Seth Petruzelli, the man who defeated Kimbo Slice in Elite XC on October 4, 2008 on CBS, has since said that a promoter of the fight encourage him to stand up and trade shots with Slice as opposed to taking the fight to the ground. He has since backed off those comments.
Elite XC Fix Easier to do?
The integrity of the fight game is of the utmost importance because a fight is much easier to fix than a football or basketball game for instance. It only takes one fighter to pull off a loss because they can take a dive or maybe lose on points and they can act alone. That's why the Kimbo Slice-Petruzelli fight is so important and should be investigated. Luckily, it is going to be investigated after all to get to the bottom of what happened in the Kimbo Slice loss to Petruzelli.
Kimbo Slice Fix Motives at work
It makes a lot of sense that Elite XC would tell Petruzelli to stand with Kimbo Slice and to offer him more money if he were to do so. For one, it would give Slice a better chance to win since his ground game is weak.
Secondly, many casual mixed martial arts fans in Elite XC's demographic would most likely not be interested in watching a ground-dominated fight because they don't understand the nuances of jiu-jitsu quite yet. They all tuned in to see if Kimbo Slice could knock someone out like he did on the streets in his famous youtube videos.
Kimbo Slice and Petruzelli Fight Bonuses
Elite XC argued that a promoter wouldn't tell Petruzelli to stand with Kimbo Slice because they already offer fight bonuses in different categories, but one of the categories already is a submission bonus so that doesn't quite make sense.
At this point it's hard to tell who is telling the truth because everyone knew just how much Elite XC had invested in Kimbo Slice. This was the fight that Elite XC needed big ratings on to keep the organization afloat.
While the Petruzelli-Kimbo Slice fight probably wasn't a classic fix, it's hard to rule out the possibility that Petruzelli may have been nudged into standing up and trading punches with Slice, and if so, that's disheartening.
But the public will find out soon enough whether Petruzelli is telling the truth or not about the Kimbo Slice fight and whether or not it was "fixed" on that fateful night when Kimbo Slice was exposed as the amateur fighter he still is.
Kimbo to Ultimate Fighter? Dana White Says Maybe
At the UFC 90 press conference near Chicago in Rosemont, Illinois, Dana White was asked about Kimbo Slice and whether he would put him on The Ultimate Fighter in order to see what he has.
He was specifically asked if he would build a whole Ultimate Fighter show around Kimbo Slice to which White responded with a smile and said that he would consider doing it. White is a businessman above all else which is why Brock Lesnar-Randy Couture is happening on November 15th so don't rule this idea out. White said he wouldn't win the show, however, and he is probably right. We might see soon enough.
