Kevin Ferguson, better known as Kimbo Slice, is a name that has remained relatively quiet lately but the internet star’s recent boxing match has caused a stir among fight fans.
Slice kicked off his boxing career late last year, having a brief stint in mixed martial arts, and has fought in four professional bouts thus far. In all four fights, Slice has been victorious but his last bout against Brian Green last Saturday (March 24) ended in controversy.
Green, who predominantly competed in mixed martial arts with 27-17 record, made his first trip inside the square circle with Slice. Despite the fight with Slice being his boxing debut, Green fought a competitive match with Slice throughout. Going into the fourth and final round, some can even argue that Green was up on the score cards and would be able to pull off the upset if he survives the final stanza.
However with just 3.3 seconds left on the clock, a noticeably fatigued Green caught a perfectly timed uppercut from Slice, knocking him out cold. Slice was the victor, scoring a KO at the 2:57 mark of the fourth round.
The controversy stems from the manner in which Slice threw the punch and Green’s subsequent knockout, many believing that Green faked being unconscious.
The punch in question, the fight ending uppercut, was thrown by Slice with no hip/body movement at all.
As a result the punch would have significantly less force since it is relying only on the arms to generate power, some believing such a punch would be unable to knockout someone out. Any boxer or martial artist can tell you that body movement is the fundamental difference between a technical strong punch to a winging arm punch reminiscent from a street brawl.
Green has since responded to accusations of throwing in the fight and has stated that he “would never throw a fight, take a dive, whatever you want to call it.”
Slice’s history linking him to fixed fights doesn’t help with the matter either. Looking back to 2008 when Slice’s mixed martial arts career was at its pinnacle, he was the top draw for the promotion EliteXC. In that same year he was defeated by Seth Petruzelli at EliteXC: Heat in just 14 seconds.
Following this fight, Petruzelli revealed that he was offered more money by EliteXC officials to stand and trade punches with Slice rather than taking the fight to the ground, where Slice is at a huge disadvantage due to his undeveloped grappling skills.
Fast forward back to last Saturday and it is not hard to see why some fight fans are calling foul play.
Personally I am torn on which side to believe. On one hand you have Green stating that the fight was not fixed and on the other you have a suspect looking punch/knockout as well as Slice’s history.It would be unjust to hold Slice accountable for actions that he might or might not have been apart of four years ago with EliteXC but with Slice’s current billing as the “next big thing” in heavyweight boxing by his promotion does seem to open the door for some back room dealings such as a fixed fight.
Below is a video and you can judge for yourself:
[jwplayer mediaid=”17298″]
