One of my biggest criticisms of Kimbo Slice’s boxing “career” has been his management’s insistence on having Kimbo fight smaller opponents while claiming he is going to make a splash at heavyweight. Of his opponents coming in to his last fight, Kimbo faced an opponent weighing 205, one weighing 206 and one weighing 211. With an injury to his scheduled opponent for his fourth fight, Kimbo was matched up with Brian Green, an MMA fighter who usually competes at 185 pounds.
When it came time for the weigh-in and Green was announced at over 220 pounds, something seemed a bit fishy. He didn’t look particularly “heavy” compared to his MMA middleweight bouts so I found it hard to believe that he had added 40 pounds.
I reached out to Brian right after the weigh-ins via Facebook, seeing as how he was out of state but seemed to be updating regularly, and asked what was up with his weight but didn’t hear anything back.
The weigh-in situation was quickly glossed over when Kimbo appeared to be on his way to a loss on the scorecards only to score a dramatic last second KO that had many fans claiming Green took a dive (Green denies the charge, for what it’s worth).
I received a message out of the blue today from Green, who had missed my message until now and he had quite the bit of news to share:
So, Green showed a lot of heart in wanting to make a name for himself and put on 20 pounds of ankle weights for the bout to make sure he’d have his chance. He then worked over Kimbo for most of the bout before being caught by the controversial finishing shot.
Green did weigh in in shorts but it appears he kept his shoes and socks on so they may have hidden the weights. There’s no clear shot of Green’s ankles in the video of the weigh-in. It’s also entirely possible that the (not exactly highly regarded) athletic commission in Missouri simply looked the other way. I’m not exactly buying that Kimbo, whose strongest home base to draw in would be Florida, is fighting in Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri. Something seems up when you’re sticking to places without really strong athletic commissions despite still having something of a “name.”
For the curious here is the weigh-in video (Green and Kimbo are around the 12:30 mark):
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