Props: Real Radio 104.1
Quoteworthy:
“My original plan was to throw out push kicks, have him think that I’m gonna throw them more, and then to shoot in on him, obviously. But the promoters kind of hinted to me, and they gave me the money to stand and trade with him. 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.”
Not like it matters now, but Elite XC fighter Seth Petruzelli talks about the promotion “hinting” to keep his fight against Kimbo Slice this past Saturday night standing rather than to try and take the street brawler to the ground. He ended up ending the fight standing in just 14 seconds. “The Silverback” indicated that he was paid “six figures” to take the fight against Slice, which is a nice payday for the former contestant on The Ultimate Fighter. The interview took place today on “The Monsters in the Morning” — a popular Orlando radio program in which Petruzelli is a regular guest to discuss mixed martial arts — on Real Radio 104.1. It’s a very interesting listen to say the least.
174 Comments »
i’m not suprised
Hinting to keep it standing? Man, that’s shady dealings right there. I like the fighters Pro Elite/EXC have like Cung Le, Lawler, Mendez, Shields, and others…but to push a style one way or the other to boost ‘appeal’..thats shady. Its like the commissioner of the NFL to tell teams to abandon the run game because its too smashmouth and people want to see fast paced high scoring football through the air.
garbage.
le, mendez are strikeforce…pertucelli is so awesome for saying this:
once again THANK YOU SETH PETROCELLI!!!!!!
Elite XC fixes fights on a regular basis. I’m pretty sure this is the first of many exposures when it comes to Elite XC fixing fights. Imagine what they tell Gina carano’s opponents…
I still haven’t gotten over Jake Shields 1 armed choke against Thompson. That looked rigged as all get up.
What was also bad was when the ref stood Arlovski and Nelson up when Nelson had a dominant position on the ground.. It’s obvious that they had told the ref and paid him before the fight to stand them up if Arlovski was on his back! it’s total corrupction just like in olympic wrestling
At least they didn’t tell Seth to go out, fall down and tap out like they told Bo Cantrell when he fought kimbo
No doupt they should have their promoter licences revoked this is bull shit.
MANY of us (ESPECIALLY KEVIN) have always hinted at the possibility that the promoters would encourage Kimbo’s opponents to keep the fight standing, like a “keep it standing bonus”.
I really can’t believe that Seth is speaking the truth about this. Elite is his employer and they just paid him more money than he has made in his entire life combined. He should enjoy he newfound fame and milk it for what its worth. NOT try and ruin any sort or pomoting that Elite may have had planned for him.
I wonder what the head hanchos at Elite had to say to James Thompson in regards to the 2nd round of thier fight…
Funny….I recall many people here saying MMA needs elite XC for competition purposes and the sake of giving fighter more options…as to picking how you want your fights fixed! F*** elite xc! ive always knew they were BS org run by real shady promoters and now CBS is dipping their hand in the JAR!!…ratings my friends and you wonder why Dana has rejected and offer and negotiations from HBO and CBS…he knows they deal shady being a promoter himself…difference is he really loves MMA…or UFC should i say lol…better to have one reprent MMA 120% to their abilities than having 50 representatives that are only one foot in the door in this sport and are still very “iffy” about it.
You’d think they’d put a “shut your mouth” clause in the contract… maybe next time.
It does kind of make me wonder if they didn’t hint to Frank Shamrock to try and keep it standing with Cung lee for a few rounds as well. Maybe it wasn’t his ego that led to such a poor game plan.
say whatever you want, i am glad they did it. Its as if they picked kimbo’s poison for him. they exposed their own money man at his own game. bravo,bravo!!!!!!!!!
What horseshit??? Crooked ass elitexc. Not only to they try to give him the EASIEST, OLDEST, MOST GLASS JAWED, WEAK STRIKERS….now can add lower weight class…..
THEY PAY the opponent enough to make it worth his while NOT to take him down…..
I hope this promotion fails horribly. I am a huge mma fan, and personally think the competition benefits the fans as well. But what EliteXC is turning mma into is a f**king joke and insulting
I agree, well said. I too am a huge MMA fan and never thought MMA would get dirty. Always thought it was pure. After reading this I fell very hurt. Insulted that I may have fell for guys and fights being fixed. What greed. You take the best and purest sport in the world and try to ruin it with GREED. Thanks Elite! ASS HOLES!
