Dada 5000

Harris began a career in MMA at age 32, fighting in back to back local Florida state bouts, with two wins respectively.[4] Harris' first fight was against Cedric James where he won by KO in less than 3 minutes of the first round.[5] There was controversy, as James, who was a ground styled fighter and who had Harris in a submission, Harris got his arm free and through strikes. Soon the ref came in and broke the men up, returning the fight to stand up, and Harris would batter James with a flurry of blows.[6]

Harris' next fight was against Tim Papp where he won by TKO in 50 seconds of the first round.[7] In contrast to his first prior bout, Harris paced himself and focused on tactical attacks during this fight, even putting Papp into a guillotine choke, but released his opponent to go for a KO victory.[8]

In 2016, Harris, 2-0, made his Bellator debut as he faced childhood friend turned bitter rival Kimbo Slice, 5-2, in a highly publicized match at Bellator 149.[4] Midway through the first round both fighters would become fatigued, leading to a very uneventful fight. Harris was defeated by way of technical knock out during the waning moments of the third round.[9]

Having collapsed at the end of the bout, Harris was removed from the ring on a stretcher and immediately rushed to the hospital. He was later determined to have suffered the results of cardiac arrest, severe dehydration and kidney failure during the contest with Slice. Following two weeks of hospitalization, Harris was released on March 2, 2016.[10] Bellator President Scott Coker stated after the bout that Dada 5000 would not be invited back to fight in Bellator.[11] In March 2016, it was revealed that Slice had tested positive for nandrolone and an elevated testosterone to epitestosterone ratio (T/E ratio) in a pre-fight drug test. The result of the fight was overturned to a no contest.[12]

Slice soon passed away at age 42 some months after the bout, and Harris, despite their rivalry and remembering the one time friendship, paid tribute to his fallen adversary on the Instagram social media page, citing him as a somebody who "Showed the World that a guy from the Back yard circuit Can make it in Professional Sports and do the impossible".[13]

As a result of the events surrounding his fight with Slice and his health concern, Harris was suspended from MMA in the state of Texas indefinitely.[14] Thus, a return to combat sports was likely ruled out for Harris as he was also barred from competing in a bare-knuckle boxing match in November 2022, as in addition to the Texas commission, the Florida commission made their decision based on the judgement of the Texas suspension.[15]

In 2022, after the cancellation of his bkb match, Harris announced a possible comeback in the year 2023, stating he wished to fight again in bare-knuckle boxing and promote BYB Extreme. As for MMA, Harris stated him coming back was like a fighter seeing a chance to come out of retirement and "Once that bug bites you, I could fight one more. But once that switch gets flipped on, I may be back for a few more." He said his fans were the "real winners," and was not ruling out a few more MMA fights before he turned 50.[16]

In April 2019, Harris started his own bare-knuckle fighting promotion in Miami, Florida. Serving as the promoter and face of the organization, BYB Extreme Fighting Series hosted its first event in April 2019; the event was notable for having the self-proclaimed smallest cage in combat sports. Known as the "trigon," the triangular cage debuted at the first event. BYB Extreme Fighting Series' next event "Brawl III: Brawl at the Rock," took place on March 7, 2020.[17] The card was headlined by Chris Barnett taking on Matt Kovacs, with the co-main event being Mike Trujillo taking on Matt Delanoit.