Legendary backyard brawler-turned-MMA ratings phenomenon Kimbo Slice is a peripheral player in the popular documentary “Dawg Fight,” which can be seen on Netflix.
The documentary chronicles the backyard Miami fight subculture from which Slice emerged, a scene which had been carried on by Dhafir Harris, better known as "Dada 5000," after Slice went legit.
Early in the documentary, footage is shown of Harris in Slice’s dressing room the night of the latter’s first pro MMA bout, against boxer Ray Mercer. Later, when Harris makes his MMA debut on a small-time show in South Florida, the camera pans on Slice, who clearly wants no part of the film crew, in the audience.
Where Slice calls home, this sort of antagonism requires a response.
Slice will face off with "Dada 5000" in the co-feature bout at Bellator 149 at Houston’s Toyota Center on February 19, a fight Slice considers the most intensely personal of his career.
Over the course of his career, Slice’s story evolved. He went out of his way to prove himself as a true MMA fighter – as was chronicled during his stint on “The Ultimate Fighter” and through his time spent at the elite American Top Team gym.
But this isn’t about that. While this fight will be contested under MMA rules, Slice wants it to represent a return to his roots, and in the process he wants to put someone he regards as a poser and a hanger-on in his place.
“True fight fans appreciate a real fight, and this is two [expletives] from the same neighborhood who have a beef to settle,” Slice told Yahoo Sports. “I’m going to knock his ass out and he's going to wake up and not know what hit him.”
To hear Kimbo tell it, Dada 5000 was someone who was briefly brought into his entourage, didn’t last long, and has been milking his brief association with Slice ever since.
“This [expletive] was with us for a minute,” Slice said. “This [expletive] was brought in, he was someone from the neighborhood who we sort of had come in as a bodyguard for my fight with Ray Mercer, and that was it. He was never a part of our inner circle.”
Within a year of the Mercer fight, Slice exploded into the mainstream. He headlined the first live network television MMA event with a memorable victory over James Thompson in Newark in 2008. That bout remains the second-most-watched MMA fight in North America, behind Junior dos Santos’ KO win over Cain Velasquez on FOX in Nov. 2011.
Harris, for his part, organized the underground fight scene in Miami after Slice hit the mainstream, as is documented in “Dawg Fight.” Slice would have had no gripes with the path Harris chose, but he claims Harris went out of his way to disrespect him, growing out a beard like Slice and uploading videos online which mocked him.
"When I started to break big, all of a sudden he starts doing interviews disrespecting me," Slice said. "He grew out a beard like mine, he did everything, he was basically using his little bit of notoriety to try to make a name for himself. But he would never show up where we were, even though we lived in the same hood.”
It would have been hard to imagine a decade ago, when Slice’s backyard brawls first began to gain traction on the then-fledgling YouTube, that Slice would co-headline a major event in 2016 with someone from his underground days.
But then, Slice has proven to have as many lives as a cat over the course of his unorthodox fighting career. Who would have thought he’d get to network television in the first place? That his career would survive his memorably fast knockout loss to Seth Petruzelli? That he’d even have a UFC stint? Or that he’d return in June 2015 after a five-year absence, fight Ken Shamrock, and set a Bellator ratings record of 2.1 million viewers in the process?
Slice has never been one to reveal much about his personal life, preferring to leave an air of mystery that adds to his legend. But he admits sometimes he has to chuckle about the way things have played out.
“I’m just living the American dream, you know?” Slice said. “I’m 41 years old, I’m working hard, I still love going to the gym and proving myself. I get to spend time with my kids, I put in my work, and I love what I do. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, I think I do something people can appreciate.”
Which brings us full circle to something else Slice feels people can appreciate. The laughter goes away when the subject turns back to Harris.
"I am going to [expletive] this [expletive] up,” Slice said. "I've been waiting for years to beat this [expletive's] ass," Slice said. "This one is about going back to my roots. People can relate to that."
Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter: @DaveDoyleMMA
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