It’s not like the commission would investigate. They were in on it with them when it came to Gina at the weigh-ins, sports bra that weighed 1.75lbs my ass. And wasn’t the point of the 1 lbs allowance to account for clothing? Anyways, also Seth said he made 6 figures but sherdog has it at 50k plus 15K win bonus. I found that strange. Aren’t they suppose to disclose the full amount?
They do not disclose fighter bonus’ and under the table agreements. I don’t think they would want to show that they paid him 100k which shows they are wasting money paying him to take a fall.
Well, they did a gate of $826,433 and the disclosed payroll was $1,316,000. From what you say there is another 100k or so to be added. There weren’t as many advertisers as the first show and CBS got more shares from Elite. The commission’s “cut” and operating costs make this as bad as Affliction Banned’s loss.
Wow and half that mil alone went to Kimbo. Seriously bad way to spend half a mil. I think they may siphon Kimbo’s dollars and give them to Tito if needed.
I am not sure how other people first responded when they read this, but I found my self not suprised either. In fact I doubt I will ever watch Elite XC again. Probably just catch the replays on the internet if they seem to be great. Why support an org. that is bringing such a bad reputation to the sport?
Is the UFC doing this too? If it’s not a real competition, than I have no interest in watching mma either.
I don’t think the UFC is doing this, Paco. They’ve been around a lot longer than XC and have had plenty of results that I’m sure Dana didn’t want. We’ve never heard fighters say things like what Seth said. Matches have seemed so shady in XC’s short existence and everything they do seems contrived. I believe they are one of the few corrupt.
Actually, I’ve been saying it for years that Dana must be telling/paying Liddell’s opponents to keep it standing. If you look at a lot of Liddell’s fights (the ones after he lost to Couture) his opponents all say something like “I’m gonna stand and bang with Chuck”, including the wrestlers and BJJ artists (e.g. Jeremy Horn, Couture II & III, Babalu). Why would you go that route if you know Chuck has KO power and your bread&butter is wrestling or submissions???
Sure you can make the argument that Chuck has great takedown defence. True, but it all looks suspect. Notice how Chucky’s last 3 losses were all due to strikers.
If the UFC was fixing fights they sure wouldn’t have had Rashad Evans knock out Chuck. Rashad is more of wrestler than a striker, so you can’t say his last 3 losses were to strikers. Not to mention, his last win was against Wandy, who is a great striker.
Good point naturalshadow. Rashad is a wrestler and not a stiker. However, the fact that Rashad decided to stand and strike with Chuck proves my original point.
It’s as if Dana paid them extra money on the side to stand and bang with Chuck. This indicates that Chuck has no ground game (yeah yeah, they really emphasize that Chuck is fantastic in wrestling and submissions but nobody will ever know because he hates going to the ground) so if you take Chuck down the probability of him losing is significantly higher. But if you stand and bang with Chuck, he can still lose but most likely not. It’s all about probabilities!
dude, do you know what a sprawl is> LOL, Chuck has one of the best if not the best sprawl in MMA. Horn tried to take him down and was stuffed several times. You know very little about MMA> LOL, Schmuck!
The fights have always seemed crooked, this is just the tip of the iceberg I think. They might as well call this crap the WWF and start breaking chairs over everyones heads.
Wow, he’s biting the hand that feeds him already?
cha ching
if it is true he should have kept his mouth shut they just paid him 6 figures and he is bound to make more money with them but saying things like that may hurt the company he works for or get him thrown out. i love free mma but i won’t watch shit that is fixed.
Was Seth even working for EXC. From my knowledge he was not and was hired on the spot for this fight. Lol big mistake because he just extended a hand back to the UFC. Seth is saying UFC I just skewered the EXC, please let me come fight for you.
I am wrong and he signed an extended deal with EXC, but I still would like to see how they react to him letting this leak.
He was fighting on the undercard already from what I gathered.
Are you some sort of a dumb@$$? You have a problem with somebody reporting the truth on the underhanded crap that EliteXC pulls all the time? This is a good thing because if Petruzelli gets in trouble with EliteXC for telling us about how they fix things then it will prove even more that they are a shady underhanded company.
Personally, I would rather watch competitive organizations that play by the rules where anything can happen. And to clear something up… fixing a fight entails “ANY KIND OF MANIPULATION BY THE ORGANIZATION TO AFFECT THE OUTCOME OF THE COMPETITION.” This is an official definition of fixing a fight used by all Athletic Commissions.
