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The meltdown of Kimbo Slice and Elite XC
By Zach Arnold | October 4, 2008
It managed to meltdown our server. Per usual for this web hosting company.
Seth Petruzelli destroyed him in 11 seconds. Now, the question on my mind — could Ken Shamrock actually have beaten Kimbo Slice in a stand-up fight? I’m actually curious about this!
There is a Tyson feel to Kimbo as he came out, Kimbo threw a haymaker and slipped and Petruzelli just beat the shit out of him in 14 seconds. It was like Kimbo became Ken Shamrock. Kimbo tried to bodyslam the ref for stopping it. What an end to a crazy night. I don’t know how this can be viewed by anyone as a positive.
Petruzelli throws two quick teeps looking to keep a rushing Slice away from him. As Kimbo closes in, Petruzelli lands an awkward short right that drops Slice to the mat. As Kimbo makes it to his knees, Petruzelli attacks with a volley of hammerfists, and pushes Kimbo onto his back. Petruzelli doesn’t pause with his punches, and continues smashing away with a barrage of right hands until Troy Waugh rescues the prone Slice just 14 seconds into the first round.
Kimbo refuses to touch gloves at the ref instructions. SLICE IS HURT! 10 SECONDS AND IT’S DONE! OH MY GOD! WOW! KIMBO WAS SHOOTING ON THE REF A GOOD 10 SECONDS LATER HE WAS SO HURT! Seth stunned him and then dropped BOMBS once Kimbo went down. Seth Petruzelli wins by KO (Punches) Round 1 (10 seconds). Front kick, right hand. The right dropped Kimbo and then Seth pounded him out with right hand after right hand. Seth is making excuses for Kimbo. Kimbo, to his credit, does not make excuses. He just says show the fighters some love, the after party is still on…and then leaves mid interview.
STAR RATING:(****-) The absolute shocking nature of that TKO is going to go down as a great moment for EliteXC. It was last minute for both guys, but Seth stepped up a to fight a guy at a higher weight level and he dropped him quickly. Kimbo’s only m.o. was his stand up, and by getting taken out like that, EliteXC has no more excuse for jamming him down our throats as a superstar.
This is pretty bad fucking news for EliteXC and Kimbo … he just got taken out by a light heavyweight, and a mediocre one at that. He was dropped by a short pop to the face. It was right at the beginning of the fight. Kimbo didn’t even get one shot off. Fuck. I honestly can’t think of a single way that this fight could have gone more wrong. At least Ken Shamrock has a name and a legacy that can soften a loss. But Kimbo Slice just got Buzz Berry’d. The mystique is officially toast. That sound you’re hearing? That’s the sound of everyone getting off Kimbo’s bandwagon.
Yahoo Sports: Kimbo TKOd by no-name in 14 seconds
Seth Petruzelli came to the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla, with little fanfare and almost no chance to make any kind of impression on anyone aside from the thousands in the arena who would watch his scheduled undercard match before the bright lights of the CBS broadcast camera went live.
By the time he left, millions knew his name.
Michael David Smith at AOL Fanhouse:
But the reality is that it’s not all good at all, not for Kimbo and not for EliteXC. We were told that Kimbo was the baddest man on the streets, but in reality he was nothing but a paper tiger. Petruzelli is a mediocre light heavyweight, and he made Kimbo look like a wimp.
CBS announcer Gus Johnson said of Kimbo afterward, “We don’t know what’s next for him.” But the truth is, we do know what’s next for him: He’ll slip into obscurity and his 15 minutes of fame will be forgotten.
While the announcers waffled somewhat on the significance of this loss for Kimbo, the reality is that he faced an experienced mixed martial artist who taught him a tough lesson in his 4th professional fight. Something Kimbo can grow from and something Seth Petruzelli can likely build on for a career with Elite XC.
Indeed, according to CBS, Slice accepted the fight less than an hour before the main card kicked off. It was a risky move against an experienced opponent, a decision that could be subjected to the same kind of criticism that Slice’s skills will undoubtedly face for the foreseeable future.
Petruzelli, for his part, called the fight a chance “to get his name back out there.” Considered by some to have been a prospect who failed to live up to his potential, Petruzelli made good on that opportunity by forever tying his name to a victory over one of the most popular fighters in MMA.
Prediction: Dana White offers Petruzelli (if he is a free agent) a six-figure UFC contract on Monday morning as a token of appreciation.
It took one short right and just 14 seconds to put an end to the MMA fallacy this Kimbo Slice and possibly an end to EliteXC’s run on CBS. Unofficially, referee Troy Waugh mounted a confused Kimbo handing him his second loss.
