Kimbo Slice has been one of the most notorious and polarizing figures ever to grace the ring. Many thought that his fifteen minutes of fame had gone by after his brief stint on EliteXC. The fighter had been highly publicized as the next big thing and EliteXC did their best to try to build up this reputation by pitting him against washed up and glass-jawed opponents. Things quickly spiraled out of control on the biggest possible stage, a main event card on the first nationally televised MMA event in its history. Kimbo was destroyed in the main event by Seth Petruzelli in 14 seconds on October 4th, 2008 and was featured on CBS. He was exploited as a fraud and simply a youtube sensation with no real fighting skills, simply a circus act. After the fight Kimbo was interviewed and simply said “It is what it is” before walking off. How fitting. However, recently Kimbo has been gracing the headlines yet again as he has accepted to be a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter season 10. He will get the chance to display his skills and train under Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson while fighting in a reality series which has brought more prominent talent to the sport than anything in recent memory.

Dana White, president of UFC was the one who originally extended the initiation to Slice when searching for top prospects to fill out the show. The invitation in itself was highly criticized, many people thought he would simply be a sideshow and had no business on the show with young fighters who have worked for years to get this opportunity. Peronslly I feel that this will be an interesting experiment. Regardless of Slice’s results on the show, he will finally get some serious MMA training from some of the best in the sport. Even if he is defeated early and is out of the running for the winner of TUF season 10 we’ll be sure to see some development and if things go well for Slice possibly a return to MMA. Circus act? Fighter? The only thing I’m sure of is that it will be an interestsing season. The new season has started recording June 1st and will air on Spike TV on September 16, 2009. I can’t wait.