from Dada 5000’s appearance on The Dan LeBatard Show.
Dada 5000 was stretchered out of the arena and taken to a hospital following his fight with Kimbo Slice at Bellator 149. It was revealed that Dada 5000, whose real name is Dhafir Harris, had two heart attacks as a result of the fight. Dada 5000 recently spoke out on the situation during a recent
Dada 5000 was stretchered out of the arena and taken to a hospital following his fight with Kimbo Slice at Bellator 149. It was revealed that Dada 5000, whose real name is Dhafir Harris, had two heart attacks as a result of the fight.
Dada 5000 recently spoke out on the situation during a recent appearance on The Dan LeBatard Show.
“When I actually fell inside that ring, Kimbo Slice never touched me,” Harris said. “I had a heart attack. So, when I slammed against the cage, and I went down, that was just the beginning.”
“I remember bits and pieces of the second round,” Harris said. “Where I hit Kimbo, and he just dropped his hands. And I’m looking at a home-run at that point, but my body was so done, I couldn’t even follow up. Even when he was on all fours, and I was tapping him, I’m thinking, ‘yo if I would’ve had a little more power, that would’ve been over at that point.’ So I was feeling like I was anxious.”
“I was thinking to myself, ‘what is actually going on with me?’ I didn’t know at that time, medically, that my kidneys had locked up on me and that I was having a heart attack. And the last thing that I remember is that I was leaning on him, and he shifted away from me. He swung, but he missed, and I stumbled, and I went down. The next thing, I woke up hours later, and I was inside the hospital.”
Dada 5000 claims that he died as a result of the fight. Doctors kept working on him to try to bring him back to life, which is exactly what happened.
“I was dead,” Harris added. “When you talk about your spirit leaving your body, looking at the light, but it’s not your time to go, and you actually get brought back, that was my situation. Because I was pronounced dead, and they kept working, kept working, kept working. And I died minutes apart.”
“I come from a spiritual background,” Harris said. “I’m laying on the gurney, the bed. Now, they say when a person is inside of a coma, be careful of what you say because they can hear you but they cannot respond to you. The last thing that goes is your hearing. So I’m listening to the doctors say, ‘well, listen, we have to drill a hole inside of his head. We have to release the pressure on his brain. We have to put this chip or something inside so we can get the response from him that we want.’ And my brothers and them were like, ‘no, you’re not doing that.’ So they were telling me, ‘Dada, if you hear what they’re trying to do to you, move your hand. Move your right hand.’ And I couldn’t. I was stuck.”
Dada 5000 explained that he was trying to talk but just couldn’t but was able to use his hands as a sign of life, which alerted the doctors that he was alive.
“I was screaming to the top of my lungs, no, do not let them do that to me. And I’m going to tell you something, my will to live superseded anything else. I really just focused on my hands, and I moved my hands, and they were like, ‘doc, look, he’s moving his hands! Move your other hand.’ And I moved my other hand.”
“The doctors were like, ‘wow, it’s a miracle. Like, no, it’s God. You haven’t seen anything yet. And later that day, I’m laying back, and my eyes just opened up a little bit, and then I actually opened them up. They had tubes and everything running down my throat. They had originally written me off.”
Following this situation, it’s highly unlikely that Bellator MMA will book him to fight again.
Mixed martial artist Dhafir Harris, better known as Dada 5000, is speaking out about the scary circumstances around his knockout loss against Kimbo Slice at Bellator 149 in February.
During a Wednesday appearance on the Dan LeBatard Show (v…
Mixed martial artist Dhafir Harris, better known as Dada 5000, is speaking out about the scary circumstances around his knockout loss against Kimbo Slice at Bellator 149 in February.
During a Wednesday appearance on the Dan LeBatard Show (via Shaun Al-Shatti of MMAFighting.com), Harris said the phantom punch that resulted in Slice being awarded a knockout victory was actually the result of a heart attack:
When they (paramedics) brought me back, I was inside the hospital and they said that I had two heart attacks — and this is on paper we can provide to you guys. I had two heart attacks and I [flat-lined] twice. And for me, I was just thanking God, like, I’m here for a real reason. Because there’s individuals out there who didn’t go through a fraction of what I went through and they’re no longer breathing.
After the bout was over, Harris was taken out of the arena on a stretcher and to the hospital, with Marissa Rives of SiriusXM Rush 93 providing video of the EMT taking him out of the cage following the match:
Harris added in his interview with LeBatard that he “was pronounced dead” and that the medical staff continued to work on him after the fact to bring him back to life.
As for how this happened, while he didn’t have an exact explanation, Harris did say he pushed his body too hard in too short a time to make the fight with Slice: “Instead of taking a couple months, I probably double-timed it. So I wouldn’t say (I cut weight) poorly.”
Per Jeremy Botter of the Houston Chronicle, Harris does not typically cut weight and wound up dropping “nearly 40 pounds” in the time leading up to the fight with Slice. Botter noted Harris’ high levels of potassium led to severe dehydration, exhaustion and kidney failure during the fight.
Harris also acknowledged he is still on dialysis stemming from the renal failure. The fight was roundly criticized after it was over, though the situation with Harris certainly shined a different light on how things played out.
Better known for his street fight videos on YouTube, Harris is not a professionally trained mixed martial artist. There’s an inherent danger in the sport due to weight cutting, but fighters are better conditioned for it thanks to working with nutritionists who can help them manage their diet.
Harris is lucky to be alive right now, and the circumstances of this fight and its aftermath could call into question similar matchups in the future.
Mixed martial artist Dhafir Harris, better known as Dada 5000, is speaking out about the scary circumstances around his knockout loss against