The late Kimbo Slice became a legend largely through a series of decidedly low-tech videos of street fights posted on YouTube. The videos showed Slice, whose real name was Kevin Ferguson, mostly battering a series of opponents in a Miami back yard while a group of onlookers hooted and hollered their support.

Slice eventually found his way into professional fighting, competing in both boxing and mixed martial arts. And despite limited skills at the highest level, he became one of MMA’s biggest drawing cards.

Another graduate of that street-fight scene didn’t get nearly the bump from it that Slice did, though he twice defeated Slice’s protégé, Ray.

Jorge Masvidal is a long way from those days, but the experience he gained on the streets still informs him.

He fights Donald Cerrone on Saturday in Denver in a UFC show nationally televised on Fox that should be an epic slugfest.

Both are aggressive, come-forward fighters whose careers have flourished since they each moved from lightweight to welterweight.

Cerrone is decidedly tougher and a better fighter than anyone Masvidal fought in those backyard brawls. But Masvidal gained a mental strength in those bouts that he admits helps him now in his professional career.

Ranked No. 12 at welterweight, Masvidal is 31-11 overall in MMA and has won his last two fights. The fifth-ranked Cerrone is one of the hottest fighters in the sport, having won four in a row and 12 of his last 13.

Masvidal, though, is unimpressed.

“He’s like a Britney Spears, man: talkative, famous, people know him and recognize him,” Masvidal said. “But is he the most skilled guy or the toughest guy I’ve fought in my career? By far, no. He’s just another tough dude. Nothing special.”

He’ll freely admit Cerrone is better than those he’s faced in his street-fighting days, but he gained a mental toughness from those bouts that makes him better now when he’s competing against the best and most well-trained fighters in the world.

There were a lot of unknowns in those backyard battles that live in YouTube lore. Most significantly, one had to worry about whether a friend of the person you were fighting was armed and might not react well to seeing his buddy get pounded.

Masvidal said, “You have no idea,” when asked about the stress of those fights and not knowing what might happen.

“It’s really a different animal,” he said. “The opposition really sucked, man. They didn’t train, and a lot of them were drug addicts. They were tough guys, but they weren’t living at the gym full-time like [professional MMA fighters tend to do].

“But the possibility of getting shot or stabbed was right around the corner at all times. You just didn’t know.”

That helped him develop the fearless attitude that, in some ways, defines him today. He’ll fight anyone at any time, and one of his main complaints about the UFC is that he says it hasn’t allowed him to fight as much as he has wanted.

The UFC acquired his contract when it purchased Strikeforce, and Masvidal first fought in the UFC in 2013. He went 2-1 in 2013, 3-0 in 2014, 1-2 in 2015 and 2-1 in 2016.

There’s an unmistakable pattern there. This is a guy who always has a snarl and an insatiable desire to fight, but since joining the UFC, he’s fought three times a year as regular as rain.

“If you’ve followed my career, you’ll see that I’ve always wanted to have four or five fights in a year, but the UFC wouldn’t give them to me,” he said. “I remember one year [2014] I had won three in a row and it was September. I was told, ‘We’re booked up and we don’t got no more fights for you. Unless there is an injury, you’re done for the year.’ I’ve always wanted to fight as often as possible, and when they didn’t let me, I was upset, man.”

He’s not too happy with Cerrone, whom he trained with in Albuquerque, N.M., a few years ago. According to Masvidal, Cerrone said he had better wrestling than Masvidal, and that didn’t go over well.

He hasn’t forgotten and said Cerrone will pay for it.

“I don’t give a [expletive] about what he’s going to try to do,” Masvidal said, sneering. “I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to beat his ass. I’m going to punch him in the face. I’m going to take him down and beat the [expletive] out of him.

“There will be takedowns in this fight, I promise you that, old-school wrestling takedowns. He said something stupid and said he had better wrestling than me. Let me tell you, that guy can’t tie my wrestling shoes. I don’t know why he would say that, especially because we have wrestled together. I’m no NCAA champion or All-American, but I can wrestle my ass off.”