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« | Home | »

Report: Ken Shamrock was going to be “paid to stand with him as well”

By Zach Arnold | October 7, 2008

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Update: In this radio interview (time mark – 40 minutes), Dave Meltzer claims that he had heard about the Seth Petruzelli “stand-up” scenario before Petruzelli himself brought it up on the radio on Monday morning.

“He’s backtracking. Uhm… I will also say that the story that he said, I had heard that story, uhm, long before, uh Seth Petruzelli said it. So, I believe it to be true. I cannot tell you that as a fact.”

Meltzer hopes that the athletic commission(s) looks into this and that this type of demand should not be allowed unless the commission sanctions a fight specifically as a stand-up match and markets such a bout to the public that way.

Start of original posting

This report is in the latest edition of Figure Four Weekly, published by Bryan Alvarez:

Seth Petruzelli said that he was paid to stand with Kimbo. Well, he said that and then he claimed he never said it. For what it’s worth, we heard in the days leading up to the fight that Ken Shamrock was being paid to stand with him as well. It’s a pretty shady way of doing business, and while it’s not outright working the fight it is attempting to give one man an advantage — or a perceived advantage, as did didn’t help Kimbo one goddamn bit — over another.

You can subscribe to Bryan’s publication by going to F4WOnline.com.

Within the timespan of 24 hours, we have Seth Petruzelli’s radio interview comments on EXC management allegedly ‘kinda’ hinting that they wanted him to stand-up only against Kimbo Slice and now we have Bryan Alvarez putting his name on the line by flat out reporting that Ken Shamrock was going to be ‘paid to stand with [Kimbo]’ as well. The audio already exists of Petruzelli’s comments, and Alvarez has put his reported claims in print to his readership.

Now, compare Petruzelli’s initial comments and Alvarez’s report to comments Jared Shaw made to MMA Weekly last night:

“Why in a million years would we ask Seth to not take Kimbo down? That’s crazy. That’s all Kimbo’s been working on is the ground game. Ken Shamrock, 84 percent of his wins are submission and through the ground, so Kimbo was ready for the ground. If anybody knows Seth Petruzelli, he’s a K-1 fighter, I wouldn’t want him standing. So to say ‘don’t take him down,’ that’s ridiculous.”

Petruzelli lost his two matches in K-1 competition, including a loss to Bob Sapp… all of this in 2004.

Fight fixing or bribery to alter the outcome of what is supposed to be a legitimate, sanctioned fight is a felony in the United States. Again, this is not Japan. This is not professional wrestling. Elite XC’s event was sanctioned by the Florida State Athletic Commission. There’s a lot of reasons to care about this story. If what Petruzelli and/or Alvarez said is true, then people involved in the production of last Saturday’s event should be prosecuted. Prosecutions for similar-type crimes has happened before in the fight industry, so there’s no excuse to let this incident go unpunished if indeed any crimes were actually commited.

In regards to media coverage of this situation, this should not simply be a one-day-and-go-away news story. We are talking about the image of MMA being tarnished in the States and the implications are damaging for everyone involved in the business. It’s a lousy scenario for everyone who supports this business and a fight fixing scandal of this magnitude could certainly turn off potential corporate sponsors — the kind of corporate sponsors Elite XC wants to get to survive as a company if they want to make it to their fourth event on CBS.

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Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

15 Responses to “Report: Ken Shamrock was going to be “paid to stand with him as well””

  1. Ivan Trembow says:

    Seth Petruzelli, Jared Shaw, and anyone else who may (or may not) have been involved in any criminal wrongdoing should have to answer the direct questions of investigators that it would be a crime to lie to. Petruzelli didn’t mean what he said the first time? Say that under oath, or to an investigator that it would be a crime to lie to. Jared Shaw doesn’t know what anyone is talking about? Say that under oath, or to an investigator that it would be a crime to lie to. The authorities in Florida would not be doing their jobs if they did not open a criminal investigation into this matter.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    My feelings on EliteXC are well documented. They are a horrible company. With that said I think it is time for us fans to get vocal with an email campaign to CBS. Let them know are dislikes with what they are promoting.

  3. Ultimo Santa says:

    I don’t know how I feel about someone being paid to fight a certain way…in the UFC there are bonuses for KO of the night, Fight of the Night, and people who wrestle too much are demoted or fired.

    (Of course there is also a bonus for submission of the night, but we’ve all heard Dana White’s comments about guys who aren’t ‘exciting’ and have too much of a ground game)

    SO – does the UFC reward people for stand-up fighting, and sort of, kind of, coerce fighters into fighting a certain way?

    I wasn’t in the room for the Petruzelli/Shaw meeting, so I don’t know what was said. And I don’t know what money, if any, changed hands as a result of that conversation. So I will reserve judgment because at this point a lot of people are speculating.

    But my point is that every organization likely does this to some degree, and their level of tact and (the exact words that are used) dictates whether it’s illegal or not.

