If losing could be anything but bad, this could be the best defeat Kimbo has ever had. By losing, Kimbo Slice won the hearts and acceptance of a lot of haters…and that includes Kimbo-thrasher Dana White.

Days before the airing of the September 30 edition of the reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” over Spike TV, MMA fans were already raving about it like it was the Lesnar-Fedor match finally taking shape. The reason: after Kimbo crashed and burned under Seth Petruzelli (and after losing to a worm in that Norton Security ad) this is going to be the first time we will see the bearded one slug it out in the cage again.

Kimbo Slice, whether you like it or not, has done in a few matches what Dana White has been trying to do for MMA – and barely succeeded: that is to draw more attention to mixed martial arts. Whether you like it or not, the much maligned, overly belittled and scathingly thrash-talked Kimbo is one of MMA’s biggest crowd-drawers. He drew the biggest TV viewership (at 7.281 million viewers during the Kimbo vs. Thompson bout) for an MMA fight in American TV last year. To top this, two of the three most viewed MMA fights last year are Kimbo Slice headliners.

Most of the hardcore MMA fans hate him, for good reason. Kimbo Slice is not a mixed martial arts fighter, but the amount of hype and attention (and huge pay scale) he gets does injustice to real MMA fighters. He gives the new fans the wrong impression of what real mixed martial arts is. An MMA poser he is, and it didn’t take long before some obscure MMA-fighter-turned-Smoothie King-franchisee Petruzelli showed the world what a fake he is – in just 14 seconds of the first round.

But still…Kimbo Slice was a crowd-drawer.

Now, Dana White struts him off on “The Ultimate Fighter.” And we say, “Good call, DW!” It means Kimbo’s crowd-drawing magic would rub off on the show. And it did – it’s first two episodes raked it’s highest ratings ever. So it came as a shock when White announced that a Kimbo fight was slated as early as the third week of TUF 10 against the much experienced Roy “Big Country” Nelson. If Slice loses, just like any contender who loses, he gets kicked out of the show

What was White thinking? There’s not an iota of doubt that Kimbo would lose.

And Kimbo lost.

But wait…

After losing to “Big Country,” haters started to feel differently about Kimbo. Even “real” MMA fighters and coaches on the show who sneered and swore and mocked him when he was first introduced on the first episode started to warm up on him. They started to praise him and his efforts.

And Dana White is keeping him on the show despite the loss.

…. and he can continue rubbing off his crowd-drawing magic on the show, on UFC, and on mixed martial arts in general.

Kimbo Slice lost this particular battle, but he seems to be winning the war.

The question is: is Kimbo Slice’s victory a loss for MMA?