Fresh off a smashing, 19-second first-round knockout in his Street-to-Elite MMA debut, the incredibly popular Kimbo Slice will face David "Tank" Abbott in what figures to be an absolute slugfest in the EliteXC main event on Saturday, Feb. 16, at the BankUnited Center at the University of Miami.
The fight card, announced today by EliteXC Live Events President, Gary Shaw, will headline a sensational EliteXC event that also will feature the top female draw in MMA, Gina Carano, highly regarded, top-notch heavyweights Antonio "Big Foot" Silva and James "The Colossus" Thompson (in separate bouts) and a terrific matchup between 185-pounders Scott Smith and Kyle "KO'' Noke.
The card will be televised on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast).
Kimbo, the legendary backyard street fighter and YouTube sensation who lives in Miami, Fla., destroyed Bo Cantrell in his first MMA start on Nov. 10, 2007, on SHOWTIME. In this eagerly awaited fight, Kimbo will be facing one of the most feared knockout artists in MMA history.
A notorious bad boy and trash-talker, Abbott, of Huntington Beach, Calif., has called out Kimbo on numerous occasions and is supremely confident of a victory.
Carano and Silva, who are coming off impressive first-round submission victories in their last starts, and England's Thompson, who has defeated the likes of legends Dan Severn, Don Frye, and Hidehiko Yoshida, will be opposed by opponents to be determined.
Noke, the bodyguard of the late Steve "Crocodile Hunter'' Irwin, won his EliteXC debut with an impressive second-round TKO over Seth Kleinbeck. But he faces another tough assignment in Smith, who recently signed with EliteXC and is making his SHOWTIME debut.