Kimbo: Who is Next?

Early in the Elite XC post fight press conference Saturday night, Gary Shaw announced that Brett Rogers would most likely be fighting Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva in his next fight.

Brett ‘The Grim’ Rogers, who had just knocked out his third Elite XC opponent in the first round, John Murphy, did what he could to change this.

“ I want to put it like this- I seem some shit tonight, I seen some garbage ass shit tonight from one of the heavyweights,” Rogers who is 7-0 as a pro said when talking about Kimbo Slice. “Slice that was just terrible. “

Rogers made these comments unprovoked by the media and at the time Kimbo Slice had yet to show up at the press conference to defend himself.

When Kimbo Slice was told by one of the reporters that Rogers was unimpressed by his performance, he initially had little to say.

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion,” he said.

Minutes later the subject was broached again, when a reporter asked Brett Rogers who he would rather fight, Bigfoot Silva or Kimbo?

Rogers stepped up to the microphone and once again let the gallery or reporters and this time Kimbo Slice know how he felt.

“What I saw in this man tonight was just garbage,” Rogers stated bluntly. “I am going to speak it real. It was garbage and you did tap out.”

Kimbo stood to his feet with the look he normally gives one of his predetermined knockout victims in the ring.

“That sounds like a challenge big dog,” an angry Kimbo said. “That is a challenge. Set it up G” [referring to Gary Shaw].

Gary Shaw tried his best to stand between the fighters and restore order to the press conference.

“Sit down, Sit down,” Shaw repeated numerous times.

“That mother fucker is going to call me out like that,” Kimbo is heard saying.

“You will have your day in the cage,” Shaw said during the brief unrest.

Eventually order was restored when the other fighters, including Robbie Lawler and Phil Baroni and onlookers like Mark ‘The Hammer’ Coleman intervened.

What remains unclear is who will Kimbo’s next opponent be and is Rogers going to fight Antonio Silva or will Elite XC possibly let Kimbo fight a seeming equally potent and adept striker like Rogers.

Rogers, did knock out Kimbo’s opponent Thompson on February 16^th and in more impressive fashion, just 2:38 into round 1.

Elite XC and Gary Shaw will surely let the two get in the cage to settle the score, but when? Could this possibly be the headliner for their July 26^th event or their 4^th and final event on CBS when they may be clamoring for a new deal.

Remember Shaw was critical of Dana White for how he handled the debut of Brock Lesnar in the UFC, specifically his choice of Lesnar’s opponent, Frank Mir, an experienced top-tier heavyweight.

“I feel badly because Brock [Lesnar]could’ve been a star and he[Dana White] ruined him right off of the bat. It was a bad match-up,” Shaw was quoted as saying on the website mmamania.com back in February.

Shaw knows the fight game and how quickly the hype surrounding a fighter can dissipate because of a bad loss.

Eventually, though, he will have to let Kimbo Slice and Brett Rogers settle their feud in the cage and this seems to be the path Elite XC is heading. For now, one can only speculate when it will and for fight fans hopefully it is sooner than later.