Wow, was that a jab that knocked him almost completely out? Yes, that’s exactly what it was. Slice is still a youngster in the sport as far as experience and technique go but he doesn’t have a lot going for him right now. He couldn’t knock out James Thompson, a man known for his weak chin, with his best shot. He had no answer for Thompson’s side control. And now he’s getting knocked silly by jabs? If there was ever any doubt that Brett Rogers would eat Kimbo Slice alive then they were answered today. The only questions left are those surrounding Kimbo and his inadequacies. I guess the silver lining is that he didn’t lose to Ken Shamrock?
However, what Elite XC did tonight was essentially network suicide. “The Silverback” — in replace of an aged and purposely overmatched Shamrock — went out and stopped Slice … the man that promotion had gone to great lengths to protect — in less than 30 seconds.
What the fuck … Petruzelli?
This is MMA where anything can and often does happen. However, it’s beyond me how a dude like Petruzelli is somehow promoted to a national stage on literally hours notice and then defeats a guy like Slice who has been portrayed as a posterboy for the sport.
So, there really isn’t much you can say about the Kimbo Slice vs Seth Petruzelli fight. It was over as soon as it started and EliteXC suffers what may be a near fatal blow for the promotion.
Wearing a black eye for what he claimed was the first time, Slice glanced at Petruzelli and smiled at the post-fight press conference.
“My family was here,” said the brawler, who has used his name to cash in on MMA better any fighter the sport has seen to this point. “You knocked me out in front of my family. That’s [expletive] up.”
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Kimbo might still get decent ratings for another CBS Card, but this guarantees that people won’t pay for a PPV with his name on it. Which means EliteXC is out of business.
“The absolute shocking nature of that TKO is going to go down as a great moment for EliteXC.”
Clearly MMA Torch know nothing about the business of MMA. This Kimbo loss could possibly be the beginning of the end for the company as Kimbo was THE guy in EliteXC and they have no one else.
This could be an MMA journalists chance to make a name for himself. Investigate why Shamrock pulled out. Who was the stablemate who was punching Shamrock in the face less then 24 hours before his main event fight? Did Shamrock chicken out? Lot’s of questions that need answers about this if you ask me.
How many MMA stars have sparring sessions that involve punches to the face less then 24 hours before a fight?
It’s only Shamrock, right?
Ed. — Dave Meltzer named the training partner as Dan Freeman. It was already linked in a previous post on this site. The story is that Shamrock was accidentally headbutted by Freeman while rolling over in a warm-up session to practice chokes.
I am glad that Petruzelli knocked out Ferguson because it will hopefully discourage aspiring mixed martial artists from making videos of themselves in illegal street fights and posting them on the Internet, thinking that it’s their ticket to the big time.
As I’ve said repeatedly and will continue to say, nobody should get their job based on the notoriety gained from beating the crap out of people in illegal street fights.
Oh man, Dana White must be celebrating. Bye Bye ProElite. I want Zuffa to have the competition but it’s quite clear that ProElite and Affliction are incompetent. A shame that Strikeforce is too small to compete with the UFC because they are the only other promotion that’s being run properly.
EXC loses the big name fight due to a freak cut during warm-ups, then they have their golden goose lose to his unknown replacement. I can only imagine the despair the EXC execs are feeling after having watched their entire business plan shatter in the course of a single day.
How is Affliction incompetant? They payed 1 million for their 2nd or 3rd best fighter to demolish Nelson, who obviously to anybody in their right mind would have destroyed Kimbo, on CBS and get that exposure. While also tying up old problems with EliteXC and allowing their name to be plastered all over the production. The fighters, the ringposts Affliction Clothings name was everywhere. And I think Fedor beat Sylvia in 36 seconds about 7 times during that show.
FEDOR WILL RETURN
Afflictionclothing.com
That is called bang for your buck in Advertising
Oh also Kimbo is sponsered by TapOut. Bunch of frauds over at TapOut
I can’t tell if that post is sarcastic.
i dearly want to know what seth got paid.
My initial take was different. I noticed the announcers started to throw Kimbo under the bus immediately when Mauro and Shamrock started mocking pro wrestling and saying Kimbo might have chosen the wrong one.
Here’s a couple of observations I have of this.
1. Not that he wasn’t getting soundly beat and not defending himself but I’m not entirely sure Kimbo was completely out of it. Mostly because everytime I have seen Kimbo get hit or be on defense I have noticed he goes into full on zombie mode. He’s not responsive and stiff and it’s impossible to tell if he’s really hurt. I’m not saying the stoppage shouldn’t have occurred but maybe that was something Kimbo needed to work on… emotion… since acting dead is a surefire way to get stopped.
