"Thank God, man," Kimbo said afterward. "It feels good."
Many fans booed the decision, and Kimbo acknowledged those boos, saying at the post-fight press conference, "Hell, I would have booed too. He rode the ring a lot."
Although it was expected to be a good, old-fashioned brawl, it didn't start that way: For the first minute and a half of the fight Kimbo and Alexander just circled around the Octagon and didn't throw any punches at all. Eventually Alexander started kicking Kimbo in the legs, but it was almost three minutes into the fight before Kimbo even threw a punch. The first round was a huge disappointment, with hardly any action at all, and the fans booed as the fighters went to their corners.
"We kind of trained and were prepared for somewhat of his attacks, but I wasn't prepared for the ring riding that he did," Slice said. "I wasn't prepared for that."
In the second it was more of the same at first, but Kimbo eventually landed a powerful jab that snapped Alexander's head back and then got on top of Alexander on the ground. That's when Kimbo came alive and started landing punches on the ground, although Kimbo's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills are still rudimentary, and he was unable to take advantage of some opportunities to apply submissions.
"I am not going to say I was in my comfort zone," Slice said. "I knew a few things. If I would have saw an opportunity for a submission, I would have went for it."
At one point, Slice took Alexander's back to attempt a rear-naked choke, or what Slice referred to as the "ten fingers" at the media conference.
"What went through my mind was that I knew I didn't have it successfully so I didn't want to exert too much energy."
By the third round both fighters were exhausted, and the pace slowed down. Alexander landed a very hard leg kick that knocked Kimbo to the ground, but Kimbo fought back and brought Alexander down with him. The fighters stalemated on the ground until the referee separated them and stood them back up with a minute remaining. In the final seconds Alexander staggered Kimbo with a hard punch, and when the final bell sounded both guys doubled over and sucked air to the sound of the crowd's displeasure.
The judges scored the bout 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 for Kimbo.
Kimbo (who is hardly ever referred to by his real name, Kevin Ferguson) is one of America's most famous and most controversial mixed martial arts fighters. Some in the MMA community think Kimbo's background in fighting on the streets is bad for the sport, while others think his fame has been great for the sport by attracting new fans. When Kimbo fought on CBS in 2008 his fights did strong ratings, but when he lost a fight by knockout just 14 seconds into the first round, he was derided as a fraud.
Now Kimbo is in the UFC, and although he showed some toughness by going the distance with Alexander, he also showed that he's never going to be an elite mixed martial artist. He's simply too stiff and slow to become a great fighter. Maybe some day he can become a good one.
Still, Kimbo weighed in at 212 pounds and looked chiseled, and reports out of his training camp, American Top Team, indicated that he was working hard at both his strength and conditioning and his martial arts skills.
"I want to thank ATT," Kimbo said afterward of his gym.
And by beating Alexander, he managed to win his first MMA fight against a legitimate opponent. Kimbo isn't a great fighter, but on this night, he was a winning fighter.
"I would have preferred to knock him out," Slice said. "I could have used that extra quarter, but it went the way it went. You gotta be happy with it regardless of how [the win] comes."
Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Man, if I ever saw a guy throw a fight it was tonight. Normally Houston Alexander is a beast, but tonight it was obvious that he was just waiting to be taken out by Kimbo. This was the worst fight I've ever seen on UFC. Obviously Houston Alexander got paid by someone to not fight tonight.
ha ha ,kimbo did it ,he beat a guy who is about 3/4 the way up the ufc lader ,,he slamed him like a rag doll and beat alaxander at his own game,which is mma if you haters forgot,,,looks like kimbo is officaly a mma fighter ,,alaxander ran and didnt want to engage,,,kimbos game has got better and it can only get better from here ,, he needs to keep training and sparing just like everyone else does when they start out,,,,how does it feel to the people that were talking smack saying kimbo was going to lose ,,you guys dont know jack sh-t ,,,sleep tight
You got that right!
Or did you stop to think that the other guy new of kimobo's punching power, the guy already has stated that he respected kimbo. all of the other fighters this guy has faced did not have kimbos punching power and this guy knew that if kimbo caught him just right it was over,lol. that is the real reason he was trying to take kimbo out by kicking kimbo in his bad knee. he was pissing me off, he kept going in a circle, kimbo should have just went in and took his head off but kimbo has learned that in the mma ufc it's not like street fighting, ya see if this had been a street fight kimbo would have just gone in and knocked him out, but in mma you have to watch out for fluing knees and all other kinds of shit, so in my opinion it was the other guys not kimbo fault this guy to me has more hype then kimbo this guy talking about knocking kimbo out and all the hype the announcers were doing, so im sure kimbo will be back again soon im not sure how often mma fighters fight, but he just need to get that knee worked on, either get the gel injected or for lonbg term health he needs to have surgery to have the cushion between the knee replaced.