Since EliteXC was trying to influence the outcome of the fight by paying Petruzelli to play to the advantages of his opponent, they were in essence fixing the fight. This is not as obvious as paying somebody to take a dive but if you tell somebody to abandon their gameplan then you are manipulating the fight in some way and that is fucked up!
It wasn’t a fix. Was it ethical? No. You don’t think this goes on in UFC? The bosses just wanted them to stand up and bang cause that’s what Kimbo does.
By letting this information out, especially in the manner he did, like you would assume the fight is “fixed.”
Wow, you don’t read very well do you? If that’s the definition that the SACs use and if Seth is telling the truth, then it was fixed. Maybe not by your definition, but by the SACs’ definition.
“They just wanted them to stand up and bang cause that’s what Kimbo does.”
Are you f’in serious, man? Are you seriously defending this? If most “MMA fans” thought the way you did, this sport would be freakin’ doomed.
Oh, this takes place in the UFC too? Nevermind, I’m cool with it then.
Great argument…
Rain, You my friend are a Complete FUCKTARD if think telling someone how or how not is not in fact FIXING a fight. Everyone is now DUMBBER FOR HAVING READ YOUR COMMENT…..YOU ARE AWARDED NO POINTS….AND MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOUL!!!!!
Wow..Elite was trying to protect there MMA$$ Machine.. hey. They chose their poison.. Props to Ken Shamrock.. cuz if it wasn’t for him.. ” training “.. the day of his fight. We MMA fans weren’t going to be treated to Seth.. disposing of Kimbo in 14 seconds flat.
Agreed….Much better for Shamrock. Instead of miserably getting his glass jaw cracked in seconds, he will now be remembered forever for EXPOSING the facade of Kimbo….and he DIDNT even have to get into the cage.
Now that is going out in style
That isn’t trying to fix a fight or anything, is it?
If it was “fixed” Kimbo would have won. He didn’t. So no.
I said “Trying”.
I agree, they tried giving an advantage to Kimbo and his dismal strengths.
It wasn’t fixed; it was leading the horse to water hoping to God he would drink and choke.
I am going to get banned for this or it won’t even get published but MMAMANIA you have been so biased this weekend. When did you get into bed with Elite XC - come on I have never seen such biased commentary.
It is such a shame as I love this site but you are so wrong on this Kimbo fight. He sucked he was always going to suck against a true MMA athlete and EliteXC sucks to. Just like Cage Rage over here in the UK.
Stop being an Elite XC and Kimbo nuthugger, somethings Dana and UFC do, they do right, just admit it.
Great post, Nuts; I am simply shocked by how Mania has handled this XC weekend. His true colors shined through this weekend and now I feel this site is tainted. That’s a shame.
You guys are nuts. I said Kimbo has class at the post-fight presser because he did not make any excuses and gave Seth credit for the win. I said he beats Seth 9 out 10 times — WOWEE — a bit of a stretch but a line I clearly didn’t give a second look after I typed it. Oh well. Then I say that the fight wasn’t outright fixed because I was not there to hear the conversation, which Petruzelli has since tried to clear up, and all of a sudden this site is tainted? Grow up. If it was fixed then of course it would be a total outrage. If you want to brand me a Kimbo nuthugger, which is absolutely ridiculous, then so be it. I don’t really care, which is the reason I let everyone go nuts over that silly line the other night. I really don’t care. It’s absolutely ridiculous to think that there is some kind of hidden agenda here. Why would I hitch my trailer to the EXC wagon after this weekend when I have never up until now? Gimme a break. Fortunately we have James who covers EXC for the most part and there’s a reason for it … I prefer not to.
I’m with ya mania, I don’t get how a poster might come to the conclusion you are unreasonalby biased FOR EliteXC, when the very thread they are posting on is one that is encouraging the idea of, and spreading incredibly negative news, about something that could very well ruin EliteXC.
Mania, there’s a reason why I’ve always come to this site first - it’s because of how well you guys stay on top of the latest stories, how well you, Mania, write the articles, and because you always seemed so objective. I shouldn’t have said “tainted” but the whole take on Kimbo just blew me away. It’s probably because I’ve always thought you were so on-point that your opinion of Kimbo disappointed me. But I know we’re all entitled to our own opinions. This will all soon pass.
