Something occured to me as I watched the E:60 special (on ESPN) that featured Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson.

I never thought that I would write what I am about to write. If I had told myself that I was going to write this article even last week I would assume that it was under duress. The words I didn't even think I knew: we all need to lay off of Kimbo Slice.

It is the hot-button topic for MMA websites and forums across the Internet. Even mentioning his name will give an article automatic hits that come just from the thousands of random name searches that come from the moniker of Kevin Ferguson. For the purpose of this article it is an apology, kind of.

I have nothing against Kimbo as a person. I personally wouldn't elect to be a bouncer for a porn company, but the last person they would hire would be a 6'4" 160 pound redhead whose skin actually reflects sunlight.

Kevin Ferguson has done something that no other MMA fighter has ever been able to do, he has built a reputation without fighting, or even promoting himself. He doesn't have to.

Thanks to video-sharing sites like youtube.com we can all watch any of the eight Kimbo Slice fights that have been viewed millions of times before. We can watch the man that was famous before anyone really knew what his face looked like. We just knew the name "Kimbo".

The hype isn't coming from Kevin Ferguson, rather the hype is coming from all of us and I am guilty of it myself. I wrote a fantasy fight article pitting Brock Lesnar versus Kimbo (guess who I picked to win). We have all written articles and posted comments on Kimbo, love him or hate him. Though, I can't recall Kimbo ever posting one himself. He doesn't have to.

When MMA premieres on prime time CBS later this month, Kevin Ferguson will be fighting 6'5" 275 pound James Thompson, by far his toughest competition to date. I think that Thompson put it best when he said, "[Kimbo] can never live up to the hype."

I would have to agree.

The public has put Ferguson on such a high pedestal that people are taking shots at him trying to knock him off. And for no reason at all. 

Maybe Ferguson will become a great fighter, maybe he won't. Either way, there is no reason to tear into the guy before he has had a chance to prove what he really has.  After all, Brock Lesnar is 1-1 in his MMA career, but people are still ear-marking him for the heavyweight title.

Is Ferguson at the same level as Lesnar? No, not yet, but we cannot say he won't be in the future. At least, not yet.