Best Athlete

Rob Kimmons

An injury to another competitor in June opened up a spot for middleweight Rob Kimmons on an Ultimate Fighting Championship card in Las Vegas. The 27-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, resident made the most of the opportunity. The Rosedale Reaper, as Kimmons likes to be known, forced his opponent to submit in the first round after placing him in a move called the guillotine choke. Kimmons had dreamed of reaching the UFC since he wrestled in high school. "I about got sick afterward, so much emotion rushed into me," Kimmons said after the Vegas fight. MMAKC.com blogger Dave Fuzzell says Kimmons was dominating the local competition before his UFC break. "It won't be long before you see Kimmons putting someone to sleep on a UFC pay-per-view," Fuzzell says. A well-rounded fighter, Kimmons is a third-degree black belt in jujitsu and uses Thai boxing to inflict as much damage as possible on his opponents. Kimmons is now the welterweight champion of the International Fighting Organization. When he's back home, he can usually be found chasing around his three kids, and he's a coach at the Extreme Couture Gym in Independence.

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