2. Kimbo’s probably just happy he’s made money from this and seems happy generally but after a big time upset KO loss the last thing EliteXC needed was for him to seem happy enough to enthusiastically pimp his afterparty.
Frankly they needed disappointment and raw emotion from Kimbo to try to sell his comeback. Kimbo gave them none of that.
I don’t know if this is it for EliteXC. I would prefer if Affliction took over the CBS slot, dumped the ring for a cage, dumped stupid shit like Megadeth and paid their fighters enough to make it from show to show and really compete with UFC. There’s enough good fighters out there to make a legitimate competition with UFC happen. It just requires more foresight in putting the shows together (less frills, more fighting) and being smart with marketing and how much money is spent.
However Affliction or whomever is involved will need to bleed money for awhile to make this happen and that might not be an option.
I see tonight’s show as all around a pretty good show. Kimbo may have lost so their biggest meal ticket is gone but UFC, has always built off of having a variety of stars. Tonight Gina Carano, despite issues making weight, won convincingly and won’t have the same issues making weight against Cyborg. Jake Shields is for real, the Rua-Raddach fight was very good and even though he belongs to Affliction Arlovski’s fight was entertaining as well.
All said the show was much better than the other CBS shows and gives a much better overall picture of the company beyond Kimbo Slice… which might actually help them in the long run.
Rp
Elite XC should have known better than to make a street fighter with no appreciable skills their face. I knew that Slice was gonna get his ass kicked one of these days, better it’s done now than later on.
Petruzelli did exactly what any fighter would have done: he saw Slice slip, and moved in. Good for him, and this will raise his stock, no doubt.
As for Shamrock: yes, he’d have beaten Slice, despite his age and recent record. I still would like to see him fight Slice, but now…who the bloody hell would want to?
Slice has been exposed for what he is, and Elite XC has not just egg on their face. My guess is they don’t last long, unless they get a real fighter to step up and be their man.
Watch closely at 3:27-3:37. On the left, an EXC official appears to be yelling at the ref to warn/penalize/interrupt Petruzelli for hitting Slice in the back of the head. Am I just imagining that?
Jared Shaw.
And would that be the first time Shaw has attempted to intervene on behalf of an EXC “star”?
Yes, Petruzelli did clearly hit Ferguson on the back of the head, but no, it’s not okay for an executive like Jared Shaw to yell anything at the referee. Whether he was correct in what he was yelling or not doesn’t change the fact that you simply can’t do that.
Nepotism is a horrible thing. It has severely damaged WWE with their creatively bankrupt “creative team” led by Vince McMahon’s daughter, and it has also damaged EliteXC with the fact that Gary Shaw’s son is still heavily involved with the promotion.
Meltzer wrote:
“I don’t know how this can be viewed by anyone as a positive.”
He should talk to Seth.
Wouldn’t be the first time a guy’s gotten a UFC contract by beating Kimbo Slice. They should give him a Harley too, just to be nice.
If Affliction had a TIME & DATE for their next event that they were advertising, it MIGHT have been effective advertising. But all they said was it is coming soon. That is horrible advertising. People will forget about it by the time they put their next event on in either February or March. So they wasted money. Not to mention the money wasted on Arlovski/Nelson. They would need almost 50,000 PPV Buys just to come out even for that fight.
People talk about Gina Carano like she could be the savior of the company. I disagree. Not even in boxing have women proven to be a draw as the main event. They are a nice sideshow, like midgets for Pro Wrestling. Not to mention that she will likely lose to Cyborg and end her run, just like Kimbo.
And hence the issue with EliteXC’s gameplan. Fighters in MMA lose. That is how it works. So you can’t use the boxing method of promotion “your fighters”, because eventually they will all lose. Zuffa has the right idea. They get a stable of 20+ fighters in a weight class, and let them continue to fight each other. This lets the best rise to the top, and the UFC promote accordingly. It is really the only way to promote the sport effectively over the long haul. Unfortunetely for the smaller organizations, it costs a lot of money to have so many fighters under contract, and nearly impossible for a start-up organization.
EliteXC couldn’t even get a $1 Million gate for Kimbo/Shamrock. That is horrible. No other way to say it. Those are supposed to be two huge drawing names, and they had no power to get them to bring in a legit crowd.
I can’t wait for EliteXC to go out of business. There are countless examples of how they stink.