FIX!!!! YOU WANT TO SEE A FIX!!???? Then you should have seen the Pitt v. Cinncinatti game when the f'ing jagoff who was supposed to SIMPLY HOLD A CORRECT SNAP FROM THE CENTER AND "MIS-HANDLED" THE BALL causing Pitt to lose by one point!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT WAS A FIX IF YOU EVER, AND I MEAN EVER WANT TO SEE ONE!!! I hope that the Feds, and everyone else, watches that piece of sh it's income sources, AND HIS FAMILY'S since the Bookies will probably get the money to him through an outside source, FOREVER!!! That piece of puke is lucky that I didn't play on Pitt's team or I'd still be beating his scum sucking a**!!! IT WAS A "FIX" AT IT'S BEST!!!!!!
Yeah honestly I'm very disappointed. I normally get super hyped up for these fights but this one, not so much.
King David, You obviously never played a sport in your life or you wouldn't talk so stupidly. When the ball was fumbled Pitt was up by six, so how did that cause them to lose? How about the defensive back that got burned on the TD by Cincy? Pitts defense allowed Cincy to go 60 yards in the last 1:30 and you want to blame the holder. What an idiot you are.
Lmao no actually Houston DID NOT WANT TO FIGHT...why else did he constanly circle the ring like a chicken running..We see this all the Time,No one wants to stand up with Kimbo because he knocks fools out..Sam thing with Roy Nelson..He one last night by knockout,But when he fought Kimbo.Thje second kimbo rocked him he went for the take down.I cannot blame Kimbo he never moved backwards and he tried to make it a brawl...BUT IT TAKES TWO TO BRAWL..and Alexander was running not trying to fight.
Dana White should be ashamed . The fix was in so bad a blind man could see it.Was waiting for hulk hogan to come in with a chair. UFC just lost credibility BIG TIME.
Your a joke
hahahahah that was the best comment ive ever seen.It was obviously fixed when kimbo fell and houston stood their and did nothing.
Houston didn't want to be knocked out by Slice. That is why he danced around the cage. He didn't want to be the first UFC fighter to get KO'd by the backyard bum.
Yeah! Right on brother! Kimbo is still a backyard bum. Brock Lesnar will slam his @$$.
Kimbo's ground game was only good because Alexander has ZERO ground game. Kimbo versus anyone with a BJJ Blue belt or higher would look like crap.
The fight was handpicked to make Kimbo look good. Why a catchweight with a washed-up LHW? Aren't there some HW journeymen he could have fought? Kimbo could easily have outweighed him by 20 pounds at the actual fight after food/rehydration.
if kimbo was to ever see houston on the street kimbo would dominate him to the fullest, he isnt a backyard bum anymore. he is very well rounded.
I Agree Houston Alexander must have gotten a BIG PAYDAY for throwing this [SHOW}
Let's all put the conspiracy theories aside for a moment and look at some facts:
Houston Alexander is 37 years old. He's lost 3 of his 4 last fights before tonight. If this had been anyone else fighting him no one would've thought twice about it, but a lot of people seem to be skeptical of the whole Kimbo Slice thing.
kimbo slamed houston and put him to his back ,,kimbo is strong and his skills were starting to show , he won the fight with a good showing, looks like his training is helping and he better keep at it ,just like every other fighter you have to start somewhere to work your way up and he started 3/4 way up the ufc ladder and won ,alexander ran most the fight,,,it looks like kimbo beat a veteran of mma and now you can call him a mma practioner,how does it feel to all you guys saying he was going to lose,,,,you guys dont know jackshit,,,,he might be new to the game but he beat a veteran and houston has some heavy hands and explosive power,so show some respect to the man if you would like to recive any, ha ha ha ha
nothing worth while happens over night kimbo has heart and is on the right track... i did however expect more from houston alexander.
Both fighters I think knew the other could end it with one punch, but nothing thrown for 3 minutes in the first was lame. I really want to see what Kimbo can do after some more time with ATT.