    BTW, here is Sapp vs. Petruzelli in K-1 (if anyone is interested)

    http://www.mmaroot.com/bob-sapp-vs-seth-petruzelli-k-1-world-gp-2004-video/

  4. Gabe says:

    Ultimo, don’t go there. I was belittled last night for wondering the same thing.

  5. PizzaChef says:

    Ultimo, there is a difference between trying to pay off one fighter to give your superstar an advantage and bonuses that can be paid to anyone on your fight card that is also reported to the Athletic State Commission.

    Anyways glad to see that EliteXC’s plan kind of backfired. It provided lulz.

  6. Michaelthebox says:

    Ultimo, the key difference is that while a fighter is penalized for putting on a boring fight, he’s rewarded for putting on an exciting fight, wherever the fight takes place. The UFC hates Koscheck/Sanchez style circling, Sylvia/Vera style fence pushing, and lay and pray, all equally. Moreover, the standards for reward and punishment are pretty much the same across the board for the entire UFC and your entire career in the UFC, so if you want to train to be more exciting, you can be. But its entirely up to you if you want to be an exciting kickboxer, clinch fighter, wrestler, or sub artist.

    While the UFC sets up some matchups to favor specific fighters, we’re all aware of the style matchup, and we can bet accordingly. If Petruzelli or Shamrock were offered “stand-up” bonuses, that directly impacts the odds of the fight, in a way bettors are not aware of. Thats fight fixing, flat out.

    If they had announced to everyone that they told Petruzelli to stand and offered him money to do so, that would be a different situation. But if they did offer him money without telling anyone, they fixed the fight.

  7. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    Too bad that they haven’t been throwing wrestlers out of the welterweight division. GSP’s last couple fights have been exhausting to watch.

    At least four of the top five guys in that division don’t seem to be able to finish a fight lately.

  8. Grape Knee High says:

    Meh. I’ll be honest, I’m more worried about idiot refs who stand up fighters in side control than Jared Shaw’s idiocy.

  9. David says:

    Zach, with such great reportage, you forget to analyze how in the damn world would anybody be prosecuted for this hear-say type of offense…

  10. liger05 says:

    If your gonna pay people to get in there and stand why not just pay them to lose. Should of just ‘worked the damn fight!!!

  11. Ivan Trembow says:

    Quote from Florida athletic commission official in CBS Sportsline article:

    “”After further review of the comments that are in question, we believe that he is referring to the fact that he got paid more to keep the show going,” Antonacci said. “Meaning that before the fight, Ken Shamrock was injured and couldn’t fight Kimbo Slice. So Seth stepped in and said ‘OK, I’ll fight him.’ And without that, there wouldn’t have been a main event that night.””

    It takes a very dense person to look at the actual quote from Petruzelli and come to the conclusion that he was just talking about taking the fight in general. Either that, or a person who is very brazen about lying. Clearly, the Florida State Athletic Commission is not doing its job.

    Based on those quotes, it is clear that the Florida State Athletic Commission is not going to do anything about this. Given that the parties involved, if Petruzelli’s original quotes are accurate, would potentially be guilty of manipulating a fight, the onus now falls on the authorities in Florida to begin a criminal investigation. The fact that the fight wasn’t outright “fixed” doesn’t change the fact that the fight was manipulated if Petruzelli was indeed paid not to take Ferguson down.

  12. Mr. Mike says:

    Kimbo made his name being a fist fighter, something that many in the black community where I live look at as real fighting, or honorable fighting. Kimbo should have fought in stand-up fights, with some clinching skills included, kind of like an , old, old style boxing. That way, he would have had a strong chance against any fighter, except a boxer. The appeal is to see a brawl, not sweet science. Kimbo could have been promoted that way instead as an MMA fighter.

  13. Terry Querns says:

    Jesus Christ (and his friend Peter too), could Maggie Hendricks’ credibility as an MMA blogger possibly be any lower? After her previous ridiculous post in which she ruthlessly ripped Gina Carano for making a modest self-deprecating statement about not thinking of herself as the face of women’s MMA even if other people think of her that way, now she’s using the EliteXC event from this past weekend to make a point that female fighters need to make weight if they want to be taken seriously.

    That’s a good point except for the fact that all of the females on the card did make weight. The fact that Carano had to remove her clothes to make weight doesn’t mean that she didn’t make weight.

    Also Cyborg vs. Takahashi was a bout that was contracted at 148 pounds and both fighters made weight with no problems. Hendricks seems to think that both fighters came in eight pounds over the weight limit despite the information in lots of press releases and news articles before the event stating that Cyborg vs. Takahashi was scheduled to be a 148-pound fight all along.

  14. Justin says:

    God bless Ken!

  15. […] Meltzer’s colleague, heard that Ken Shamrock was also getting paid more to stand with Kimbo. Here’s the quote. Seth Petruzelli said that he was paid to stand with Kimbo. Well, he said that and then he claimed […]

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