Anomaly: Elite XC has only been around a short time and they are constantly shrowded in controversy. I don’t think this is a coincidence. There’s no one thing that Seth could say that would ruin XC. Trust me, they were on their way out long before this weekend. It didn’t help how we saw Jared Shaw acting in the background of the fight. As much as everyone has been speculating about how Dana White probably suggests the way that fighters should fight against his stars like Chuck Liddel (which I absolutely don’t believe), he NEVER acted like how we saw Jared Shaw acting in front of the world.
Little does anyone know Kimbo Seth was a boxing match.
They 100% tried to manipulate the outcome of the fight. The fight was fixed by the athletic commission standards and wouldn’t doubt if repercussions come from it.
It would be a fixed match if Seth took a dive. But no, he just showed Slice the real deal…
I love how so many people are just dismissing this as ‘no big deal’.
A fixed fight is NOT necessarily simply one fighter taking a dive for the fixer. Would you argue that the SAC paying a referee official a sum of money to ignore any illegal blows delivered by one fighter is not “fixing” a fight? How about if they allow a fighter who does not make weight to get into the cage anyways? Or maybe just not allowing one of the fighters the services of a cutman between rounds? Are any of these “taking a dive”? Obviously not, but make no mistake - they ARE considered tampering with a sanctioned bout and are, indeed, “fixes”.
I imagine paying a fighter under the table to not execute a game plan which would cost the company ridiculous amounts of money is legitimate somehow.
Maybe Dana… paid Seth to make this statement. haha
“Hinting” What is this professional wrestling. So the fight was fixed.
No it was not fixed.. the promoters wanted Seth to satnd and just bang with Kimbo.. cuz that would of gave Kimbo an advantege over.. just being taken down by Seth and GnPd.
The fight was no fixed.. this was the worse case senario for Elite. .Kimbo’s mystic was how they were caking.
They crossed their fingers.. hollard at Seth to keep it standing.. that id not fixing a fight.. that is suggesting a gameplan…and that game plan blew up i ntheir face.. in about 14 seconds.. longer then it took me to respond to this comment.
No slick Arm bar..nah. No 3 round war. nah.. Kimbo got KTFO in 14 seconds flat.. and never got off a punch.
say bye bye to Kimbo’s mystic. The truth was going to catch up to him sooner or later.. and happened Saturday night.
thanks for being crazy MMA old timer.. and F’ up your skull.cuz without that happening.. this thread would of never exsisted.
I was referring to Ken Shamrock.
By all of you Kimbo haters - I give to you props PhilQNY - it’s the best/hilarious comment LMFAO
Let’s hope to see another Kimbo fight soon to see another “KTFO”
Go up and read the definition of fight fixing. Just because Kimbo did not win doesn’t mean fight fixing did not occur.
Well Im sure they told that to both fighters to stand and bang and both agreed, so i would think it would be equivilent to someone asking both basketball teams not to shoot any 3 pointers. It’s still a game where anyone could win.
Good analogy there.It’s fixed if Seth took a dive…
How is it a game where anyone can win. Lets imagine one team makes more 3 points than the other while the other is better at the key but is terrible at threes. Asking both teams to not take threes is the equivilant of asking one team to play to the others advantage giving one team a higher probability of winning, hence the fight is not uneven and this is the reason steriods and addy were banned, it is giving an uneven edge to one party. This may not be fixing the fight but it is trying to force an outcome which is a shame that MMA is being associated to this. “We are coming closer and closer to boxing”
Correction : Already there…
Okay do you think that Kimbo was actually thinking about taking Seth to the ground in the first place?
When you pay a fighter more to STAND and hint NOT to take him down…..IT OBVIOUSLY is called a FIX.
Total bullshit.
Exactly
They stuck 205lbs man vs a 238lbs man ,and told the mma 205 do not try to take the 238 striker to the ground,it ,by definition,is not a fix ,but they tried their best to make it where Kimbo could not lose.Why did they not let Andre take the match an actual hw,cause they did not want Kimbo to lose ,they did not think that Seth could beat him standing that is why they gave Seth the match
I’m intrested in hear what Dana White has to say about the whole Elite show.. and the Kimbo/Seth fight outcome.
“Shaw is f#ckin’ retarded”…”CBS is f#ckin’ stupid”…”Kimbo is a bum”…”Seth is a TUF reject”…”BJ Penn would beat anyone in Elite XC”…”The t-shirt guy was an idiot for putting AA on the show…even though AA couldn’t hang with UFC fighters, because he’s overrated”…”I’m the best”…”I’m the McDonald’s of MMA”…”look at me”…”love me”…”worship me”…”Anderson Silva is the best fighter to ever live”…”Fedor is overrated”…”Tito’s a bigheaded poopface”…etc…etc…
There. There is the next months worth of Dana White quotes for you.
