Paypress testing

Tag: kimbo slice

  • JNPO: UFC’s Jon Anik on UFC 199, Kimbo, Ariel Helwani & Brock

    Get a chance to catch your breath yet this week? From news to results to death and everything in between, the MMA faithful had enough to fill their cups and then some in the last seven days.

    Helping host Josh Nason make sense of it all is UFC play-by-play man, studio host, and Anik & Florian podcast co-host Jon Anik!

    Josh and Jon discussed the divergent paths of Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson from UFC 100 to UFC 199, the somewhat buried story of Urijah Faber possibly retiring, the public reverence for the passing of Kimbo Slice and Muhammad Ali this week, thoughts on the return of Brock Lesnar and his chances against Mark Hunt, a little on Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor II, and even a question about his friend and former co-worker Ariel Helwani.

    Listen to all that and more in the 41st episode of Josh Nason’s Punch-Out.

    Show notes: Here is John Pollock’s MMA week in review discussed in the show’s closing.

    >>>Click below to listen or right click to download:

    Right click save

  • Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson passes away from heart failure

    MMA star and YouTube street fighting sensation Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson has passed away at the age of 42 Monday, reportedly due to heart failure.

    TMZ reported on Monday evening that Ferguson had been rushed to the hospital and was in a dire situation, and social media reports started to file in later that he had passed away. American Top Team, where Ferguson trained, confirmed the news on their Twitter account.

    The ATT Family and South Florida community lost a legend today. RIP Kimbo. pic.twitter.com/sjs8ctyJMd

    — American Top Team (@AmericanTopTeam) June 7, 2016

    Ferguson rose to stardom on YouTube as a street fight legend, and parlayed that into an MMA career. He fought on the first-ever MMA event broadcast on network television — EliteXC: Primetime in May 2008 — where he defeated James Thompson. He famously lost to Seth Petruzelli later in 2008 in EliteXC’s final event. He went on to appear on UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter and fought Roy Nelson in the most watched fight aired on cable during that TUF season.

    He went on to have a 1-1 record inside the Octagon, being released following a loss to Matt Mitrione.

    Ferguson moved onto professional boxing and compiled a 7-0 record before returning to MMA with Bellator MMA. He defeated Ken Shamrock at Bellator 138 in June 2015, and followed that up with a second straight win in the infamous February bout against Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris in February where Harris claimed he died during the fight and was hospitalized for several days following due to renal failure.

    Ferguson failed a drug test afterward failing for nandralone and elevated testosterone levels. He was suspended for 90 days, far from the standard suspensions found in most states. Ferguson was booked to rematch Thompson at the upcoming Bellator 158 event on July 16 in London, England.

    A statement from Bellator’s Scott Coker: 

    We are all shocked and saddened by the devastating and untimely loss of Kimbo Slice, a beloved member of the Bellator family. 

    One of the most popular MMA fighters ever,  Kimbo was a charismatic, larger-than-life personality that transcended the sport.

    Outside of the cage he was a friendly, gentle giant and a devoted family man. His loss leaves us all with extremely heavy hearts, and our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Ferguson family and all of Kimbo’s friends, fans, and teammates.

    A statement from UFC:

    UFC is saddened to learn of the passing of Kevin Ferguson, known to fans around the world as Kimbo Slice.

    Slice will forever be a part of UFC history as a contestant on season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2009, and for having fought twice inside the Octagon at The Ultimate Fighter Finale and UFC 113. He carried himself as a true professional during his time in our organization.

    While he will never be forgotten for his fighting style and transcendent image, Slice will also be remembered for his warm personality and commitment to his family and friends.

    UFC offers its sincere condolences to Slice’s family, friends and teammates at American Top Team.

    Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez have more on this on tonight’s Wrestling Observer Radio.

  • June 13, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: The passing of Muhammad Ali and Kimbo Slice

    There are literally no words that can do justice to the significance of Muhammad Ali.

    It’s funny because a significant description, although perhaps overblown, came from WCW wrestlers in the late ’90s. There was an article interviewing many of the top stars of the promotion which asked who the most influential person in the history of the world was. While names like Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler received a significant number of votes, the person who received the most was Ali. 

    Current subscribers click here to continue reading.

  • Kimbo Slice heads to London for July return, interesting co-main planned

    Photo: MMA Junkie

    Kimbo Slice’s championship aspirations have never been at the top of the list for Bellator MMA, but interesting fights certainly are. Sunday night, the MMA world found out what his next foray into the cage will be.

