Kevin Ferguson Jr’s Bellator debut was a long time coming … two times he was scheduled to fight for the promotion and two times the fight was called off at the last second. But tonight at Bellator 165, the man known as Baby Slice finally stepped into the Bellator cage. Unfortunately the result wasn’t quite what he was looking for. After putting his opponent Aaron Hamilton into an Anaconda choke he couldn’t quite finish, Hamilton scrambled out of the position and applied his own choke on Slice, earning the tap three minutes into the second round.
Kevin Ferguson Jr was coming into Bellator with a lot of hype, having won his first and only amateur fight via violent knockout in under two minutes. But even against a 0-1 opponent in Aaron Hamilton, his inexperience showed through. Not only did incorrect technique stop him from pulling off his choke attempt against Hamilton, he didn’t know how to defend against Hamilton’s follow up choke and was quickly forced to tap.
But this is why Bellator included Baby Slice on the prelims and not on the main card: so he could gain experience and learn without the public judging his every move through development. We doubt this will be the last time we see Slice on a Bellator card, and who knows? In another year or so, maybe he’ll be ready for a fight on the televised portion. For now, it’s back to the drawing board.
