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Kimbo Slice is hungry. At the moment, he was yearning for Friday's weigh-in to end before Saturday night's Ultimate Fighting Championship light-heavyweight fight against Houston Alexander so he could get some food. "The last time I weighed this much I was in middle school," said Slice, the former street fighter from Miami whose fights became a YouTube phenomenon. "I gotta eat something, I need a nibble." Slice's appetite also craves some credibility. Since parlaying his "Kimbo fights" Internet popularity into a professional mixed martial arts career as a main-event fighter who fought twice on the CBS-televised Elite Xtreme Combat circuit, Slice (real name Kevin Ferguson)

Boil the history of action sports down to its essence, and a single phrase emerges: Can you top this? That concept has driven the sport's growth for decades, and the X Games does the same, adding new events or twists to old ones seemingly every year. For example, the X Games added the big air skateboarding event in 2004 after Danny Way, the event's pioneer, pushed for it. Another change came in 2009 when X Games officials heeded the request of skaters and created a concrete skate park for a different skateboarding competition, switching from the wooden park used the year before.

The celebrity of Kimbo Slice has performed incredibly for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. His cardio fitness is another story. Slice, costarring in a bout filled with an abundance of lulls in his UFC debut before a paying audience, landed enough big punches and inflicted enough damage while atop light-heavyweight foe Houston Alexander to win a unanimous decision. "It's work, it's not easy," Slice told the crowd, which had often booed the inactive lapses at the Palms hotel.

Mixed martial arts heavyweight Cain Velasquez was asked whether he truly understood the caliber of the opponent he faces Saturday. His opponent: former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight king Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The undefeated Velasquez (7-0), one victory shy of a title shot, is headlining the main event in the UFC's first Australian card. "I just deal with what's at hand," Velasquez said. "You can't lose track of what you need to do right now." Velasquez, 27, is six years younger and has fought 31 fewer pro bouts than his foe, but when it comes to the depth of resolve the two-time NCAA All-American wrestler from Arizona State has, his peers usually take a back seat.

Since its last visit to Las Vegas, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has lost three of its champions to illness or injury, suffered through two highly suspect judging decisions in main events and seen another future main-event fighter cancel because of an injury. "We've never seen anything like this," UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta said. "It's bizarre." Adding salt in the wound, boxing produced its most compelling action of the year last weekend when Manny Pacquiao defeated Miguel Cotto by 12th-round technical knockout in Las Vegas.

Herschel Walker used to tell friends at the University of Georgia that he aspired to be considered one of the greatest athletes in history. "And not just in football," Walker recalled this week. Since running the Bulldogs to the 1980 national championship and winning the Heisman Trophy in 1982, Walker rushed for more than 13,000 yards in the USFL and NFL, then retired in 1997 with the second-most all-purpose yards in NFL history. During his pro football career, he also earned a spot on the 1992 Olympic two-man bobsled team, and won television's "Superstars" event three times.

Mixed martial arts heavyweight Cain Velasquez was asked whether he truly understood the caliber of the opponent he faces Saturday. His opponent: former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight king Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The undefeated Velasquez (7-0), one victory shy of a title shot, is headlining the main event in the UFC's first Australian card. "I just deal with what's at hand," Velasquez said. "You can't lose track of what you need to do right now." Velasquez, 27, is six years younger and has fought 31 fewer pro bouts than his foe, but when it comes to the depth of resolve the two-time NCAA All-American wrestler from Arizona State has, his peers usually take a back seat.

Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz have weathered so much between their first meeting in 2006 and the renewal that came Saturday night. A title won and lost by Griffin. A career-threatening back injury by Ortiz. A bitter contract split between Ortiz and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A loss that Griffin admitted "broke me" just earlier this year. That's why the UFC put these two in the main event of UFC 106 Saturday night at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, to see who had what left.

Last summer, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship prepared for its 100th event, its owners were poised to celebrate that the combat sport of choice was no longer boxing but mixed martial arts. Things have changed a bit. Today, fight fans are whetting their appetites for the most anticipated bout in years. And it's boxing that has the buzz because of the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega-fight scheduled for March. And the UFC? It's been hit with a slew of injuries to key fighters and other negatives that have watered down its recent events.

For the third consecutive Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Las Vegas, one question dominates: So, when is Brock Lesnar fighting again? The UFC will stage a third straight title-less Vegas main event Saturday night when veteran light-heavyweights Randy Couture and Mark Coleman lead the card of UFC 109 at Mandalay Bay Events Center. "There's great fights on this card . . . me and Mark are a couple of old wrestlers banging heads, two active Hall of Famers," Couture said. The undercard features a middleweight bout between Nate Marquardt and Chael Sonnen, with the winner getting a future title shot against the winner of April's title bout between champion Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort.

