Doyel: It's too bad Kimbo Slice 'got branded a thug'
Indianapolis mixed martial arts fighter Matt Mitrione knew Kimbo Slice. He spent six weeks living with him. Spent nearly 10 minutes beating on him. And when the news broke Tuesday morning that Kimbo Slice – the street-fighting YouTube sensation who made it all the way to the UFC – had died at age 42, Mitrione was stunned.
“Couldn’t believe it,” Mitrione said from a car somewhere in Missouri, where he was promoting his June 24 fight in St. Louis for the Bellator fight promotion. “We were in this car when we found out. The PR guy from Bellator got some phone calls. Still can’t believe it.”
Mitrione knows Slice better than most folks, and he hopes the legacy left behind by the heavily bearded, heavily muscled, heavily discussed backyard brawler will be more positive than negative.
“Kimbo's a really good dude, man,” says Mitrione, 37. “He’s a family man, cares about his children, loves life. It’s really unfair. It’s sad. He’s quiet and not as outspoken as people wanted him to be, but he’s not a thug. He’s a good dude. He got in a position where people were making bets on him in a backyard, and it became more than he ever imagined. It’s unfortunate he was branded as a thug, and he wasn’t.”
Slice’s series of backyard brawls a decade ago went from the internet underground to viral status, drawing some 250 million views on YouTube. He turned pro in MMA in 2007 and was introduced as a cast member on the 10th season of "The Ultimate Fighter," a UFC reality show where Slice shared a house with 15 other heavyweights. One of them was Mitrione, a former Purdue and NFL defensive tackle whose debut in MMA came on that 2009 reality show.
Mitrione, like most guys in the house, wanted a piece of Kimbo Slice.
“Everybody wanted a piece of him,” Mitrione says. “Everybody wanted to fight him, but that’s good – you want to be the person everybody wants to fight. You don’t want to be the guy nobody cares about.”
Apathy was never a problem for Slice (5-2-1 in MMA), who was good for TV ratings even if he wasn’t terribly good at MMA. He fought Mitrione (9-5) at UFC 113 in Montreal in 2010. It was the second professional fight for Mitrione, who spent Round 1 devastating Slice’s legs with kicks before taking him down in Round 2 and beating him until the fight was called.
Mitrione, whose June 24 Bellator fight is against Samoan slugger Carl Seumanutafa (10-6), doesn’t want to revisit his 2010 beatdown of Slice. Too soon to discuss that, he was saying, referring to Slice by his real name – Kevin Ferguson – rather than his underground persona.
“As a promoter of myself and my own brand, I speak very freely and even recklessly about my fighting because I feel extremely confident,” Mitrione said. “But I don’t think today’s the time to talk about that. I respect Kevin too much.”
Slice was scheduled to fight England’s James Thompson on July 16 in London. His death was a result of heart failure, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.