As you may or may not have know, Bas Rutten became the trainer of Kimbo Slice’s MMA game just before Kimbo’s big loss to Seth Petruzelli. Since then, Bas has hanged up the gloves on Slice and will no longer be his trainer. Here is a quote from Bas on the subject – Props to Fightlinker
You’ve worked closely with Kimbo Slice. When do you think we’ll see Kimbo fight again, and will you be in his corner again when he does?
I stopped training Kimbo. I had him six weeks before the last fight (a loss to Seth Petruzelli on October 4), I talked to him about certain things that I didn’t like, and he promised never to do it again, and then he started doing it again. If people come to me and ask me to train them, I want them to do what I tell them to do, because that’s what they came for. … Once you start doing different things, you’re out. It’s not because he got knocked out. This was already in progress long before the fight.
So you basically don’t think Kimbo was preparing the right way?
I would rather just leave it like this: Let’s say that the Kimbo who came to me at the beginning of training, that wasn’t the Kimbo who was at my gym the last time. Six weeks before his last fight, I told him, I want that Kimbo back. Otherwise, you’re out. And you know, he started doing differently again. Let’s just leave it like that. I don’t want to go into all the details. I wish him nothing but the best. Really, I really do.
So what it seems we have here is a Kimbo Slice that doesn’t have the drive to be the best Mixed Martial Artist in the world. If you want to be the best, you can’t quit the first time someone KO’s you. You have to get back in the cage and start swinging again. It’s disappointing that Kimbo didn’t try harder to utilize Bas Rutten’s knowledge. To have a world class trainer trying to help you, and not pay attention to it, is a real shame. Bas is a wealth of MMA knowledge and could have played a big role in Kimbo’s potential ascent up the MMA ladder some day. Good luck going it on your own Kimbo.
Here is a quick of Bas and Slice training together.
