Kimbo Slice

Kevin Ferguson (February 8, 1974 – June 6, 2016), better known as Kimbo Slice, was a Bahamian mixed martial artist, professional boxer, and actor.

Originally a bare-knuckle boxer, he became noted for his role in mutual combat street fight videos which were spread online, leading Rolling Stone to call him "The King of the Web Brawlers".

Kimbo Slice was born Kevin Ferguson in Nassau on February 8, 1974.

He moved to the U.S. as a child and grew up in Cutler Ridge, Florida.

He was raised with his brother Devon and sister Renea by his mother Rosemary Clarke.

He went to Bel-Air Elementary School, where he was reportedly involved in his first fight with fellow student Dominic Sauer at the age of 13 as he tried to defend a friend.

Ferguson continued his studies at Cutler Ridge Middle School and later attended Richmond Heights Middle School.

He attended Miami Palmetto High School, where he was the star middle linebacker.

In 1992, his house in Perrine, Florida was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew, forcing him to live in his 1987 Nissan Pathfinder for a month.

For college, Ferguson attended both Bethune–Cookman University and the University of Miami, where he held an athletic scholarship and studied criminal justice.

He was there for a year and a half.

In 1997, he had a tryout with the Miami Dolphins and was part of the pre-season squad but was unable to secure a spot on the first team.

Slice's cousin is United States judoka Rhadi Ferguson.

Ferguson started working as a bouncer for a strip club until high school friend and career-long manager, Mike Imber, offered him a job as a limousine driver and bodyguard for RK Netmedia, better known as Reality Kings, a Miami-based pornography production/promotion company responsible for a number of popular adult subscription websites.

Ferguson maintained close ties with Reality Kings throughout the rest of his life; company representatives accompanied him, as his fight entourage, under the name Team Kimbo.

In 2002, he was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and in 2003, he began his career in unsanctioned mutual combat street fights.

They were distributed through the Internet, mainly through the adult website SublimeDirectory and various other video platforms.

In his first taped fight against a man named Big D, Ferguson left a large cut on his opponent's right eye which led Internet fans to call him Slice, becoming the last name to his already popular childhood nickname, Kimbo.

His only ever loss in a street fight was to Sean Gannon, a Boston police officer and fellow mixed martial artist, in 2004.

Turning to mixed martial arts in 2005, Slice left the underground fighting scene and signed a professional contract with EliteXC after making his MMA debut with Cage Fury Fighting Championships in 2007, scoring a win over MMA pioneer and former UFC heavyweight contender Tank Abbot in 2008.

In 2005, Slice started training in martial arts at the Freestyle Fighting Academy under Marcos Avellan and David Avellan.

At first, Slice was training exclusively for illegal street boxing, focusing on bare-knuckle techniques, dirty boxing from the clinch, and elbows—but then he began to develop an interest for MMA.

As an amateur, Slice lost his first and only bout to Jay Ellis by KO in the first round on October 8, 2005, at the 2nd event of the Xtreme Fighting Organization trials.

In 2006, Slice signed to make his professional MMA debut against former WBO Heavyweight champion and Olympic gold-medalist boxer Ray Mercer in a CFFC event in 2007.

Slice was 33 years old facing Mercer, who would be 46 years old at the time.

A month prior to the fight, Slice switched camps and was trained by retired MMA fighter Bas Rutten and boxing instructor Randy Khatami at Rutten's school, EliteMMA, in Thousand Oaks, California.

Slice made his MMA debut against Mercer at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 5, in Atlantic City on June 23, 2007.

The match was scheduled as a three-round exhibition utilizing all professional rules of MMA combat.

Slice defeated Mercer with a guillotine choke at 1:12 into the first round.

CFFC V sold 20,000 ppv buys In a post-fight interview, Slice stated that he would like to fight David "Tank" Abbott.

Abbott, who was a spectator, stood up from his seat and accepted the call out.

One of the matchmakers for CFFC asked Slice for his assurance so that an October 12 bout at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 6 between Slice and "Tank" Abbott could be organized.

This event was later canceled due to a promotion dispute.

On October 11, 2007, ProElite announced that they had signed Slice to a deal and that he would make his debut on the November 10, 2007 EliteXC.

He was originally set to make his professional MMA debut against Mike Bourke, a reformed street fighter, but a shoulder injury from Bourke led him to face Bo Cantrell.

In 2009, he competed in The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights, where he lost in his first fight to eventual series winner Roy Nelson.

In his UFC debut, Slice defeated Houston Alexander in The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights finale.

After becoming a free agent via his dismissal from the UFC, Slice ventured into the professional boxing circuit, competing as a pro fighter from 2011 to 2013.

In January 2015, he signed a contract with Bellator MMA going on to defeat MMA icon and long time veteran Ken Shamrock.

He died suddenly in 2016.