Two things struck me following Kimbo Slice’s victory over Houston Alexander. First, the UFC did an amazing job finding someone that Kimbo could outgrapple. Second, the athletic commissions need to inform their officials that 10-10 is suitable scoring for a round.
FightMetric released their analysis of the fight. The Effectiveness Scores by round as follows:
| R1 | R2 | R3 | Total | |
| Kimbo Slice | 10 | 164 | 56 | 229 |
| Houston Alexander | 13 | 46 | 56 | 115 |
Those scores extrapolate to a 30-29 score under the ten-point must system, with rounds one and three being scored 10-10 and Slice taking round two.
There’s been a mild uproar about the judge who scored the bout 30-27 for Slice. Looking at the numbers, however, and I would argue that any controversy should center on the continued resistance of the judges to score a round 10-10.
While FightMetric’s Effectiveness Score ended up as a dead tie in round three, round one makes a better case for a 10-10 score (and a round I scored 10-10 live). As the volume of offense increases, it becomes less difficult to separate the winning fighter from the losing fighter, even if they ultimately land a similar amount of offense. Round one, on the other hand, was such an anemic period it drew comparisons to Kalib Starnes’ infamous performance against Nate Quarry.
The futility of the round breakdowns as follows (by amount of strikes landed):
| Slice | Alexander | |
| Head Power | 0 | 1 |
| Head Jab | 4 | 0 |
| Body Power | 0 | 0 |
| Body Jab | 0 | 0 |
| Leg Power | 0 | 4 |
| Leg Jab | 0 | 7 |
Ouch.
And just when we all thought we were in for a snooze fest, Slice and Alexander picked up the pace in round two. The two combined to line 39 strikes in the frame, but the real surprise came three minutes into the round when Kimbo hit a thunderous suplex that would make Scott Steiner proud.
Slice demonstrated his grappling value, scoring three takedowns in the round, gaining mount and back control twice, and getting credit for a rear naked choke attempt. It seemed intuitive that Alexander, a veteran of fifteen fights, would be able to handle himself on the floor, if the fight somehow turned in that direction. Whether it was Kimbo’s time at ATT or the size advantage he held over the natural light heavyweight in Alexander, those prognostications couldn’t have been further from the truth.