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Media headlines coming out of EXC Florida event
By Zach Arnold | October 4, 2008
Every major sports site online tonight you visit (Google News, ESPN, etc.), the headline of Seth Petruzelli beating Kimbo Slice is being mentioned prominently. Unfortunately for Petruzelli, most of the major sports sites are refusing to use his name in the headline and instead are going with generic headlines like “replacement quickly KOs Kimbo,” “Kimbo Slice TKO’d by fill-in EXC fighter,” “fill-in Petruzelli gets 14-second TKO over Slice,” “Slice cut down by fill-in in opening seconds,” “Slice loses by TKO to a fill-in,” “Smoothie King KO’s Kimbo Slice in 14 seconds,” “Kimbo Slice gets knocked out,” and so on.
The reported crowd, BTW, for the EXC show in Sunrise, Florida was 7,400. (Other reports claim 9,414.) That’s a mediocre attendance number for a show that had such a promotable and marketable fight like Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock.
In a radio interview late Saturday night, Dave Meltzer reported that his bosses at Yahoo indicated that Yahoo’s coverage of the Kimbo Slice fight received similar numbers to their coverage of when Michael Phelps won his gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. (In other words, this is a very high benchmark.) Meltzer also noted that backstage after the Kimbo Slice debacle, there were people asking if there were openings for jobs at various boxing promotion companies. Regarding the internal reaction to Seth Petruzelli beating Kimbo Slice, “I just saw people that looked like they had tears in their eyes trying to say that this was the greatest thing that ever happened.” Other interview notes: Meltzer claimed that Ken and Frank Shamrock were going to have a verbal altercation on-air for the CBS telecast, but that it got canceled at the last-minute. There is a split in booking philosophy in the company as far as those on the pro-wrestling marketing side of the equation versus the play-it-straight-up side. Hector Lombard will make his EXC debut on November 8th in Reno against Scott Smith.
Other headlines:
- Franklin McNeil (ESPN): Petruzelli cuts through Slice in less than a round
- Denny Burkholder (CBS Sports): This was bad for business
- The South Florida Sun-Sentinel: MMA legend Bas Rutten has faith in Kimbo Slice
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
It was front page of yahoo.com with a huge kimbo picture for a while. As for the attendance, I was in the crowd and I’d say the part of the stadium they were actually selling tickets for was more than 90% full. They only used a half stadium, and the 400 level was closed off.
In the words of Hywel Teague:
http://notesfromringside.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/notes-from-in-front-of-my-pc-elitexc/
“Everyone is talking about how the EliteXC bubble just got burst.
I’d say that it was more like EliteXC was a big fart set on fire. It was crude, it was crass, it wasn’t to everyone’s tastes, but to those who cared, it was plain hilarious.”
I got to say…Even though EliteXC is a trash company, their CBS cards somehow always produce entertaining fights.
This doesn’t have to be the end for Kimbo and EliteXC. UFC brought in Lesnar and he lost to Mir, and it doesn’t seem to have significantly diluted his PPV appeal.
Of course, Lesnar lost a debut fight in his promotion that it looked like he had a shot of winning and nearly did win to a former champion, and although Zuffa was clearly relying on Lesnar to help rebuild their ailing heavyweight division, they had plenty of other draws available to fill cards at other weights.
This is a little different.
I presume that the next ShoXC event is still going to happen as scheduled.
The Lesnar thing was different. Lesnar wasn’t the UFC’s meal ticket. No one is the UFC’s meal ticket. They do not rely on any one fighter because they know that you can’t just do that in the fight game. ProElite had everything riding on Kimbo. ProElite probably won’t see 2009.
Yeah, but Jer. I beg to differ.
While Lesner lost & lost quickly to Mir, it was a much less damaging loss than the one suffered by Kimbo last night. As it was to a former UFC Heavyweight Champion in his debut with the company in what was ( to the general public anyhow ) his MMA debut.
And he lost it by falling to his opponents experience & expertise after dominating Mir for the first minute. So, the public was left with the perception that “this guy has a future” despite the quick schooling.
Kimbo on the other hand, was basically KTFO by a total unknown ( again, to the vast majority of those viewing ) who was brought in at the very last moment & someone who was a MUCH smaller individual. In 14 seconds.
It’s impossible for Kimbo to retain even a shred of his mystique after that IMO. He’s done.
I mean, think about it. His whole game was built on his followers & fans believing in his supposed invincibility. The idea that this guy was such a bad ass that he could come in off the streets & destroy trained, seasoned pros in the cage.
A belief that every neighborhood toughguy & all those brawlers on their barstools wanted so desperately to believe.
A belief that was validated by four VERY carefully arranged matches over the past two years. Against an aged boxer looking for an quick buck, a cowardly marine who was tapping before a solid blow could’ve even registered, a fat old brawler who was a decade removed from his prime & against a brittle bearded Brit who went into the fight already maimed & disfigured.
It was such an obvious illusion accomplished with smoke & mirrors that many who should have really known better fell for it because it was actually SO cliche that it caused these folks to out think themselves into accepting the ruse.
But, ice cold reality slapped them out of their stupor last night with a resounding CRACK!
And there’s no worse enemy to make than those who’ve been made to look foolish. Whether that be the television network executives, the advertisers, the press or the folks watching at home.
they’re all going to turn on Slice in an angry feeding frenzy now. No doubt about it.
Again, I think he’s done.
Peace.
I agree with Burkholder. Gina Carano definitely deserves some respect. Because unlike Kimbo Slice, Carano proved that she can be a top level fighter. Maybe not THE best, but definitely top five or so. But she should go up in weight.
I always enjoy reading an exceptionally long post that restates exactly what I said while claiming to disagree with me.
Seeing Kevin Iole write about “basic journalistic principles” is like seeing former NYT reporter Jayson Blair write about the perils of plagarism. The same guy didn’t have a problem with the UFC not acknowledging for months that Randy Couture quit or that Sean Sherk failed a drug test. Nobody is more openly in the can for any company than Kevin Iole is for the UFC.