Kimbo Slice: From mean streets to main event

Why is Kimbo Slice so big? He comes from a tough background and has worked hard to improve his life; it's "an all-American story," says a CBS exec.

Posted on Fri, May. 30, 2008

BY PATRICK DORSEY

pdorsey@MiamiHerald.com

Just how ''big'' is Kevin Ferguson? You know, the Miami Palmetto football player turned backyard brawler turned mixed martial artist, known better as Kimbo Slice?

His Internet bio says 6-foot-2, 250-pounds big.

YouTube.com says millions of Web hits big.

ESPN The Magazine says cover-worthy big.

And to CBS, Kimbo is big enough for prime time, big enough to be the main man on the main card for Elite Xtreme Combat's Saturday Night Fights, the first-ever network-televised MMA event, which is set for Saturday at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., and viewable at 9 p.m. on WFOR-CBS 4.

Quite simply, as CBS' senior executive vice president for prime time Kelly Kahl put it, ``He's the main event because he's going to bring people to the TV set.''