The UFC has been maligned in the past year or two for their heavyweight division and to be sure there’s many top heavyweights fighting elsewhere. The most significant of these competitors is the undisputed best heavyweight MMA fighter on the planet, Fedor Emelianenko and the man considered by most to be #2, Josh Barnett. While the UFC might not have the best heavyweight fighter in the sport, they may soon have the most famous. Dana White announced recently that Kimbo Slice will be a contestant on season 10 of the UFCs MMA reality show The Ultimate Fighter. A good performance there could see him get a shot at fighting for the promotion.

In the past, Dana White has dismissed Slice and suggested that the only way hed ever fight in the UFC is by winning The Ultimate Fighter. Kimbo will get the opportunity to do just that, and combined with the recently announced coaches Rashad Evans and the always entertaining Quinton Rampage Jackson could be the highest rated season in series history. For Kimbo (real name Kevin Ferguson)it is yet another strange twist in his bizarre career as a professional fighter. Slice first made his name fighting in non-sanctioned street fights to supplement his income as a bodyguard for a Miami based adult film production company. At some point, Kimbos entourage started bringing video cameras to his fights and the footage found its way onto the Internet.

Kimbo quickly became an online cult hero before he officially turned pro as a fighter. He began to train under MMA legend Bas Rutten, and his meteoric rise to superstardom was underway. Not long after, he signed with EliteXC and they quickly made Kimbo the centerpiece of their promotion. While building a MMA promotion around a fighter with almost no experience likely led to their downfall, at the time Kimbo became a media sensation and Elite XC parlayed his popularity into a prime time network TV deal with CBS.

Kimbo’s career was moving along nicely, until a fateful fight on an Elite XC nationally televised CBS card. Kimbos fourth fight was originally scheduled to be against former UFC mainstay Ken Shamrock, but due to a last minute injury he eventually faced substitute Seth Petruzelli. Petruzelli caught Kimbo with a perfectly placed counter right hook and knocked him out. That was the beginning of the end for Elite XC, and the promotion was out of business in a matter of weeks.

Following the demise of Elite XC Kimbo kept a fairly low profile. He made a few appearances in a promotional capacity for the K-1 kickboxing organization in Japan while considering his next career move. About this time, he parted with trainer Bas Rutten who intimated that Kimbo had let his newfound celebrity go to his head. UFC president Dana White would occasionally be asked if hed ever have an interested in Kimbo, which hed dismiss with the offhanded suggestion that the only way hed fight in the UFC was to compete in The Ultimate Fighter reality show.

While its unclear when that off-handed dismissal by White became a viable reality, but regardless of how the deal came together Kimbo will be a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter. Some have speculated that White is something of a sadist, and is looking forward to embarrassing Slice even further. More likely, hes taken note of his incredible popularity and decided to take advantage of it to revitalize a series that has become somewhat predictable and formulaic of late. Its really a no-lose proposition for the UFC”if Kimbo doesnt do well, they were right all along and if he *does* do well they can make some money with him. In any case, the media coverage and ratings for their MMA reality show will likely be at an all time high.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer and respected authority on sports betting odds comparison. He writing has appeared on a variety of sports sites including sports news and World Cup betting sites. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and an emu. He is currently working on an autobiography of former interior secretary James Watt.

When golf legend Jack Nicklaus was still a young upstart in the sport and only starting to tear up PGA courses, legend Bobby Jones commented following ‘The Golden Bear’s”65 Masters win that “he plays a game with which I am not familiar”. Following Lyoto Machida’s absolute destruction of Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC 98, there’s likely a few MMA fighters saying the same thing. Machida completely befuddled Evans en route to a 2nd round TKO victory after which ‘The Dragon’ looked as if hed barely worked up a sweat.

The fight started slowly, with each man trying to get a feel for his opponent and wait him out to see who blinked first. Evans, who prefers to counter punch, quickly began to become uncomfortable with facing an adversary who didn’t come right at him. Late in the first round, Machida went on offense with frightening suddenness, flooring Evans with a nice straight right hand. Evans gamely tried to fight back, but a final right hand from the Shotokan Karate master left him out cold.

After the fight UFC announcer Joe Rogan proclaimed the start of the Machida era and this is not just mere hyperbole. Machida is unlike any fighter before him, rooted in mastery of traditional martial arts but with the versatility of a modern MMA competitor. He’s essentially a Mortal Kombat character come to life–in a more realistic cross disciplinary comparison he shares many of the same characteristics as boxing great Floyd Mayweather, Jr. as he combines insane handspeed, underrated stopping power and nearly impenetrable defense into an unorthodox and extremely lethal package.

The comparisons with the insanely talented but equally insanely arrogant Mayweather end when the final bell sounds. Outside of the cage, Machida is a modest and respectful gentleman who is quick to give credit to his father and his karate teachers for his MMA success. He spent most of his UFC 98 postfight interview not singing his own praises, but imploring others to strive to realize their dreams. In the past, his limited English was seen as a potential marketing liability here in the US but on this occasion he demonstrated vastly improved fluency in the language as a Portuguese translator stood by with his hands in his pockets. Almost overnight hes simply become a marketers dream.

An odd trivia note about Machida serves as further repudiation for MMA neophytes who think that the sports kinship with pro wrestling began with Brock Lesnar: Machida was discovered by Japanese wrestling legend Antonio Inoki, and became something of his protege. He trained for some time at the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo in Tokyo and made his MMA debut on a NJPW card in 2003, defeating Pancrase veteran Kengo Watanabe. For a time, Inoki had designs on pushing Machida as his predecessor, but his success in shoot fights quickly opened up other doors.

Perhaps the most frightening thing about Machida is that hes only now reaching his full potential as an MMA fighter. In other words, hes only going to get better which is a scary prospect for opponents given the fact that hes never lost in MMA competition. In his recent bouts hes shown a downright lethal ability to end fights. He stopped Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at UFC 79 with an arm triangle choke, and blitzed Evans and previous foe Thiago Alves with punishing punching combinations en route to TKO victories.

Machida will very likely face Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson at some point in the future and, with all due respect to the PRIDE/UFC veteran, its difficult to see him faring much differently than Evans did. One thing working in ‘Rampage’s’ favor is his greater experience and a resume filled with high level opponents of various fighting styles.

In the co-main event of the evening, Matt Hughes defeated Matt Serra by unanimous decision to gain the upperhand in their long running feud. It was a surprisingly entertaining fight, with Serra taking the first round with his power punching before Hughes used his takedown and ground control abilities to win rounds two and three.

Ross Everett is a respected freelance writer experienced in travel, poker and sports handicapping. He is a consulting handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, falconry and deep sea diving. He lives in Las Vegas with four dogs and a pet coyote.