Bleacher Report - Articles by travis atkinson

Kevin Ferguson a.k.a. "Kimbo Slice": Good or Bad for MMA?

travis atkinson — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:17:16 -0400

Kevin Ferguson (38) a.k.a. Kimbo Slice stands 6-foot-2 tall, tips the scale at 240, and hails from Miami, Florida. He is best known for his internet street fights and is currently slated to fight James "The Collosus" Thompson on May 31.

This will be the first event held on a major US television network, but my question is why is Kevin in the main event and not the middleweight title bout between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith.

Kevin made his pro debut against Ray Mercer at Cage Fury Fighting Championships five on June 23, 2007. Kevin won this fight by guillotine choke at 1:12 of round No. 1.

Ray Mercer was a professional boxer. Being a former WBO world heavyweight champion and United States Amateur Heavyweight champ, he clearly did not want the fight to go to the ground.

Kevin caught Ray in a guillotine choke, which is one of the most basic moves in MMA. Ray could not get out, which shows how inexperienced he was in MMA.

Kevin then co-headlined EliteXC Renegade, taking on (10-11) Bo Cantrell. The fight lasted 19 seconds in which Kevin landed one punch to the head of Bo causing Bo to dive to the mat only to tap out.

So what does that prove? He beat a guy who has a .500 record, and I don't think Bo even wanted to fight Kevin.

Then he takes on David "Tank" Abbott whose record is 9-14. Tank has won only one fight in 10 years. So how does that add any prestige to the name Kimbo Slice?

In my opinion, Kevin is nothing but a backyard brawler, and he will always be a backyard brawler.

I've had people tell me that Bas Rutten said that Ferguson is learning quickly on the ground, and Kevin will never want to go to the ground. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Now he is the person to grace the cover of ESPN magazine. How can you justify that? Why not put a Randy Couture, a Georges St Pierre, a Anderson Silva, or even a Jeremy Horn on the cover? At least, someone who has earned a magazine cover.

Kevin won two MMA fights. People are already saying that if he went to the UFC, he'd be champ. He'd get his ass kicked by the D-class fighters in the UFC.

Now with the upcoming EliteXC on CBS, Kevin gets the main event slot. There is a title fight on the card and a fight with Phil Baroni vs. Joey Villasenor. That pisses me off.

I don't care if you agree or disagree with what I had to say. I just felt the need to write this article.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

MMA: An In-Depth Look at BJ Penn and Sean Sherk

travis atkinson — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:16:25 -0400

On May 24th Sean Sherk will step back into the octagon to try and reclaim the gold he never lost. After being accused of steroid use he was given a 6 month suspension and stripped of the belt.

Last July Sean Sherk dominated Hermes Franca to win a 5 round unanimous decision. Around that same time BJ Penn made his return to the octagon submitting Jens Pulver in the second round.

After that win BJ was granted a title shot, however due to the ongoing appeals and hearing for the steroid case BJ never got the shot. Then Dana decided on Joe Stevenson vs BJ Penn for the interim title, but then stripped Sherk and made the bout a title fight.

Penn dominated Joe winning in the second round by rear naked choke. In the post fight interview Penn stated: "Sean Sherk your dead" which began the heated feud. Sherk fired back saying that he still had one more fight until he was champ.

The main question in this fight is can Sean take BJ Penn down. Back at UFC 63 Matt Hughes had trouble taking BJ down and would probably have lost the fight if BJ had not broke his rib. BJ has incredible flexibility which poses a problem for his opponents because you can rarely find someone to match his flexibility. And with a newfound dedication to training BJ might be able to go five rounds.

Sherk's game plan is simple: he will trade shots until BJ starts getting the better of him then Sean will attempt to take BJ down and stall for five rounds, just like he did to Florian and Franca. But Sherk hasn't fought since July so octagon rust might be a problem for him.

Over all I think it will be an interesting fight built around an amazing under card featuring Wanderlei Silva vs Keith Jardine, and the returning Tito Ortiz vs undefeated prospect Lyoto Machida.

UFC 83: Georges St. Pierre—Matt Serra

travis atkinson — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:32:46 -0400

This Saturday, April 19th, features the biggest UFC event in the history of the sport.

22,000 people will fill the Bell Centre in anticipation for what could be one of the greatest MMA fights ever, in Georges St. Pierre vs Matt Serra.

Roughly one year ago, it was called the greatest upset when the 16-1 underdog Serra knocked out the seemingly unstoppable Georges St. Pierre. Since then, Serra went on to do The Ultimate Fighter Six, and was suppose to face Matt Hughes for the belt in December. However, a back injury forced him off the card.

Georges St. Pierre went on to win a lackluster fight with Josh Koscheck, and dominated the once dominant welterweight, Matt Hughes.

A lot of people are still not giving Serra credit, saying that St. Pierre slipped and it was a fluke, but it wasn't. This is also the one fight in a long time that I don't know who is gonna win. Serra might catch St. Pierre in a submission, St. Pierre might knock out Serra, or it might go five rounds.

In the words of Pete "Drago" Sell, "Georges St. Pierre is a mental midget, and I believe that the pressure will get to him of being in his hometown. Serra has nothing to lose in this fight."

UFN 13 Preview: Picks and Predictions

travis atkinson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:47:57 -0400

On April 2nd, we will witness one of the most anticipated fight cards in the history of fights. This card was so good that fans of the UFC petitioned spike to move the event to a three hour broadcast. On this card there are three very interesting matchups in Thiago Alves vs. Karo Parisyan, Matt Hamill vs. Tim Boetch, and Kurt Pellegrino vs. Nate Diaz.

The winner of Thiago Alves and Karo Parisyan will get an eventual title shot probably around November. Karo will want to get inside to the clinch and use his judo to take the contest to the mat while Thiago will most likely want to keep Karo at bay at go for the knockout, however that may go against him because the hands of Karo have greatly increased in his recent octagon appearances. Karo has already had a title shot but got injured and then lost to Diego Sanchez.

Since then he has beat Drew Fickett, Josh Burkman, and highly talent Pride star Ryo Chonan all by unanimous decision. Thiago is on a four fight win streak most recently stopping Chris Lytle. I see Karo Parisyan winning by unanimous decision but would really like to see him finish Thiago.

In our next fight, we see relative newcomer Tim Boetch as he takes on superior wrestler Matt Hamill. Tim Boetch opened a lot of people’s eyes in his bout against David Heath as he just picked him apart, while at UFC 75 Matt Hamill was part of perhaps the biggest bullshit decision in UFC history. Tim trains in a very rare martial art in Jeet Kune Do which could pose a problem if Hamill catches his legs. We do not know what Tim’s ground game is like but if Hamill gets on top he will win via TKO. I predict Hamill by TKO in the second round.

Our last bout will be a jiu-jitsu spectacular in Nate Diaz vs. Kurt Pellegrino. Diaz is undefeated in his UFC career while Pellegrino is coming off a win of Alberto Crane. I don’t see this fight going out of the second round with Pellegrino picking up the submission win.