UFC President Dana White was disappointed with the outcome of the Kimbo Slice vs. Houston Alexander bout. In what most fans thought would be the slugfest of the night, actually turned out to be the bore-fest of the night. Impressive or not, Kimbo earned a future in the UFC and has the opportunity to show the MMA world that he did improve his skills since The Ultimate Fighter reality show.
From Dana White:
“I don’t know what Houston Alexander’s corner was doing, but that was the worst game plan they could have ever come up with…I am not sure if Kalib Starnes was training him or what, but that wasn’t the Houston Alexander I had seen fight before.”
From Kimbo Slice:
“The goal was to come in and fight and to get the best training I could possibly get to be prepared for the standup or a ground game. Like I said, whether the fight goes to the ground or stands up, I wanted to come in and fight, but be smart about it…If I would have run in there foolishly, I would have gotten knocked out…It wasn’t difficult to stay patient, but I was going, ‘Come on, man.’ A few times, I just called him out. I called him by his name and I said some things in the ring, like, ‘Let’s do this.’ I reverted back to the streets a little bit, verbally. He didn’t engage. He stuck to his plan, so I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to be foolish and run up on him.’ I wanted to be a smart fighter as well…[In regards Kimbo’s transition from street fighting to MMA] It’s hard…It’s not an easy thing. I first was a street fighter. Being a street fighter, there was no training in my style of fighting. I just went in there based on my instincts, watching the guy’s movement and countering him…But at this level of the game, as a professional fighter in the UFC, you have to be almost genius-like smart because you have all these dimensions to battle. You have to know when to counter and when to not hit and when to engage and when to try to wait it out.”
