What kind of TV ratings will The Ultimate Fighter get this Wednesday and in the weeks to follow, now that Kimbo Slice has had his turn inside the reality show octagon?

Yeah, I know, Dana White and the show’s Disembodied Narrator started dropping hints before last week’s episode ended that Kimbo will be back. But does anyone really care anymore? The backyard brawler’s presence did earn the Spike series its best viewership numbers in 10 seasons, just as he brought CBS big TV numbers back when he was fighting for Elite XC. But all that happened before he was dominated by Roy Nelson.

Maybe it was a case of disappearing dollar signs that prompted Dana White to be so dismissive in his appraisal of Nelson’s victory. After the bout Dana wore a smirk and spat out, “Roy did just enough to win and not get hit.” Well, isn’t that pretty much the point of mixed martial arts? To neutralize your opponent while sustaining no damage? That certainly is a wise strategy while participating on a reality show where you may be called upon to lace ‘em up again with little post-fight recovery time.

But all that aside, characterizing Roy’s performance as “just enough to win” was disingenuous of Dana. Doing “just enough to win” would have meant taking Kimbo down and sitting in his guard for two rounds, or maintaining striking  distance and winning a jabbing contest. Sure, Nelson didn’t score a stylishly vicious KO and didn’t bloody Slice with brutal ground-and-pound. But he did dominate. He took Kimbo to the mat, grabbed a dominant position and rendered the guy utterly defenseless. Twice.

So what if Roy’s 40-something unanswered punches to Kimbo’s head were basically pitter-patter? They were unanswered! Kimbo was defenseless! That’s a dominant victory. This is a sport, after all, not a backyard brawl on YouTube.

Kimbo might have had no answer for Roy’s shots, but Roy did have one for Dana’s. After hearing the UFC president ridicule his performance, Roy hit back in an interview with USA Today’s MMA blog, Fighting Stances:

I was surprised [the fight wasn't stopped sooner]. You could even see me yelling at Herb Dean, “Come on, ref.” But the thing is, there’s a lot of people . . . there’s a lot of money. Kimbo’s the only one that I know that had an entourage there; he actually had his family there, his management, while the rest of us kind of had to suffer. The UFC made, we’ll say, different concessions for Kimbo. I think he had a media room.

Kimbo’s definitely, I guess we’ll say, special. I don’t see the specialness fighting-wise, but more for TV-wise. He puts butts in the seats. So I think it was more that Herb Dean was afraid to lose his job, because there’s a lot of people with a lot of money that can have a lot of influence with his career.

Now, I don’t agree with Roy’s gripe about Dean allowing the fight to go on. The first time he had Kimbo defenseless was in the waning moments of the first round, and when the horn sounded Kimbo got right up, not looking too worse for wear. He been hit a lot but not taken much of a beating. He was fatigued from trying to fight his way off his back, but that’s what the one-minute break is for. However, when Nelson took Kimbo down again at the start of the second, immobilized him in crucifix position and started hitting him again, unanswered, the stoppage was inevitable.

Whatever you think of the timing of Herb Dean’s stoppage, you have to view Roy’s comments as being aimed not at the ref but at Dana White and the UFC. The suggestion that a ref would feel intimidated is serious business. And then there’s the charge that Kimbo was getting preferential treatment by having an entourage there. Watching the Spike broadcast, I didn’t see anyone hanging around outside the octagon other than the fighters, coaches, cornermen, UFC officials and state regulators, so maybe Nelson is speaking fiction. But there’s no doubt that Kimbo is a celebrity and is being promoted as such. That, however, is no crime.

We have to assume that Kimbo will get another chance. I say that not just because of the TV teasers suggesting that it might happen, but from Dana’s statement that Kimbo will fight on an upcoming UFC card. Slice surely didn’t earn that opportunity based on his performance against Roy Nelson. Here’s hoping that when he fights one of the other heavyweights on the show, Kimbo gets his swagger back. Ground game aside, Kimbo looked tentative even when he and Roy were standing. Sure, he was guarding against a takedown. But he was too guarded. He’s got to let those heavy fists fly. He may not be an ultimate fighter, but he’s a fighter. So he has to fight.

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