"If Houston Alexander's the gatekeeper, I got one thing to say about that. Houston, you got a problem," said Kimbo Slice coming into his official UFC debut against a man with a striking reputation similar to his own. Funny quote, but would he be able to back it up?
Well, yes and no. In the end, this was not the one minute and a cloud of dust people were expecting.
The first round saw Alexander run around the edges of the Octagon while Slice followed him. Slice only hit home with a few strikes throughout the entire stanza and hardly even tried to cut his opponent off. On the flip side, Alexander didn't stick and move much; he just moved. That said, he did connect with multiple low kicks. No one really deserved to get points in this uneventful round, but one certainly could've given it to Alexander just as easily as Kimbo.
The second round saw the evolution of Slice's grappling game, particularly as takedowns are concerned. Along with this, he dominated the action, slamming Alexander with a couple of up, up, and away takedowns and even took his back at one point. That coupled with a few power strikes on his feet and some nice ground and pound easily netted Slice the stanza.
In the third, both fighters started off brawling, with Alexander the aggressor. Later in the stanza, Alexander landed a low kick that dropped Slice and followed it up with a hard punch. Slice gained a takedown soon after that but did almost nothing with the move, forcing the referee to stand the two up. Before the bell, Alexander landed a nice left elbow and followed it up with a strong right hand. This round should've been Alexander's.
And by that scoring, you have one round for Kimbo (round two), one for Alexander (round three), and one that no one deserved. That said, you could give the first to Kimbo based on the fact that he took the center of the ring. Or you could give it to Alexander based on low kicks. Or you could just call it a draw that no one deserved to really gain points from. In the end, what I'm saying is that either fighter could've been awarded the decision (and the judge that gave Kimbo all three rounds needs to explain). But that's not how the cookie crumbled.
Kimbo Slice defeats Houston Alexander via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27).
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