Kimbo Slice, who has been called the King of the Web Brawlers by Rolling Stone, is a Bahamian-American mixed martial artist. He is a boxer, professional wrestler and also tried his hand at acting. Kimbo became known through his street fighting videos on YouTube, which were soon viewed a million times and soon counted. He won almost all his fights and was loved by many because of his aggressive fighting style.
He portrayed Bludge in Nickelodeon’s holiday special “Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh”. He also played the role of Zulu Kondo in the movie The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption.
Kimbo Slice Bio/ Wiki
Kimbo’s birth name is Kevin Ferguson and he was born on February 8, 1974, in Nassau, Bahamas. His family moved to the USA when he was young and he was raised with his two siblings (Renea and Devon) by their mother Rosemary Clarke in Cutler Ridge, Florida.
He attended Bel-Air Elementary School, but switched to Cutler Ridge Middle School and graduated from Richmond Heights Middle School. For his high school education, he attended Miami Palmetto High School and was a middle linebacker on the football team. His home was reportedly destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which shortened his high school football season. He was later to take a tryout with the Miami Dolphins in 1997 but failed to make the first team.
ALSO READ: Lil Peep Death, Wiki, Girlfriend, Gay, Height, Mom, Brother, Family
He attended both Bethune-Cookman College and the University of Florida, where he was awarded a sports scholarship and studied criminal law, but left a year and a half later.
His mother gave him the nickname Kimbo when he was a child. However, the last nickname was added after he left a large cut on his opponent’s right eye in his first recorded fight, which prompted his Internet fans to give him the name Slice.
Fighting Career
He was a fighter until the end, his first fight he had at the age of 13 when he tried to defend his friend in primary school. Disappointed by his dream of playing football, he began his career in 2003 with unauthorized mutual fights in the streets, which were recorded and put on the Internet. Before his fame, Kimbo worked as a bouncer for a strip club, as a limo driver and as a bodyguard for the porn site Reality Kings Net Media.
Slice trained exclusively for street boxing at the Freestyle Fighting Academy in 2005 but developed an interest in the possibility of MMA turning his fame into a professional career. On June 23, 2007, he made his debut against Ray Mercer at the Cage Fury Fighting Championships 5 in Atlantic City, where he won 12-1 in the first round.
In 2007, Slice signed a professional contract with EliteXC, but when the company closed down in 2008, he became a freelancer and participated in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In 2010, he switched to professional boxing and made his boxing debut on August 13, 2011, against James Wade with a knockout victory just 10 seconds after the fight started. In 2015 he signed an all-around contract with Bellator MMA and defeated his opponent in his debut fight at Bellator 138. He would have made his debut as a professional wrestler on February 9, 2011, but retired from the fight due to an injury.
His last fight was at the co-main match of Bellator 149 in February 2016, where he knocked out Dhaffir Harris (Dada 5000) in the third round. The fight was then changed to a “No Contest” after it was revealed that Slice had failed his drug test before the fight. The anabolic steroid nandrolone was found in his system with an increased testosterone ratio of 6.4/1 compared to the maximum allowed limit of 4.1.
Slice was scheduled for a rematch against James Thompson in the fight Bellator 158 in London on July 16, 2016, but unfortunately, he died before the fight could take place.
Is He Dead?
Yes, Kimbo died of congestive heart failure on Monday, June 6, 2016, at 7.30 pm. He was admitted to Northwest Medical Center on Friday before his death after complaining of severe abdominal pain, dyspnea, and nausea. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a liver mass was detected and he was put on a ventilator in the intensive care unit. Preparations were underway to transfer him to a Cleveland facility where he would be on an organ donor list waiting for a heart transplant after his death.
Kimbo Slice’s Wife, Kids
Antoinette Ray met Kimbo Slice through his older sister before he became famous. There are conflicting reports about their marital status, but they were supposedly married in 2012. She described her dates as the best dating experience she ever had and called him a protector she could always lean on.
The couple had six children: three sons, Kevin Jr. Kevin II and Kevlar and three daughters, Kiara, Kevina, and Cassandra. His three youngest children, Keiyera, Kassandra, and Kevlar, attend elementary and secondary school in Florida, while the older three, Kevin Jr., are Kevin II (who is in college in Missouri and plays college football) and Kevina in their twenties.
The youngest son, Kevlar, who looked so much like his father when he was younger, has autism and trained with his father. Kimbo said in an in-focus video that the reason he fights is for his children because he wants them to be a little better than he is. The president of Bellator, Scott Coker, described him at the time of his death as a devoted family man.
ALSO READ: Tasha Mccauley Age, Married, Husband, Kids, Net Worth, Quick Facts
Kimbo Slice Son
Kimbo’s oldest son, Kevin Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps and fights under the name Baby Slice. He made his MMA debut in March 2016 when he won the first round by knocking out Tom Brink (2-0).
Kevin Jr. studied photography at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco, lives in Connecticut and trains with Plus One Defense Systems in West Hartford. He said his father didn’t want him to have MMA Fighting as his first choice, so he pushed him off to college, but left him the option to come back if he didn’t like the experience.
As a child, he didn’t understand all the sacrifices and dedication his father made, but now he does and is willing to make the same sacrifices as a fighter.
Kimbo Slice Height, Body Measurements
Kimbo was a man who understood that the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in a fight. He is known for his daily training and a diet full of vitamins and protein shakes. Although his body statistics are not known, he was in good shape before he died. He was 188 cm tall (6′ 2″) and weighed 106 kg (234 pounds).
