Kimbo Slice is like the Make a Wish Foundation

Here’s a recent, true story about a kid with health problems who wanted nothing more than to meet Kimbo Slice.

I participated in something good on Friday and I wanted to share some of the details with you. We received an e-mail a few weeks ago from a father who had a 5 year old son that had some medical problems. The boy had a liver transplant when he was 6 months old… his body was now rejecting the liver… and there are further complications, all leading to a childhood that’s probably spent more with doctors than playmates. Anyway, the e-mail said that this boy, Justin, really wanted to meet Kimbo Slice. The father e-mailed and asked if we were doing any events coming up where Kimbo would be there. I told him we weren’t, but that I would try and get in touch with Kimbo’s management and see if they had any time to meet Justin.

Team Kimbo could not have been more accommodating. When I told them the situation, they suggested Kimbo and Justin could meet at Boomer’s in Dania Beach and play some video games and have some fun. It took a couple weeks of planning, due to a ridiculously busy schedule that Kimbo Slice has, but the meeting date and time was finally picked.

The father told me Justin was tremendously excited all week. He had watched Kimbo fights on TV with his dad (who happened to be a big mma fan.) Justing would tell his dad that he thought Kimbo could beat the Incredible Hulk. The week leading up to the meeting, Justin asked his dad every morning, “is this the day we meet Kimbo?”

When I met Justin and his father at Boomers, I explained that Kimbo was a very busy guy and he would probably only be able to spend a few minutes with him, but I was sure he’d be able to take a photo with him. About 15 minutes later, Kimbo Slice, his manager, and two others showed up to Boomer’s… and proceeded to spend the next two hours with Justin. Two hours! Kimbo took a genuine interest in Justin, making sure he had enough to eat… making sure he got to play all the games he wanted… making sure Justin felt like a STAR. (And he did.) Kimbo also brought him autographed photos, merchandise, and lots of other great stuff. The entire afternoon was so touching on so many levels.

Justin was on top of the world… His dad told me he doesn’t really get to go to places like Boomers, because of all the immuno-supression drugs that he’s on. It makes it dangerous for Justin to be around a lot of kids (and a lot of germs) because his body would have a tough time fighting off even a minor illness. Justing took tons of photos with Kimbo, and Kimbo played games with Justin for the entire 2 hours. It was pretty amazing to see the power of an individual… Kimbo made this kid feel great, just by spending some time with him. What a great power to have.

I was just blown away by Kimbo doing this for a kid he didn’t even know. Kimbo’s manager was telling me that they get e-mails and letters everyday from sick people looking for help… He said they wished they could help everybody, but obviously they couldn’t. We never mentioned on the air that Kimbo was going to do this for the kid, because that’s not what it was about. We could have turned it into a media circus… There’s so much interest in Kimbo, we could have had every newspaper on site taking photos of Kimbo and Justin and made it into an event… But that’s not what it was about. It was about a super-celebrity badass, Kimbo Slice, taking a couple hours out of his day to make a sick kid feel great for a while.

I wasn’t even going to blog about it or mention it on the air, but Justin’s father asked if I would, so that everyone would know what lengths Kimbo Slice went to to make sure this kid had a great day. I myself have a 4 year old son, and after speaking with Justin’s father for a couple hours, I still can’t imagine the pain one goes through when they have a sick child. It was a truly moving day, an experience I won’t soon forget. A day that made me see Kimbo Slice in a whole new light… Kimbo Nice.