We all know that Kimbo Slice needs to get much, much better on the ground if he's ever going to win a fight in the UFC. But if you want to try to quantify just how much better Roy Nelson was than Kimbo when they fought on Wednesday's Ultimate Fighter, take a look at the CompuStrike stats: Nelson landed 67 strikes on the ground. Kimbo landed zero.
MMA isn't scored like Olympic boxing, so no one should read too much into stats that simply count up the total number of strikes landed. But when you see a score like 67-0, you know that Nelson simply had his way with Kimbo on the ground. This was the second time in Kimbo's MMA career that he took a huge number of shots while on the ground in side control; the same thing happened in his fight with James Thompson last year. It doesn't speak well to Kimbo's training that he didn't look like he learned much in the year between the Thompson and Nelson fights.
I still hold out a little bit of hope, though, that the Ricardo Liborio and the other coaches at American Top Team will shape Kimbo up enough to the point where he at least looks competent on the ground. Kimbo is, if nothing else, an interesting character, and it would be nice to see him learn how to be a real mixed martial artist. But the CompuStrike stats show how far he has to go.
Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson
Kimbo Slice punches Roy Nelson during the 'The Ultimate Fighter' episode which aired Sept. 30, 2009 on Spike TV.
UFC
Roy Nelson punches Kimbo Slice during the 'The Ultimate Fighter' episode which aired Sept. 30, 2009 on Spike TV.
UFC
Kimbo Slice punches Roy Nelson during the 'The Ultimate Fighter' episode which aired Sept. 30, 2009 on Spike TV.
UFC
Roy Nelson punches Kimbo Slice during the 'The Ultimate Fighter' episode which aired Sept. 30, 2009 on Spike TV.
UFC
Kimbo Slice punches Roy Nelson during the 'The Ultimate Fighter' episode which aired Sept. 30, 2009 on Spike TV.
UFC
Kimbo Slice punches Roy Nelson during the 'The Ultimate Fighter' episode which aired Sept. 30, 2009 on Spike TV.
UFC
Roy Nelson turns up the heat on Kimbo Slice during the 'The Ultimate Fighter' episode which aired Sept. 30, 2009 on Spike TV.
UFC
Roy Nelson battles Kimbo Slice on the ground during the 'The Ultimate Fighter' episode which aired Sept. 30, 2009 on Spike TV.
UFC
Roy Nelson gets his hand raised after a second-round TKO win over Kimbo Slice during the 'The Ultimate Fighter' episode which aired Sept. 30, 2009 on Spike TV.
UFC
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
The ground game is about control and Nelson completely controlled Slice. Why should he try and stand and bang with him, when he knew he had no ground skills? Nelson fought the smart fight. Whether or not you thought it was boring, he beat him.
One more thing. My girlfriend wouldn't watch the fight just because of Nelsons huge gut! She loves MMA, but she said if all the fighters looked like that, she would have never got into it. I pictured fat rednecks across the country turning to their girlfriends, rubbing their guts, and saying, "how you like me now baby?" Lol.
kimbo has no skill.just a well built punching bag.he has no ground game to speak of and his stand up is not great either.sure he can bully and beat up on bums and crack heads on the street.but taking on guys with just a little mma skill is to much for him.iam pretty sure he could not make it evan in the lightweights of the ufc or wec.