Kimbo Slice: 3 Fights for Him to Take Next After His Bellator 138 Knockout Win

Why not keep this thing rolling?

We won't know anything for sure until the ratings numbers come in, but some preliminary metrics show that Friday night's Bellator 138—headlined by 41-year-old Kimbo Slice's first-round knockout of 51-year-old Ken Shamrock—was a runaway success with viewers.

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I have covered Bellator more than probably any other reporter. This is the most Bellator web traffic I have ever seen

— Jason Floyd (@Jason_Floyd) June 20, 2015"

Sure, the fight itself was a little, shall we say, disheveled. But if you didn't suspect that to be the case in a clear novelty fight in which the competitors had a combined age of 92, then you need a new suspecting device.

After the fight, Slice (5-2) told MMA Fighting's Luke Thomas he was "here to stay."

"Every fight would have to be the right kind of fight," Slice said when asked about his next move. "I'm a senior fighter. ... I just want to be smart in my opponents. ... To fight again in 2015? Yeah, it would just be up to the matchmakers."

As of right now, I hereby dub myself a matchmaker. Here are three possibilities for Slice's next contest. 

Fedor Emelianenko

Emelianenko is the best heavyweight MMA has ever seen. He is also no stranger to novelty fights (Hong Man Choi, as just one example). 

Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

There is the fact that he retired three years ago. A second fact: He's still just 38 years old—a spring chicken in this brave new world of ours. A third fact: He is making a habit of being involved with Bellator's promotional activities, including those for Bellator 138. 

Emelianenko probably wouldn't be averse to taking some of Bellator's money. Maybe a lot of Bellator's money. And there are legions of fans who wouldn't be averse to tuning in for this.

Bobby Lashley

The former professional wrestler also competed on Friday's card, dominating Dan Charles for a lopsided, second-round TKO victory.

The former college wrestling standout is now 38 years old but is still in phenomenal shape. Frankly, he has a fairly boring style, but he has the personality, the name recognition and the camera readiness to overcome that inconvenience. 

Lavar Johnson

You could batten down the hatches for this one. Though the 38-year-old Johnson never really put it all together in an MMA sense, seemingly viewing any sort of grappling training as an insufferable nuisance, he can still punch the doors off a dump truck. Of his 18 professional MMA wins, 16 came by knockout.

And he's still on the Bellator roster. Sign him up and buckle in for a slugfest.

Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.