![kimbo slice back yard ko kimbo slice back yard ko](https://www.nydailynews.com/resizer/SqkjA8hlCxg_W6xXXrfNw3Si3A4=/1200x1200/top/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tronc.s3.amazonaws.com/public/FXR43CNFDF7IUWCLS7X3UWV4PY.jpg)
“If you want sheer violence, you know who to call. “I think my body of work speaks for itself,” Masvidal said. If someone wants to speak ill of you, settle it on fight night, and then, if you do your job, it’s time to talk smack back. But then that, too, hearkens back to what he learned fighting the likes of Ray in South Florida backyards: Come correct. It certainly wasn’t the most sportsmanlike thing one could do. Masvidal’s post-fight mockery of Askren earned him scorn in some corners. Sixteen years building up to this moment, with Masvidal perfectly angling his knee in anticipation of Askren’s attempt to duck and take him down, landing a horrifying bulls-eye, Askren stiffening, the fight over before it began. Then fight night came, and things were done in the blink of an eye. Masvidal kept as low a profile as a main-card fighter is allowed to keep on a stage as big as International Fight Week, getting by with the bare minimum on public obligations. He skipped a media day in Los Angeles, giving Askren more room to talk more trash. Masvidal, for the most part, simply took mental notes and kept to himself. Askren embraces the media game as strongly as Masvidal avoids it, and he used his platform to run down Masvidal at any and every opportunity.Īskren, who had never lost a fight in his MMA career and won world titles at every other stop along the way, made it clear he had his eyes set on a shot at UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and only deigned to fight Masvidal because he was the only name available. Which brings us back to Saturday night’s fight with Askren. Masvidal wasn’t here to make friends, and he also didn’t start beef with anyone who didn’t start with him first.
KIMBO SLICE BACK YARD KO TV
It was also true that basically the only thing Masvidal was interested in was fighting, which meant he was the type of fighter the hardcores appreciated, but not the type who generated TV ratings or page views or pay-per-view buys or any of the rest of the assorted nonsense that feeds the hype machine. That was true whether he was fighting in BodogFights, or the early days of Bellator or Strikeforce, and all the way through the UFC.
![kimbo slice back yard ko kimbo slice back yard ko](https://www.emirates247.com/polopoly_fs/1.632298.1465278975!/image/image.jpg)
Until recently, Masvidal wasn’t a star, but rather the welterweight was the sort of guy who, when you settle into your seats at the arena and look at the evening’s lineup, you elbow your buddy and say, “Oh hey, Jorge Masvidal is on the card tonight. It’s how he’s conducted himself throughout a career in which he’s been a constant presence, a solid name on the card. And it should help explain the no-nonsense way in which he handled himself during one of the most memorable moments in UFC history, his record-setting five-second knockout of Ben Askren with a hellacious flying knee at UFC 239 in Las Vegas. That’s how Masvidal came up in the fight game, before he went what most of us consider legit. They even ended up teammates at American Top Team (Masvidal talked about it to MMA Junkie at length after Slice died in 2016). Then they had a rematch, and he did it again, even though Kimbo was the ref and his team was filming the fight.Īfter that? Masvidal and Kimbo were cool. The first the world saw of the fighter now known as “Gamebred” came to light back in the primitive days of YouTube, where he took on a significantly larger foe known only as Ray at an undisclosed, outdoor location, a man who happened to be Slice’s protege. It’s worth remembering, here on the day after the biggest victory of his career, that Jorge Masvidal got his start on the same South Florida backyard bareknuckle circuit that produced the late, legendary Kimbo Slice.