    In a rematch of one of the most watched MMA fights of all time, the 42-year-old Slice (6-2) will rematch James “Colossus” Thompson (20-16-1) on Saturday, July 16th at the O2 Arena in London, England. Bellator president Scott Coker made the announcement during a quick segment on ESPN’s SportsCenter on ESPNews.

    Slice will ride into the fight on a two fight win streak, having dispatched Ken Shamrock and Dhafir “DADA 5000” Harris in February, the last fight notable mainly because Harris nearly died during the fight due to a terribly planned weight cut, and that Slice tested positive for banned substances. He was suspended for all of 90 days by the Texas Athletic Commission. 

    While the quality of his fights haven’t been great, viewers continue to turn out in droves, making him the promotion’s biggest star. 

    After winning four straight, the 37-year-old Thompson has lost his last two fights by TKO. He and Slice fought back in May 2008 for EliteXC, a fight Slice won by 3rd round TKO when Thompson’s cauliflower ear exploded after Slice punched it. The show aired on CBS and did huge ratings.

    According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Bellator is looking at England native Paul Daley vs. Josh Koscheck II in the co-main event — a rematch of their infamous May 2010 UFC fight where Daley punched Koscheck after the fight ended, causing his immediate firing by UFC brass. Ever since Bellator signed both guys, the fight has been inevitable.

    The fight announcement wasn’t lost on UFC VP of Public Relations Dave Sholler who had a simple tweet after the announcement. Even with a busy July, UFC has no shows planned for that date. They have run the O2 Arena six times, always drawing well there.

  • Kimbo Slice & Ken Shamrock fail pre-Bellator 149 drug tests

    As if their presence atop an MMA card in 2016 wasn’t bizarre enough, another footnote will be added onto the Bellator legacy of both Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice: busted for a positive drug test.

    MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi broke the news Friday afternoon that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation has “adminstratively suspended” both guys pending a full adjudication process due to a non-specified banned substance found in their pre-fight urine tests prior to Bellator 149.

    Raimondi added that typical maximum suspension in Texas for this type of failure go up to 90 days with a $5000 fine. Bellator has yet to make a public comment.

    The 52-year-old Shamrock lost to Royce Gracie in the main event via first round TKO after the referee missed Gracie kneeing Shamrock low, leading to strikes for the win. The 42-year-old Slice downed DADA 5000 in the night’s co-main event by TKO in the third round. It was later learned that 5000 nearly died in the cage after suffering renal failure due to bad weight cutting.

    The event did record numbers for SPIKE TV, crushing previous Bellator shows on their airwaves.

    That night just keeps getting stranger and stranger.

  • Bellator garners 655,000 viewers for final show of 2015

    Last Friday’s Bellator 147 event averaged 656,000 viewers on Spike TV, headlined by former Strikeforce lightweight champion and UFC fighter Josh Thomson knocking out Pablo Villaseca. This was the final show of the year for Bellator, and the average viewership for their regular Friday night shows was 655,833 viewers – virtually identical to what they did Friday.

    Notes:

    – Bellator ran 16 shows in 2015; 12 regular shows (down 3.1% from 2014’s average viewership of 676,571) and 4 “tentpole” shows. They ran 21 regular shows in 2014 and plan to move to a more frequent schedule again in 2016.

    – The 4 tentpole shows for the year averaged 1,016,500 viewers — greatly inflated by the 1,580,000 viewers for the Kimbo Slice-Ken Shamrock show in June. In fact that number was almost twice as high as their next highest rated show, which was the 872,000 viewers for the February British Invasion show. In 2014, they ran one tentpole show, Tito Ortiz-Stephan Bonnar at Bellator 131, which did 1,241,000 viewers.

    – For their 16 shows this year, Bellator averaged 746,000 viewers overall for 22 shows, up 6.2% from the 2014 average of 702,227 viewers. 

    Thoughts:

    – 4 of the last 5 Friday night regular shows have done between 650,000 and 669,000 viewers, so that seems to be what their steady audience is, going up a couple hundred thousand viewers for a tentpole show. It’s only when they bring in a name that would mean something to very casual fans (like Ortiz, Shamrock or Slice) that they are able to get to the 1 million threshold and beyond.

    – Bellator has three shows upcoming in January and February with the big one being Bellator 149 on February 19th. That show will feature Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie and Slice vs Dada 5000. It should break the company’s viewership record if those two fights take place as scheduled.

  • WOR 11/6: Booking around Seth Rollins’ injury, every bad fight ever made in one day

    Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back today with a very long breaking news audio show on a bunch of different stories — every bad idea fight you can imagine being put together all at once for Bellator and Rizin, how Seth Rollins going down may lead to a breath of fresh air for the entire company with so many booking options and more! A fun show as always so check it out~!

    Right click save