Kimbo the latest street-fighting sensation

Will the real Kimbo Slice please stand up?

Before there was such a thing as UFC, and knowledge of what constituted real fighting with techniques from every fighting sport legal, people had their fantasy about the big street fighter who wasn't trained in the gym who was the toughest guy in town. The role is as old as the fame of the pro wrestler Dick the Bruiser in the '50s, and maybe goes back to the pioneer heavyweight boxer, John L. Sullivan.

In the modern MMA era, the first guy in the United States who fit the bill was David "Tank" Abbott. In the early days of UFC, even though Abbott never got so much as one win in his career over a top-level fighter, he made himself a lucrative career in the sport and was one of the most popular and most talked about fighters in the UFC's early years.

Whether true or not, people bought into the idea that Abbott was a guy who would rather fight than do anything else. Even today, Abbott has a unique aura because people think back to the early UFC days and remember his spectacular knockouts, even though most of them were against fighters with skill levels that the only way they'd be at a UFC show today is if they purchased a ticket.

But Abbott has past 40, and his record over the past nine years is 1-7.

But nobody, until now, had replaced him in the role of the unrefined street fighter.

In underground circles, the rise of YouTube created the heir apparent.

Kevin Ferguson, a.k.a. Kimbo Slice, was a myth created in brutal bare knuckle street-fight videos in South Florida, where he'd aggressively pound on non-fighters. His brutality garnered a cult following, and even people who should have known better, started surmising he'd walk into mixed martial arts and clean house.

His first street-fight style match against a professional fighter, Sean Gannon, a Boston police officer, became the stuff of Internet legend. Gannon, hardly an MMA name, went to South Florida and fought under Kimbo's rules. Those rules were basically nothing but stand-up bare knuckle and completely unsanctioned boxing, until it ended with a brutal 30-count knockdown. Gannon knocked him down a few times and finally knocked him out.

Nevertheless, Gannon's face looked bad when it was over. Like fans would do with Abbott's quick one-sided losses, somehow there are people who gravitate toward this fantasy of a street fighter, and rationalized that what they saw didn't happen, or didn't count. Gannon weakened Kimbo with a standing guillotine, and it was supposed to be boxing. Gannon only won because Kimbo gassed first. Gannon's face was a mountain of bruises, so even though he won via knockout, he really lost. There are always explanations to cling onto when your fantasies about fighting are at stake, and the big bad thug who can whip anyone on the street facing an out-of-shape looking police officer who is a low level MMA fighter and being put down for 30 isn't what a lot of people wanted to see or believe.

Gannon actually got a shot in the UFC, but didn't look competitive against Brandon Lee Hinkle. Kimbo's legend continued to grow anyway, and he has his own rationale for the loss, saying that he should have brought a bigger posse to the event, because Gannon got away with using a guillotine on him to take away his air. He said the Kimbo of today would destroy the Kimbo who fought that night, and that Gannon could not last a round with him now.

On Saturday night, this very different Kimbo makes his official fighting debut with Elite XC on a live Showtime card at the American Bank Center Arena in Corpus Christi, Texas. On a show that features proven quality fighters like Nick Diaz, Jake Shields and one of the best super heavyweights around in 295-pound Antonio "Big Foot" Silva, it is Kimbo who is getting almost all the attention.

Kimbo faces journeyman Bo Cantrell (10-10) in the semifinal of the show, headlined by a five-round match to create the first Elite XC lightweight championship with Diaz facing K.J. Noons. In Elite XC, lightweight is a 160-pound weight class as opposed to 155 in most MMA organizations.

"My son Jared told me there's a guy on YouTube that I had to see," said Elite XC president Gary Shaw. "I was looking at him for boxing, but I later heard he was going to MMA."

Shaw said he showed his boxing people the tape, and instead of blowing it off like he's some wannabe with no fighting skill, they were as impressed as he was.

Kimbo does have one sanctioned encounter at an arena as opposed to a backyard, as he took down and used a guillotine submission on 46-year-old former heavyweight boxing champion Ray Mercer in what was billed as an exhibition on June 23 in Atlantic City.

Slice was training for another Atlantic City fight with the aforementioned Abbott a few weeks ago, when the promoter canceled the show after a sponsor backed out at the last minute. Several promoters tried to get the match, but Abbott decided against doing it.

"As soon as that fight fell apart, I put my guy on a plane and told him, `Don't come back until you have him signed on a contract,'" Shaw said.

For a guy with no fights, and who is starting out at the age of either 31 or 33, depending on what you believe, Shaw claimed he has a guy with potential to be a heavyweight champion in boxing or MMA, feeling Kimbo has natural physical skills and fighting instincts. His trainers say he's got a tremendous work ethic in the gym, and has been a quick learner. Shaw admits his age starting out is a question mark. But he also notes he doesn't have the physical wear-and-tear that most fighters would have at the same age.

With a fierce scowl, a shaved head, big beard and a muscular physique, expected to be 230 to 240 pounds, he's got the visual. And he's had nearly a year of training under Bas Rutten in Thousand Oaks, Calif., learning every aspect of the game.

"The main thing I've learned is there's a big difference between street fighting and this," Slice said. "When I was a street fighter, I'd wake up and have a fight and I'm done. Now there's more preparation. The guys I'm fighting are professionals. I wasn't a professional MMA fighter. Before I was a street thug."

"I am not intimidated at all," Cantrell said. "This is not my first rodeo. This is more than a fight; it's like a title fight. Kimbo is getting a lot of attention so a victory would obviously be great for me.

"I am just coming out to do my job. There is no pressure on me whatsoever. Let's see how he deals with the pressure and against someone who can get off first. I am ready to welcome Kimbo in the world of MMA."

While Kimbo said he might have been hungrier as a fighter in his days battling under crude conditions, he compared his former skill level to a handy man who came to work with nothing but a hammer, and now he's a guy who comes to work with a full box of tools.

There are actually two big questions here. The obvious one is after a year of training, does he have potential as a fighter? And while he clearly has potential as a character on the Internet, will that translate to the larger television viewing audience? No Internet creation has yet to prove to be able to draw appreciable money in a fighting sport.

There's always a first time, but the Mercer fight bombed on pay-per-view.

People within the fighting world have, up to this point, overestimated his real fame, but that doesn't mean that he can't be marketable. Tank Abbott is living proof of that, and there is a wide open spot in MMA for a fan base waiting for the fantasy of the mean man on the streets who walks into the cage and overpowers the trained fighters. Even if it's largely a myth.

Shaw said about 4,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday's card, headlined by Diaz (15-6) vs. Noons (4-1), in what will likely be a stand-up battle. Diaz's main claim to fame is a Feb. 24 win over Pride lightweight champion Takanori Gomi in Las Vegas, which was later overturned and ruled a no-contest because Diaz tested positive for marijuana and was suspended. Diaz has great Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills, but prefers to use his reach and boxing. That would suit Noons just fine, since he's a professional boxer, coming off a July 27 knockout win over Edson Berto.

Jake Shields (19-4-1), a former college wrestler who adapted his skills strongly to BJJ, faces Mike Pyle (14-4-1) in a welterweight match that is expected to be a battle on the ground. The other televised matches have middleweights Kyle Noke (13-3-1) of Queensland, Australia, vs. Dr. Seth Kleinbeck (8-3), the former of whom was a bodyguard for the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin; and Antonio Silva (8-1) vs. Jonathan Wiezorek (11-1). Silva is known for fast hands, a good ground game and remarkable speed for someone near 300 pounds.