Next Friday night in St. Louis will mark the return of Kimbo Slice to the mixed martial arts cage as he is scheduled to settle his “Unfinished Business” with Ken Shamrock in the main event of Bellator 138.
It was over six years ago that Slice and Shamrock were scheduled to meet at Elite XC: Heat. However, Shamrock pulled out of the event on the day of the fight due to a cut and Slice would end up being defeated by Seth Petruzelli.
Following that fight, Slice (4-2) would compete two times in the UFC and ended up leaving MMA in 2010. Fast forward five years, he will return and look to get his fifth career MMA win when he faces Shamrock. While he has always loved the sport, he admitted during a conference call on Wednesday that he now loves MMA training, which he did not have love for previously.
“I have always had love for MMA,” Slice said. “I really did. I was tempted to throw a few kicks or takedowns while I was boxing. It was always in my heart. It was always there. When this opportunity came and to get back at it — now I have a love for training when I did not have a love for this MMA training five or so years ago. I did not have love for it then. I just had the passion to fight.”
“Now I have the love for the training, along with the passion to fight. I am a well-rounded martial artist now. I can hold my own in the cage. I am no longer one dimension. You have to be ready to come fight. You can not f**k around with me. I can either knock you out or choke you out. If I get a hold of something, I am going to choke you the f**k out. I am really going to choke you out. If I got your armbar, I am going to try to pop your shoulder out of place. It’s not like it’s a competition, every match is a fight. That is just my mentality. It’s just a fight.”
When you hear a fighter say something like what Slice stated about having love for training now, you can’t help but wonder what has changed. For Slice, there are several factors and now he considers himself a well-rounded fighter.
“I was a little younger and I attacked everything as a bull,” he stated. “I would just come head on. Head up and just be ready to throw hands. Not worrying about if I get taken down or not worrying about after the takedown. Just thinking in my mind that I would have enough strength to get back up and knock him out. I just did not take the training as serious like I should. Over the years, the training now is part of my life. I do it everyday and all the time. I just have the love for it. I can see these things coming now. I look for it and with the same mentality now, a little bit smarter and a lot wiser because I am a little bit older. With this mentality now, I can consider myself a well-rounded fighter.”
The fight with Shamrock is the big reason why Slice returned to the sport of MMA. If he did not get this fight, he may not be fighting next week. As he stated on Wednesday, he is ready to “rock and roll” and it will be interesting to see the differences in his MMA game next week in St. Louis.