No Kimbo In the UFC Anytime Soon - Slice Signs Long-Term Deal with EliteXC

You can forget about any Kimbo Slice - Chuck Liddell fights taking place anytime soon.

Kimbo Slice, along with Gina Carano and Robbie Lawler, signed a long-term, "multi-year" contract with EliteXC on Monday.

The move makes perfect sense for the EliteXC promotion, as Slice is easily their biggest star. Slice will be headlining the May 31st event on CBS when he takes on James "Megapunk" Thompson.

With EliteXC recently inking a deal with CBS, it makes sense that they would sign their top fighter to a long-term deal. Dana White, in a recent interview, said that he would be mildly interested in seeing a Liddell - Slice fight. I'm wondering if these comments sped up the negotiating process? Slice would certainly be a big draw in the UFC, even if he wasn't particularly successful. By signing Slice to a long-term deal, EliteXC can continue to build their promotion around him.

It will be interesting to see if EliteXC gradually improves the quality of his opponents or if they will continue to match him up with human punching bags. Thompson will easily be the toughest opponent of the three that Slice has fought in his young professional career. That's not saying much considering that Thompson has been knocked out in three of his last four matches, with all three knockouts coming in the first round.

Thompson is still a step up from Slice's previous opponents. In his first professional fight, Slice knocked out Bo Cantrell in just 19 seconds. Cantrell had been knocked out in his four previous fights prior to that, with none of the fights lasting more than one and a half minutes.

Then Slice fought "Tank" Abbott, an over-the-hill fighter who had lost 7 out of his past 8 fights and was well past the age of 40.

I understand that EliteXC wants to build Slice up, but it will be interesting to see whether or not they give him some real competition over the next year or so. Thompson is an improvement, but only slightly.

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