Famed street fighter Kimbo Slice yesterday gave his first interview after his 14-second loss to Seth Petruzelli and he's apparently ready for his next bout.
And now I'll tell you, with voice only slightly aquiver, that it appears he wants it to be with the Pulp himself.
The monstrous Kimbo, most famous for pummeling men in parking lots on YouTube videos, was on the Dan Le Batard show on 790 The Ticket yesterday. You can listen here. When asked about the story I wrote in last week's New Times about him and mixed martial arts fighting, Slice said I "needed to be slapped in my mouth."
Apparently, Mr. Slice took exception to the cover, which included a photo of him over a pink background and the word "sissy." Le Batard wasted no time in bringing up the article and the fighter, whose real name is Kevin Ferguson, pounced on it.
"Yeah I gotta get in contact with that guy some kind of way man and we need to confront this situation face to face. Because that shit wasn't cool. To me that was kind of disrespectful. Representin' our city, representing our town, same city, same town, our local paper, this guy is going to publicly be disrespectful like that .. I gotta confront this guy. I want to see what his angle was. Why would he do that, why would he disrespect me like that? ... I think he needs to be slapped in his mouth. There's one thing you can't call me and that's a sissy."
Apparently, this thing is really on the guy's mind. At the end, Kimbo revisited the subject:
Slice: I want to get into contact with that guy who wrote that article. You know, we got to set that up in some kind of way.Le Batard: The guy from New Times? Do you want to harm him? My guess is he doesn’t want to be seen near you or around you. You just want to converse with the man?
Slice: Converse? [Laughs] You know, I got shit in mind I want to say to him. I want to know what his angle was and what made him do shit like that. You want to know what’s in my head, I want to know what’s going on his head to do that.
Le Batard: I don’t that would be a good idea, though, because I don’t think you could keep control of your emotions.
Slice: Sure I will [Laughs]. You can trust that.
Hah. Do you think I'm afraid of Kimbo Slice? I'll take him on anytime, anywhere, anyplace (just realized how ridiculously redundant that phrase is). My only condition is that the entire staff of New Times be allowed to fight with me. They've pledged their support, with a couple designated as ankle-biters if it devolves to that point.
What a crew. I'm getting verklempt here.
But seriously, Kevin, if you really want to contact me, call me at 954-233-1588. It's that simple. We'll talk. But first, I just ask that you re-read the article and see that I didn't actually call you the S-word. I fall back now on one of journalism's all-time greatest excuses: I didn't write the headline.
The truth is that writers often don't pen the headlines. I won't tell you who wrote this one (he's in an undisclosed location at this moment) but it wasn't my brainchild. To help convince you of this, check out the Miami New Times headline, "MMA's Post-Kimbo Limbo." I didn't write that one either.
That said, I didn't lobby against the sissy headline either. Kimbo, that was one seriously pathetic fight and, as even you said in the Le Batard interview, you should be prepared for the fallout. It was meant tongue-in-cheek, but you must know it's what a lot of people are thinking, at least in regards to those 14 seconds. Here's another passage from your interview yesterday with Danny boy:
My dad came from the Bahamas to watch this fight, you kidding me? What the fuck man, you can’t lose in a worse way than that. But … it’s cool. No I’m not embarrassed by it. I’m an entertainer. You can’t be embarrassed if you’re an entertainer. If you’re going to get embarrassed entertaining, whether it’s rap, fighting, dancing or anything on that level, you know, then you're in the wrong business and you're going to feel like shit about it. Real professionals on that level prepare themselves for the good and the bad.
Consider the sissy cover to be part of the bad. But it's just that kind of attitude that gives you little to no cred in the real MMA world. Entertainment? MMA is like dancing or rapping? Tell that to local MMA fighter and recently crowned featherweight champ Mike Brown. That guy has been working like a dog for years to fight professionally -- and when you watch him, you know he's not thinking about entertainment. He's thinking about winning. And when he loses, he doesn't shake it off as "entertainment." It sets back his career and forces him to wonder if he's going to have to work a full-time day job for a living. And that's if he hasn't blown out a knee or had one of his biceps ripped off during the fight.
That's part of what's in my head, Kimbo. Now let's talk.
