Looking At Kimbo Slice's Very Short Career In Wrestling
Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson was most known as a mixed martial artist, boxer and actor. From 2007 up until his death in 2016, he competed in MMA (2007-2011, 2015-2016) and professional boxing (2011-2014). Kimbo first official victory in MMA came at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 5 in Atlantic City on June 23, 2007 when he made former gold-medalist boxer Ray Mercer pass out to a guillotine choke at 72 seconds into the fight.
Kimbo signed a contract with ProElite in the fall of 2007, and he was scheduled to have his first fight in November at EliteXC against Mike Bourke, a reformed street fighter, but a shoulder injury from Bourke led him to face Bo Cantrell. Kimbo defeated Cantrell 19 seconds into the first round by submission due to strikes.
A year later, ProElite would file for bankruptcy, and Kimbo would try to earn a spot in the UFC by competing on "The Ultimate Fighter." Kimbo would grind on the show, winning fight after fight and eventually make his UFC PPV debut at UFC 113 against Matt Mitrione, losing in the second round via TKO. Following the loss, Kimbo was released by UFC President Dana White the next day.
The heavyweight boxer would move on to professional boxing for four years. He would return to MMA via Bellator in 2015, where he fought two fights before passing away in June of 2016. In total, Kimbo compiled a record of 5-2-1 throughout his MMA career, including four knockout victories, and a 7-0 record, which included six victories by knockout, in professional boxing. He also had a brief stint in pro wrestling.
Kimbo Slice tried his hand at wrestling in 2011 after being released from the UFC
Despite being well known in combat sports, Kimbo Slice wanted to try his hand at professional wrestling in the early 2010s. Standing at 6-foot-2 and 225 lbs. Kimbo thought he could make the transition to professional wrestling the way wrestlers such as Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar made the transition to MMA, but the transition did not go as planned.
Kimbo was to make his debut in professional wrestling in early February 2011 in Japan at the Inoki Genome Federation's Genome 14 event. He was scheduled to go one-on-one against Shinichi Suzukawa, but he was pulled out of the match due to injury, according to WrestleZone. Kimbo would never compete in a sanctioned match inside the squared circle; after Kimbo Slice died in 2016, the question of how the former MMA and professional boxer would transition to the world of professional wrestling still resonates among the wrestling community today.