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Well, I can't say I'm surprised. No casual MMA fan is going to walk away from watching that impressed with Kimbo Slice, Roy Nelson, or MMA fights in general.
On the bright side, they will probably think Kimbo is a pretty cool person and might want to keep watching just to see how his story plays out.
UFC was smart to edit in a teaser that a Kimbo teammate might drop out due to health problems, putting Kimbo in a position to be brought back for another first round opportunity.
Longtime MMA fans won't be surprised by how the fight went, with Nelson having enough experience to fend off an early KO and then taking Kimbo down, where he was defenseless to do anything except get pelted on top of his head over and over until the ref had no choice but to stop the fight.
Nelson might be the new Tim Sylvia, the guy who wins in mediocre fashion against an overrated opponent and then acts like he's Fedor or GSP.
Credit Dana White for not going overboard in talking up what a great fight that was. In fact, he probably earned some points with viewers for mocking Nelson's celebration and punching style.
Kimbo was protected, and you can tell they want to milk more ratings out of his name and ideally a PPV or Spike TV live card fight in the future. Kimbo came across as a compelling enough person that you'd want to root for that there will be interest in seeing him develop as a fighter.
Kimbo certainly came across as someone eager and capable of getting better, but at 35 years old, is he too old to get good enough in all areas he needs to in order to ever be relevant outside of being a novelty mid-card gimmick attraction, everything White criticized him for being when he wasn't UFC property.
It's a mixed bag for TUF. I'm curious to find out the rating for this week's show, and equally eager to see how it holds up next week. Unlike last week, we didn't find out this week who's fighting next week.
(Please vote in our poll asking for your impression of the Kimbo-Nelson fight. Return to our Main Listing for a selection of a variety of articles on this episode of The Ultimate Fighter.)
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