The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 10.07.08: EliteXC Kimbo vs Shamrock Petruzelli

Posted by Scott Kuczkowski on 10.07.2008

Did Elite XC’s mega-star card deliver? Is Kimbo still unbeaten, or did he get bested by a legend? Did Arlovski continue down his path of dominance towards a matchup with Fedor? Why in the hell does anyone still care about what ex-UFC employees think?

The event comes to us live from Sunrise, Florida. The opening sequence was pretty good. I'm glad to see they are putting highlights of pervious shows to good use.

We're told there won't be any Kimbo/Shamrock match as Shamrock has suffered a cut to his left eyebrow. Apparently he was rolling with his trainers after weigh-ins when a head-butt caused the cut. Shamrock got on the stick and tried to explain how he has fought through worse injuries (notice how he didn't say won) and that he thinks this is garbage. Honestly, he looked fine, but it was dumb of him to go to the hospital if he really thought he was O.K. to fight. Some doctor gets on there and talks about the cut: blah blah blah. The bottom line is that the main event is off and that The Ultimate Fighter alum Seth Petruzelli will fill in for Shamrock.

Frank Shamrock then gets on and basically throws Ken under the bus and calls him an embarrassment to the family. Nice to see he won't miss getting in a shot while Ken is down. This could actually be used to build up a confrontation between Frank and Ken for the next show since there doesn't seem to be much of a point to having Ken fight Kimbo.

Well, that was probably the most interesting storyline I have even seen for an EliteXC event. Let's get on with the fights!

Good/Bad/Ugly

Rua vs. Radach: Radach claims his discipline is Facesmashing-Fu, which will really only be cool if he wins big.

The Good: The action was very intense for the first round, as both Rua and Radach punished each other with crushing blows. Radach appeared to have the edge in the striking, but both fighters did considerable damage to one another. The second round saw Radach appear a little tired and Rua started pursuing him and dictating the pace. Rua slipped on a flying knee attempt though and Radach finished him off with some heavy ground and pound for the knockout victory.

The Bad: Though Rua appeared to recover quickly, he needs to close his stance when he's on his feet. He basically took every punch Radach landed without covering up or using head movement. His style right now won't let him get past anyone who is a decent striker.

The Ugly: None. Good way to start a show.



Carano vs. Kobold: Carano looks hot even without makeup while Kobold looks like someone could drive a truck between the gap in here front teeth.

The Good: The entire fight saw Kobold trying to close the distance and pin Carano against the cage to get the takedown. This would have been an excellent plan if Kobold could have secured the takedown, but she was for the most part unable to do so and ate a lot of kicks and punches in the meantime. Carano eventually opened up a cut on Kobolds face with a knee and pretty much owned her during the third round when she created distance and landed her kicks. Carano took the easy decision win.

The Bad: When Kobold couldn't get the takedown, the fight became a war of attrition with Carano pushed up against the cage fighting her off. Kobold also used a ton of energy going for those takedowns. Being up against the cage for the majority of the fight really slowed the pace.

Also, Carano had problems cutting weight to make the 140 lbs. limit again. She said in her pre-fight interview that she might have to move to the 145 lbs. division in the future if the weight cut continues to be an issue. The saving grace to this fact is that she did get naked at the weigh-ins, which has to count for something.

The Ugly: None.



Arlovski vs. Nelson: I predicted this fight would turn out poorly for Nelson. A shot is shown of Tito Ortiz during the opening sequence and Frank Shamrock makes the point that he hopes Tito joins Elite XC so he (Frank) has something to do with his fists. Ha ha...get it? Now he's setting up a feud for after he beats Ken.

The Good: Arlovski demonstrated much better striking than Nelson and seemed to overpower him throughout the fight. Arlovski also used leg kicks to keep Nelson off balance. Nelson eventually reversed an Arlovski takedown and had side-mount during which time he did nothing. Nelson looked like he was going for a weak armbar at one point, but mostly he was resting his belly on Arlovski. The referee eventually stood them up and Arlovski scored a TKO victory with a second round flurry that put "Big Country" right on his big gut.

The Bad: This was a bad fight for Nelson, during which I think he was exposed as not being able to hang with Top 10 competition. If he had actually been in the fight at all, it might have been different, but he had no answer for anything Arlovski threw at him once Andrei was done playing around.

