The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

LESS than two weeks before his return to Mixed Martial Arts and against one of the most well-known names in the history of the sport, Bahamian born Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson has harsh words for his competition.

Slice will face MMA legend and former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight Ken Shamrock at Bellator 138 at the Scottrade Centre in St Louis, Missouri, on June 19. The bout will be televised live on Spike TV.

“He would be the fight I would want the most,” Slice said at a recent media day in Los Angeles as part of the promotional effort for the card. “That was just a door opener to get back in to fight whoever else in the heavyweight division with Bellator. I don’t think any heavyweight would be safe, because I’m coming to fight them all.”

He even offered a prediction on the fight. “If there’s good money behind it, hell I’ll bet on myself if I can. I’ll put a grand on myself being a 10-to-1 underdog. First-round KO.”

Slice looks to make a return to MMA after spending the last few years making the transition to professional boxing.

At 41-years-old, he has not competed in MMA since 2010 but plans to have a lasting impact beyond this fight.

“This is not a one-off for me,” Slice said. “I’m still active. I’m loving where I’m at right now. With age, I’ve gotten wiser, gotten smarter with my training. It did come with the opportunity to fight Ken. My passion grew tremendously. Not just training to be training, but then it was training for revenge now.”

The Bellator 138 bout gives the fighters the opportunity to fulfil promises of a fight that was first scheduled to take place in 2008. They were originally expected to fight under the Elite XC promotion but Shammrock suffered an injury on the day of the fight and was replaced by Seth Petruzelli.

“I hope they put him in a padded room so nothing happens to him considering his history of weaseling out of things,” Slice said. “That’s all I’m hoping for. If there was an opportunity for him to [win] the first time, it would have been back then when my ground game wasn’t as sharp as it is now, when I had no defence for takedowns. I just had my brute strength and my ability to throw hand and throw punches by the bunches. Now I have all these dimensions that I’m working with and working on and been working on. There is just no way I see myself losing this fight to Ken Shamrock.”

Shamrock, the 51-year-old UFC Hall of Famer, is billed at six foot one inch tall and 212 pounds and has compiled a 28-15-2 record with 23 wins by submission.

The 6ft 1in 234lb Slice improved to a 7-0 record since making the shift to professional boxing in 2011. He has not fought since January 2013 when he beat Shane Tilyard via a second round knockout at the Entertainment Centre in New South Wales, Australia.