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Saturday, December 27, 2008
Petruzelli Eyes Strikeforce, Macau, and Rematch?
Possibly known forever as "the guy who knocked out Kimbo," Seth Petruzelli is currently tending his gym, Jungle MMA, in Orlando, Fl., waiting for a fight.
The pink-haired fighter says three options--all taking place in March--that are on the table for his fighting future: a yet to be announced Strikeforce show in March; an unnamed event in gambling haven Macau, China; a rematch with Kimbo Slice in Tampa, Fla.
Petruzelli maintains that he's agreed to the rematch, and is awaiting word from Slice's camp. It's a fight he feels is needed to sustain the jolt in momentum created by the 14 second knockout at Elite XC's final dance on Oct. 4.
"I just need to prove more my second time around, if I fight him, or I fight anybody else," Petruzelli said. "I need to do the exact same thing...just to prove it wasn't a fluke. That's been my main driving goal, to train my ass off."Labels: Kimbo Slice, Seth Petruzelli, Strikeforce
posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 8:51 PM
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
"Seth (Petruzelli) was paid to stand up."
 MMAWeekly.com talked with EliteXC consultant T.Jay Thompson on Monday night about the fallout from ProElite (EliteXC) closing its doors. Thompson was the founder of SuperBrawl, which later morphed into ICON Sport. He sold ICON to ProElite and now it is mired in the mess of the EliteXC meltdown.
Thompson was around at the final EliteXC show, "Heat," where Ken Shamrock withdrew from the main event at the last minute and UFC dropout Seth Petruzelli was tabbed to fight Kimbo Slice at the last minute.
Unless you were under a rock, you know Petruzelli KO'd Kimbo and then a firestorm ensued when he went on a Florida-based radio show talking about how he was influenced to keep the fight standing against Kimbo.
Thompson relayed his insights on the issue, and let's just say they offer no relief to the parties involved that have been trying to say that nothing of the sort happened:
"I was there cageside and watched the whole thing happen," Thompson told MMAWeekly.com. "Watching Jared Shaw jumping up and down and screaming as a representative of the company, I think was disgusting and embarrassing." He continued, "I don’t have a smoking gun, (but) I've been around long enough; I've talked to enough people that were there, I won't name names of executives in the company that I know. Seth was paid to stand up. I'm confident of that. If the commission wants to talk to me, I'll tell them what I know."
Labels: CBS, EliteXC, Ken Shamrock, Kimbo Slice, ProElite, Seth Petruzelli, T.Jay Thompson
posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 2:38 PM
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Frank Shamrock, "We're doing sports entertainment... not sports."
 Frank Shamrock was close to the Seth Petruzelli and Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson situation being Ken Shamrock's adoptive brother, offering to step in for Ken after a cut forced him out of the scheduled main event on CBS on Oct. 4 and being one of the broadcasters who called the action that night. Shamrock gave his opinon on Petruzelli's original comments alleging EliteXC paid him to stand with "Kimbo Slice."
"I've had promoters tell me all kinds of crazy stuff. But you don't listen to the promoters. You listen to your coach. You listen to your trainer because the promoter is out for the promoter," acknowledged Shamrock. "Did something weird happen? I doubt it. But it makes a great story and it makes great news."
At this point, it doesn't matter what actually transpired. Public perception is all that matters. And the public perception is that EliteXC paid Seth Petruzelli to fight a certain way. "People are always going to believe what they want to believe about a sport that's so sexy and dangerous, that walks the line in society," said Shamrock. "We're always going to have people that are butting up against the back of the sport for their own reasons. The truth is, when there's a lot of money involved all kinds of weird stuff happens."
Shamrock continued, "I know for a fact that the commissions and most of these promoters are good guys looking after their guys. And you know what? There's always bad business inside of business. I just don't think bad business happened here. I think, you know, uneducated encouragement happened here. I think zealous promotion happened here, but we're in the business of that. It's like we're doing sports entertainment. We're not doing sports."Labels: CBS, EliteXC, Frank Shamrock, Kimbo Slice, Seth Petruzelli
posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 12:00 AM
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Frank Shamrock Says Older Brother Ken Is Too Old School to Hang
 Frank Shamrock was a candidate to step in for adoptive brother Ken Shamrock on the EliteXC "Heat" CBS card on October 4, from the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. Ken was forced out of the main event against Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson due to a cut sustained the day of the scheduled bout.
Frank addressed the bizarre circumstances surrounding the cut and whether or not he thought the laceration was legitimately derived. "I came down on him pretty hard, but things do happen before fights," said the former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight titleholder. "If it were me, I would have had some superglue and some make-up, and I would have been out there fighting. But he's old and he's crusty. And I don't know if his cajones are hanging like they used to."
