(Props: MMA Scraps)

We’re less than two months away from the premiere of The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights, and it’s hard not to get excited about the first brief shots of Kimbo Slice walking out to the TUF cage and pacing around before a fight, with Rampage Jackson possibly in his corner (see the -00:09 mark). Plus, the fact that Jackson and Rashad Evans will hate each other’s guts from day one could bring back some of the Tito vs. Ken magic of season 3. So far, everybody involved is playing it very close to the vest in regards to how the fights played out this season. But the interview after the jump may suggest that Slice shook off the haters and did, at the very least, aight.

In this MMA Fanhouse interview, Roy Nelson tells Ariel Helwani that "I learned a lot from [Kimbo]…I think he’ll be in the business for a very long time to come," which is generally not what you say about someone who gets punked in his first-round match on the show. (It should be said that some of the former pro-footballers and other newbie fighters that will be bunking up on TUF 10 are even less experienced than Slice is, and Kimbo may not be the underdog that some are making him out to be.) Nelson also discusses Florida’s hatred for him, questionable MMA reffing, and ends the chat with a trademark belly-rub.