Almost. Here’s a revealing interview with Joe Riggs where he talks Kimbo Slice and a fight that almost happened a few years ago, back when Kimbo was still taking opponents for street fights. Riggs says this was back in 2003 when his trainer offered to put up $50,000 in a prizefight against Kimbo, but the offer was turned down when it was discovered that Riggs had a lot of pro experience.
Soon Team Kimbo returned to the dock and this time they had a more appropriate challenge: They figured that if Kimbo was going to be rip through people so easily, he might as well fight more than one.
Kimbo steps into the makeshift ring and encounters Afro Puff, a ridiculously tall black guy with, you guessed it, a puffy afro. His height poses no threat to Kimbo, whose aggression easily nullifies Afro Puff’s size advantage and he’s soon eating punches for the count. This is the kind of thing that made Kimbo Slice vs. everybody so interesting in the first place!
Too excited to contain himself, Big Mac jumps right over to Kimbo with his fists up. The guy is nothing short of comical, but his speed for such a big guy is nothing to laugh about. He looks good for first few seconds but Kimbo parries his jabs and knocks Big Mac down once. Unlike so many previous fighters, Mac’s not afraid, and so he climbs to his feet and engages Kimbo again…until he’s hit and dropped again. He stands back up and is punched until he forgets where he is, at which point the fight is called and Kimbo Slice remains champion.
Months passed after Kimbo Slice’s unsanctioned street fight against Sean Gannon, until a new video appeared, this time in a boatyard. The contender was a huge rastafarian-looking guy who has been called “Dreads” or “Rasta” because of his long dreadlocks, which harmed his fighting but did wonders for his sense of fashion.
Kimbo Slice emerges from a Hummer wearing a gold necklace and announces he’s not the champ yet, but he’s not afraid to beat the champ. No time is wasted as Kimbo puts on his shorts and walks right into his fight with Dreads. The guy looks scared from the beginning, backing up and swatting at punches that haven’t even been thrown. His dreads get in his eyes and he’s forced to push them aside several times. It doesn’t take too many punches from Kimbo Slice before Dreads is sitting on the asphalt and Kimbo’s brother is starting the count. Another uppercut from Kimbo cuts Dreads’ eye, and he sees visions of that video he remembers watching on Youtube about a guy named Big D who got himself into the wrong backyard bout.
Needless to say Kimbo vs Dreads wasn’t much of a fight, but it whet everyone’s appetitie for Kimbo Fights until the next video hit the internet. By this time, Kimbo was renowned enough that Mega64 made a parody of the Kimbo vs Dreads fight called “Timbo”:
In his second streetfight, Kimbo loses. After the word spread on Youtube about Big D’s gory eye, MMA fans everywhere claimed Kimbo Slice had no real skill and could be killed by any trained fighter. On an MMA website, Kimbo’s manager stated that he was accepting challenges and Boston police officer Sean “The Cannon” Gannon offered to fight Kimbo for $10000 if Kimbo left his hometown of Miami and came to Boston. It was sealed and then the saga behind the Kimbo vs. Gannon fight began.
Kimbo Slice was quick and aggressive in the beginning of the fight. He lunged in throwing several big crosses that quickly ruined the face of Gannon, a golden gloves boxer and Judo champion. But Slice’s lack of conditioning soon surfaced and he tired out, and after being dropped by Gannon, attempted an illegal takedown. Friends of both sides rushed in to separate the fighters as Gannon caught Kimbo in a guillotine choke, also against the supposed rules. As everyone in the room fought over what was allowed, Kimbo Slice and Sean Gannon broke into another slugfest and Gannon began to get the upper hand until he was knocked down by Kimbo, who again broke his own rules in hitting a fallen opponent. More screaming ensued, but the outcome was inevitable: Kimbo Slice had no cardio and became a 260 lb. punching bag as Gannon won the fight and showed the internet how Kimbo loses — with style.
The Kimbo vs Gannon fight was so enormously popular that Sean Gannon was offered a fight with the UFC.
Here’s the original Kimbo backyard fight in Miami that made him famous, Kimbo vs Big D AKA Leo Byrd. Rumors fly about this fight settling scores over a drug deal, and Kimbo says he was called up and offered $500 for a backyard street fight against Big D the next day.
Kimbo weighed in at 260 lbs. here, much bulkier than his MMA fighting weight. He demonstrates some clear boxing skills as he weaves under Big D’s hook and rocks him with a punch of his own.
But none of Kimbo Slice’s fights are without controversy, and you can see right in the beginning of the fight that Big D told Kimbo to “hold up” — and then got his eye bloodied and tossed into the grass. Kimbo continues to maul Big D like it’s a fight to the death, and by the end of it, Big D’s bloody eye looks like special effects from a horror movie.
The catchphrases “That’s how a nigga eat” and “All day” originated in this video.