Calling his older brother's manhood into question aside, Frank didn't feel the cut was obtained by anything other than improper preparation, something that caused him to leave the Lion's Den with only a pair of boxing gloves in 1997.
"I don't think Ken is that sophisticated that there's some sinister play involved," commented the younger Shamrock. "I know he needed the money. I know this was a big moment for him. I just think he's a knucklehead like he's been forever. I think he was, you know, fighting the day of his fight as a warm-up. And that's just, it's just so old school. It's so yesterday that he's doing that."
Seth Petruzelli, who was originally supposed to fight on the undercard, ended up being Kimbo's opponent, knocking out the hyped street fighter turned mixed martial artist's in just 14 seconds.Labels: CBS, EliteXC, Frank Shamrock, Ken Shamrock, Kimbo Slice, Seth Petruzelli
posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 8:00 PM
Monday, October 13, 2008
VIDEO: Dana White On Kimbo Firestorm
UFC president Dana White, in a video interview that appears on YouTube.com, commented on the recent EliteXC controversy surrounding Seth Petruzelli and his knockout of Kimbo Slice. White explains what he believes to be the alleged illegality of the situation.
WARNING: A word of caution, in typical Dana White fashion, there is is some rather harsh language, laced with expletives throughout the video.Labels: Dana White, EliteXC, Kimbo Slice, Seth Petruzelli, UFC, Video
posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 12:30 PM
Saturday, October 11, 2008
One of These Guys Has To Be Right, Right?
 The ever-evolving story between EliteXC and the controversy surrounding the Seth Petruzelli-Kimbo Slice fight keeps growing with major media outlets picking up on the alleged payoff story more and more each day.
The other problem with the entire situation is the ever-changing story that continues to flow from both the fighter and the promotion.
Originally, on Monday, Petruzelli appeared on a local Orlando radio station making the following statement:
"The promoters kind of hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and trade with him," Petruzelli said on "The Monsters in Orlando" show. "They didn't want me to take him down, let's just put it that way. It was worth my while to try to stand up and punch with him."
Since that time, Petruzelli has recanted that statement saying that his comments were misconstrued.
"All it was, was a knockout bonus that I just didn't say it was a knockout bonus," said Petruzelli while appearing on MMAWeekly Radio on Tuesday. "The UFC offers that, they offer submission bonus, they offer for fight of the night, and all I was saying was that I wanted to take the knockout bonus and not take him down.
"So it kind of got misconstrued as me saying that they wanted me to just stand up to get it, but that was just all me saying I wanted to try to get the knockout bonus."
EliteXC Head of Fight Operations, Jeremy Lappen, categorically denied the original report and released a definitive statement from the promotion about the situation with Petruzelli.
"Seth Petruzelli was offered a fee to fight Kimbo Slice, plus a knockout bonus, a common practice throughout the industry. EliteXC organizes and promotes fights. We have not... do not... and will not suggest or dictate fighters' strategies or tactics. How the fighters perform in the cage is at the sole discretion of the athletes involved."
So Petruzelli and Lappen both agree that it was a knockout bonus that prompted him to stay standing with Kimbo Slice in the main event of CBS Saturday Night Fights, right?
"We offered Seth Petruzelli a knockout bonus, a submission bonus and fight of the night bonus. If we were trying to influence the fight, why would we do that?" said Lappen in an interview with Franklin McNeil of ESPN.com on Thursday.
When asked directly on Tuesday if EliteXC offers submission bonuses, Lappen responded by saying, "We have given submission bonuses, but our bonuses that we tend to give are knockout bonuses."
So which story is true? Was Petruzelli offered a higher bonus for a knockout? Was he offered a submission bonus at all? The answer may never be known for sure, although after the onslaught of controversy, the state of Florida is now opening an investigation into the whole situation.Labels: CBS, EliteXC, Jeremy Lappen, Kimbo Slice, Seth Petruzelli
posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 2:04 AM
Thursday, October 9, 2008
ESPN's MMA Live Focuses on Kimbo KO
The latest episode (#22) of MMA Live from ESPN features Jon Anik, Kenny Florian, and Franklin McNeil focusing on the Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock debacle that occurred at the recent CBS-EliteXC Saturday Night Fights in Florida.Labels: CBS, EliteXC, ESPN, Frank Mir, Ken Shamrock, Kenny Florian, Kimbo Slice, MMA Live, Seth Petruzelli, Video
posted by MMAInsiderBLOG @ 9:04 PM
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