'Shamrock/Gracie/Kimbo/Dada 5000' debuts tonight on Spike ahead of Bellator 149

As a reminder, “Shamrock/Gracie/Kimbo/Dada 5000,” which previews next week’s Bellator 149 event, debuts tonight on Spike.

The hourlong special airs at 11 p.m. ET/PT. According to a release from Spike, the preview show will take MMA fans “back to the beginning of one of the most iconic mixed martial arts fights in history that created a rivalry spanning over two decades between Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie,” who headline the Bellator 149.

In addition, the show goes inside the grudge between street fighting icon Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and his protege and former friend Dhafir “Dada 5000” Harris ahead of their co-main event.

Bellator 149 takes place next Friday, Feb. 19, at Toyota Center in Houston. The main card airs on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie.

In the headliner, Gracie (14-2-3 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) and Shamrock (28-16-2 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) meet for a third time. They first fought at UFC 1 in 1993, where Gracie tapped Shamrock with a rear-naked choke in less than a minute on his way to a win in the first UFC tournament. At UFC 5 in 1995, they fought to a draw after 36 minutes in a fight that featured no judges and was the longest in UFC history.

Now, 21 years later, they meet again under the Bellator banner. The 49-year-old Gracie has not fought since a June 2007 decision win over Kazushi Sakuraba. He tested positive for steroids after the fight, though his win was not overturned. Shamrock, who turned 51 Thursday, has fought once in five years – a knockout loss to Kimbo Slice in his promotional debut at Bellator 138 this past June.

Shamrock fought Slice at a 232-pound catchweight in June. Gracie’s most recent fight, the win over Sakuraba, he reportedly was 188 pounds. For a fight against Matt Hughes in 2006, he fought at a 175-pound catchweight at UFC 60. The trilogy fight with Shamrock will take place at open weight and has been approved by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which oversees MMA in the state.

In the co-main event, Slice (5-2 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) fights Harris (2-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) in a heated heavyweight grudge match. Slice and Harris are from the same Miami neighborhood and went to high school together. They ran in similar circles, but Slice became a viral Internet sensation through street fighting and built the “Kimbo Slice” brand. He believes Harris tried to take advantage of that fame by mimicking him from head to toe.

“This guy stole my image, stole my look – he tried to look like me, he tried to sound like me, and he tries to be me,” Slice told MMAjunkie. “He talks (expletive) about me, and then he posts (expletive) on Twitter saying he can fight and beat me. For years he’s been running and hiding from me.”

The full Bellator 149 card includes:

MAIN CARD (Spike TV, 9 p.m. ET)

• Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock
• Kimbo Slice vs. Dhafir Harris
• Emanuel Newton vs. Linton Vassell
• Derek Campos vs. Melvin Guillard
• Daniel Pineda vs. Emmanuel Sanchez

PRELIMINARY CARD (MMAjunkie, 7 p.m. ET)

• Juan Torres vs. Justin Wren
• Jeremy Mahon vs. Davis Sylvester
• James Christopherson vs. Charlie Ontiveros
• Ruben Esparsa vs. C.J. Hancock
• Daniel Santos vs. Adrian Yanez
• Richard Knepp vs. Isaac Villanueva
• Mike Trinh vs. Angel Zamora
• Anthony Ivy vs. Jason Langellier
• Manny Lozoya vs. Jacob Norsworthy

For more on Bellator 149, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.