Masvidal reveals how Kimbo Slice's backyard platform launched his MMA career

Jorge Masvidal has credited the late Kimbo Slice with giving him one of the earliest and most important breaks of his fighting career, recalling how a shared connection to Miami’s Freestyle Fighting Academy led to him competing on Slice’s notorious backyard-fight platform.

Speaking with Daniel Cormier, the former UFC title challenger and BMF champion explained that he and Slice grew up in neighbouring areas of Miami, shared mutual friends, and eventually ended up training together at Freestyle Fighting Academy. Masvidal was already pursuing MMA seriously at the time, with amateur fights and grappling experience behind him.

“Well, particularly with Kimbo, it just so happened we didn’t grow up far from each other,” Masvidal said. “We had some friends in common and we ended up at the same gym, Freestyle Fighting Academy, and we started training.”

The breakthrough came when one of the gym’s owners asked Slice — whose backyard fight videos were generating enormous attention online — to watch Masvidal spar and consider putting him on his platform.

“One of the gym owners asked him, goes, ‘Man, I got a really talented dude. I want you to watch him spar and see if you’ll put him on,’” Masvidal recalled. “I always give him big props because he put me on his platform. He didn’t have to.”

Masvidal described the underground events as tightly guarded secrets, with organisers risking fines and potential arrest. He recalled receiving just two hours’ notice before one event, which took place behind a laundromat in Liberty City, Miami. Before his bout, Slice offered a brief but pointed piece of corner advice.

“I’m going to give you the location right now. You got two hours to get there,” Masvidal recalled being told. “He comes back about 20 seconds later and he goes, ‘Keep your left hand up. He’s got a really, really good right.’ So, we got in there, and we made magic, man.”

Slice, born Kevin Ferguson, died in June 2016 at the age of 42. Masvidal’s tribute underlines the enduring significance of that early mentorship in shaping a career that would eventually reach the highest levels of the UFC.