That MMA Mania article was ridiculous. The guy actually thinks Kimbo would win the fight 9/10 times but he just got unlucky!
I just took mmamania.com off my bookmarks. I can’t go to that site anymore and still have respect for myself.
@Huddle: “Not even in boxing have women proven to be a draw as the main event.”
Not in the US, but in Germany. Both Regina Halmich and Susi Kentikian have been headlining cards over here, fighting in front of up to 8000 people, bringing in good tv-ratings…
Did Affliction get all that advertising thrown in as a free bonus when they gave ProElite/CBS Arlovski and Nelson for a night? (yes gave, afaik they paid Arlovski’s and Nelson’s salary). If so I’d say that Affliction did a good job pimping Fedor, Arlovski, their clothing and affliction MMA. My only knock on Affliction is that they didn’t have Roy Nelson wearing one of their shirts. But then again, those kind of shirts hug your body I think so Nelson would probably look like crap in one.
Tom Atencio’s crew are genius for making Fedor’s 36 second demolition of Sylvia into a commercial. It was well done. Hopefully the casual fans still remember that Sylvia was a former UFC heavyweight champion before he got beat by Randy and Big Nog. Otherwise they might not care too much about how bad ass Fedor is I guess.
RE: Gina Carano – she’s already a bigger star than any women’s boxer in at least 20 years, minus perhaps Lalia Ali. And she’s only not as well known as Ali because of that last name. As for Cyborg “probably beating her”, she’s beaten a couple girls that are passable. Carano beating Kobold by KO has more cache than anything Cyborg’s ever done. I’m not sure what Carano can do to get respect though. She could beat LaRosa and people would still be like, “well how do we know?”
Last night’s show was entertaining for all the right reasons: Kimbo steps up and gets stopped (fast), Carano legitimizes herself, Rua/Radach and Arlovski/Nelson were fun fights, and Jake Shields again shows why he’s such a dark horse at welterweight. The whole “they should go out of business!” talk is just annoying. What, you have issues with world class fighters competing on network TV or something? They’ve done nothing but improve since the first show. All they need now is to get rid of Ranallo (who seems increasingly like he’s the kiss of death or something) and just work with Gus.
I’m not asking for Affliction to go out of business, as they at least stay within the status quo. Let me give you a few reasons why I want EliteXC to go out of business:
1. 160 lbs. Men’s Weight Class
2. 150 lbs. Men’s Weight Class
3. 140 lbs. Men’s Weight Class
4. The continued weight class changes for Gina Carano.
5. Promoting a Street Fighter with few real MMA skills.
6. Putting unskilled fighters in a main event above title belts.
7. Their public dispute with KJ Noons (the letter was completely unprofessional).
8. EliteXC saying Nick Diaz was the #1 contender, but then putting Eddie Alvarez in the next title belt with him. If they have Alvarez, then he was the real #1 Contender, not Diaz.
9. The announcing team. Mauro saying “Mulligan”. The lady calling Tito a former “Heavyweight Champion”. Frank Shamrock’s metal braces. Them even brining up a quote during the Radach/Rua fight that one of the fighters had Anderson Silva like skills.
10. Jared Shaw screaming at the ref during the Kimbo fight.
You get the point. I think Affliction and the IFL had horrible business plans, but I never rooted for them to go out of business. I am literally on the sidelines cheering for EliteXC to go out of business. They are bad for the sport. No other way around it. I want MMA on Network TV, but it has to be the RIGHT KING of MMA. Not this version, which continues to give the sport a bad name.
I like their class fighters and at one point I wanted ProElite to succeed. But then the promotion just got way too sleazy for my taste. Ditto for DREAM. Not paying fighters is worse than paying low-tier fighters peanuts. At least there is always Strikeforce to look forward to.
ProElite is going to go the way of the IFL, Bodog, WFA, etc. and all their class fighters are going to go fight in the UFC, Strikeforce, FEG (Zach claims that DREAM is on life support but I don’t think FEG will stop promoting MMA) or Sengoku if they are still around. Maybe Affliction too if they can find a way to stay on life support beyond January. Gina Carano though might not have a place to go in fighting after ProElite unless Strikeforce ponies up to get her.
I think it’s one thing to openly root for any non-UFC entity to go down the tubes and another to root for a promotion that is getting exceedingly bad for the sport to go out of business.
45 makes many excellent points in regards to the latter. I was willing to give EXC the benefit of the doubt in figuring out the business etc., but it’s becoming more and more clear that they are incompetent, concerned with very short-sighted planning that does nothing for the sport.