Looks like everything on there is true. Except for Fedor being overrated.
AA put on some good work thru the UFC. He did well for a while. Styles make fights. Thats how is goes. If they dont want you around any longer, they will start putting you against fighters that make your style much less effective. Thats what happened to him.. and many others really.
Correction, everything on there is true but the Fedor and AA part.
Introvert-
Don’t be upset because your previous posts on the glory of EliteXC and Kimbo have been discredited.
Quoting DW’s potty mouth is not original or witty on your part.
Truth!!!
Dana’s a douche - he already said before the fight that Kimbo sucks; I’m sure he will have a heyday with a big grin on his big mouth of his
And yes - he is a douche bag because he has been bad-mouthing some of the best fighters in the world: Fedor, RC, Sylvia, Ortiz.
Get real - he’s just saying this **** to make other organizations look bad (low blows considering that other promotions do not disrespect Whitys lil playground)
But Dana has been proven right everytime. Dana wins once again. Other orgs suck and will go out of business. Meanwhile Dana laughs all the way to the bank as UFC is king.
Actually, he called Ortiz down when Ortiz still worked for the UFC, so it’s got nothing to do with other organizations.
True, but he did after Tito and him got in to a argument. Not before, while they were working together… think about it.
I agree with you Dos.
I agree with you too, Dos. All these Dana haters (I don’t care for Dana as a person but I don’t really care as long as he keeps up the good work with the UFC) are just pissed because Dana is probably still laughing from this weekend….all the way to the bank.
It’s amazing at all of the people who usually trash the UFC for supposed “shady dealings” yet you never hear about Dana pulling crap like this.
I think every promotion does it….They jsut disguise it a HELL Of a LOT better. They dont actually pay a fighter MORE to STAND and tell him you are getting paid more to stand NOT to take it to the ground.
The UFC does it with Bisping. He is getting the Slice treatment, making all if the UK, along with some US fans into thinking Bisping is some great striker….But all you have to do is look at all the fighters he fought(all one dimesionsal BJJ or grappler or C level fighter…NO good strikers or GOOD fighters, period)
Why do some ppl turn everything into a Bisping bashing?! Give him a break and see how he does against Leben. It’s not him picking the fights, he hasnt fought the top guys yet cos he’s still relatively new to the UFC. If he was fighting the top guys you’d be first to complain he doesnt deserve to fight them!
Fightfan: Bisping is by trade a kickboxer and everybody says that grappling is his weak point. I’m sure Bisping would rather fight Leben type fighters than grapplers.
I’m sure even you have heard of a certain Rashad Evans? No good fighters? Ask Chuck!
he faught rashad who knocked out liddel (a fairly well known and good striker) did he not?
if Kimbo wants to just stand up and bang. then he should be Boxing. not fighting in a MMA promotion.
if kimbo did boxing he would get murdered, not to mention the $ wouldnt be there for him, since he comes from no rulz backyard fighting, its an easier sell in mma where the public thinks there are basically few or now rules.
Either way, Kimbo blows, im happy for Seth. It seems Elite XC doesnt know anything about fighting either, b/c Seth is not a ground fighter. Even on tuf 2 and his ufc fights his only real weapon was his stand up. This guy always fights well against larger fighters, he beat Bob Sapp a few years back.
Bob Sapp knocked out Seth in the first round, not the other way around.
I want to see the Bob Sapp Kimbo Slice fight.
he might want to go that way just fight in the all name no game circuit sapp, butterbean, etc.
mike you are wrong. Seth beat Sapp.
Mike is right but Sapp was Knocked silly by Seth first…..then it looked like Seth tore a bicep or something.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o09hrKJzYKo
Mike is right Sapp got floored first but it looked like Seth tore his bicep or something. Its on youtube but evertime i paste the link i get moderated.
Bob Sapp won.. Seth dislocated his shoulder
Actually what happened was Seth took a shot to his neck which temporarily put his arm to sleep. Kind of like a funny bone shot. That’s why he looked so confused when the fight was ended. He actually put Sapp down before the stinger.
Boxers would eat him alive! It would be worse than MMA.