For the third consecutive Ultimate Fighting Championship event in Las Vegas, one question dominates: So, when is Brock Lesnar fighting again? The UFC will stage a third straight title-less Vegas main event Saturday night when veteran light-heavyweights Randy Couture and Mark Coleman lead the card of UFC 109 at Mandalay Bay Events Center. "There's great fights on this card . . . me and Mark are a couple of old wrestlers banging heads, two active Hall of Famers," Couture said. The undercard features a middleweight bout between Nate Marquardt and Chael Sonnen, with the winner getting a future title shot against the winner of April's title bout between champion Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort.

Herschel Walker used to tell friends at the University of Georgia that he aspired to be considered one of the greatest athletes in history. "And not just in football," Walker recalled this week. Since running the Bulldogs to the 1980 national championship and winning the Heisman Trophy in 1982, Walker rushed for more than 13,000 yards in the USFL and NFL, then retired in 1997 with the second-most all-purpose yards in NFL history. During his pro football career, he also earned a spot on the 1992 Olympic two-man bobsled team, and won television's "Superstars" event three times.

Last summer, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship prepared for its 100th event, its owners were poised to celebrate that the combat sport of choice was no longer boxing but mixed martial arts. Things have changed a bit. Today, fight fans are whetting their appetites for the most anticipated bout in years. And it's boxing that has the buzz because of the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega-fight scheduled for March. And the UFC? It's been hit with a slew of injuries to key fighters and other negatives that have watered down its recent events.

The celebrity of Kimbo Slice has performed incredibly for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. His cardio fitness is another story. Slice, costarring in a bout filled with an abundance of lulls in his UFC debut before a paying audience, landed enough big punches and inflicted enough damage while atop light-heavyweight foe Houston Alexander to win a unanimous decision. "It's work, it's not easy," Slice told the crowd, which had often booed the inactive lapses at the Palms hotel.

Kimbo Slice is hungry. At the moment, he was yearning for Friday's weigh-in to end before Saturday night's Ultimate Fighting Championship light-heavyweight fight against Houston Alexander so he could get some food. "The last time I weighed this much I was in middle school," said Slice, the former street fighter from Miami whose fights became a YouTube phenomenon. "I gotta eat something, I need a nibble." Slice's appetite also craves some credibility. Since parlaying his "Kimbo fights" Internet popularity into a professional mixed martial arts career as a main-event fighter who fought twice on the CBS-televised Elite Xtreme Combat circuit, Slice (real name Kevin Ferguson)

Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz have weathered so much between their first meeting in 2006 and the renewal that came Saturday night. A title won and lost by Griffin. A career-threatening back injury by Ortiz. A bitter contract split between Ortiz and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A loss that Griffin admitted "broke me" just earlier this year. That's why the UFC put these two in the main event of UFC 106 Saturday night at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, to see who had what left.

When motocross rider Kenny Bartram crashed and ruptured a blood vessel in his brain 12 years ago, his father's health insurance helped cushion the fall by paying the hefty medical tab. Now that he's 26, Bartram must pay big bucks -- around $650 a month, he says -- to ensure that he will be covered if he suffers another serious injury. His policy paid for a broken leg suffered at the 2002 Summer X Games and a broken hip socket suffered in the fall of 2003.

Teen retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., hoping for a financial turnaround after a three-year slump, said it plans to close as many as 200 of its weaker-performing stores around the country. The Anaheim-based company known for its surf- and skate-inspired apparel also said it had secured $160 million in financing for its overhaul, even as it reported its 13th straight quarterly loss, of $17.6 million. That compares with a $6.96-million loss in the same period a year earlier.

Since its last visit to Las Vegas, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has lost three of its champions to illness or injury, suffered through two highly suspect judging decisions in main events and seen another future main-event fighter cancel because of an injury. "We've never seen anything like this," UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta said. "It's bizarre." Adding salt in the wound, boxing produced its most compelling action of the year last weekend when Manny Pacquiao defeated Miguel Cotto by 12th-round technical knockout in Las Vegas.

The winds of change swirling through this posh mountain retreat have delivered a hint of impetuousness: attitude to be complemented, over the next five days, by amplitude. The Flying Tomato, Big Dan, Lucky Lindsey and other young athletes have arrived, along with their families, friends and thousands of fans, for the Winter X Games. Remarkably, the upscale populace has embraced this brief transformation from haughty to hip.