The UFC formally announced last month that Kimbo Slice would be making his pay-per-view debut at UFC 113. But Kimbo's fight against Matt Mitrione is still absent from the official UFC 113 card at UFC.com.And a whole lot of people are thinking that it's more than just coincidence that Kimbo's next fight was called into question just hours after the UFC announced that James Toney will step into the Octagon.
Toney's trainer Juanito Ibarra is already on the record as saying he hopes Kimbo is Toney's first opponent in the UFC. Prior to signing with the UFC, Toney said he wanted to fight Kimbo, although he seemed only vaguely aware of who Kimbo was and repeatedly called him "Simba."
But even if he doesn't know who Kimbo is, Toney knows that the best opponent for him is someone who is:
1. A well-known name
2. Not good enough at wrestling and Brazilian jiu jitsu to simply take him down and dominate him.
Kimbo is really the only fighter under contract to the UFC who qualifies in both categories. Kimbo vs. Toney would be a huge pay-per-view draw and would probably generate more mainstream media hype than any other UFC fight all year. And Kimbo is not a particularly good MMA fighter, especially on the ground, which means Toney would have a real chance of winning his UFC debut. (Randy Couture, on the other hand, would probably need less than a minute to take Toney down and beat him on the ground by TKO or submission.)
And as much as a Kimbo vs. Toney fight would have "freak show" written all over it, it would actually be a somewhat interesting stylistic match-up. I honestly don't know who I'd pick to win. Do you?
UPDATE: To clarify, although UFC President Dana White said publicly that Kimbo would fight Mitrione at UFC 113, and although the UFC announced during UFC 110 that Kimbo would fight Mitrione on UFC 113, the Kimbo vs. Mitrione fight was never listed at UFC.com. Until an official opponent for Kimbo is listed at UFC.com, expect the speculation to continue.
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