I've also heard some complaints about the standup. In my opinion, it looked like Nelson tried a weak armbar/kimura, but nothing else. Yes, he had side control, but it wasn't like he was raining down elbows, punches, or throwing knees. He held that dominant position but did nothing with it. He got the north/south position, at which time he just rested his gut on Arlovski's face and sat there. If the referee had let that situation continue I doubt it would have affected the fight's outcome at all. I don't care how good people think Nelson was on the ground in the IFL; there was no way he was going to submit Arlovski.

The Ugly: Nelson looked gassed at the start of the second round. Maybe he needs to look at the feasibility of carrying that gut around the ring if he really wants to fight top competition.



Shields vs. Daley: Daley plays the cocky English prick pretty well, but I don't like his chances when going against someone like Shields.

The Good: Daley looked like he wanted to come out strong, but Shields got things to the ground and was able to mount him and stay mounted for almost the entire first round. I give Daley props for not panicking and making a mistake but he had no answer for Shields being on top of him. Round 2 saw Daley get a little more aggressive, but Shields took him down and mounted him again before getting the armbar submission victory.

The Bad: Daley had no answer for Shields on the ground. He had a good sprawl, but he was clearly outmatched once the fight went to the canvas. Shield looked gassed going into the second round despite dominating the first.

The Ugly: Shields' standup is awful. He was lucky that Daley wasn't able to test his chin much, but I think someone like Robbie Lawler would kill him if they stood and traded. Shields has to work on his hands if he hopes to move up to Middleweight and go after Lawler's belt.



Slice vs. Petruzelli: Petruzelli weighs in at 205.5, which means he was supposed to fight at light heavyweight but got on the scale for this fight with change in his pockets just to make the cutoff.

The Good: Kimbo closed the distance and Petruzelli looked scared. Petruzelli backpedaled into the cage and threw some weak front kicks before catching Kimbo with a short right jab. Kimbo went down and Petruzelli leapt on him and started chopping away. Kimbo eventually rolled to his back but never tried to fend off the attack. The referee stopped the fight and awarded Petruzelli the upset TKO victory. Petruzelli was classy in his post-fight interview, crediting Kimbo for taking the fight on short notice. Frank Shamrock quipped the funny line, "Kimbo has no slice." Too funny.

The Bad: This raises questions about Kimbo's jaw. Maybe Petruzelli managed to catch him just right, but there is a chance Kimbo is susceptible to being caught with a good punch. If this is true, he may have problems if he faces more skilled brawlers.

The Ugly: Elite XC's cash cow just died on national TV. Maybe they can spin this right, but I'd have to say that their unstoppable beast looks like a joke now, especially considering Dana White can claim that even a TUF reject was able to beat him.

I'm sure people will point out that Kimbo took the fight on one hour's notice and therefore should be given credit for getting in the cage. My response to those people is "Big deal?" It's not like Kimbo was asked to fight Arlovski, and it's not like he didn't expect to fight that night. He's a fighter, he should be ready to fight and I don't really think he's got so many skills or tricks up his sleeve that he needs a specific training camp for certain fighters. Kimbo is a brawler; I doubt he rolls more or less during camp just because the guy he is facing likes to go to the ground.

More to the point, 32 guys on The Ultimate Fighter have to fight the moment they get to the show without the benefit of any training camp. They all manage to get by, so why should the bar be lowered for Kimbo?

Overall I think this was a pretty good show. Will there be another? Hard to say, but this one was decent.

Unrelated Musings

Jon "War Machine" Koppenhaver has been shooting his mouth off about the UFC...again. His first tirade regarded the lack of UFC involvement at Evan Tanner's funeral and the second had to do with Rashad Evans dispespecting his friend Frank. I want to take a moment and address both of these.

First off Jon, maybe the UFC feels as I do, that a funeral is a private, family matter and they didn't want to cause any undue stress to the situation by forcing their participation. I am pleased to know you have such close contacts with those who attended the ceremony, though I have to wonder if they attended because they wanted to pay their respects or if they were hoping to see Dana White and get an autograph. Anyone who calls and gives a play by play of a funeral to include who did or didn't attend was probably there for the wrong reasons anyways. Basically, you're an idiot.

Secondly, the fact that Rashad Evans supposedly disrespected a guy from your gym is a great story except for the fact that you didn't see it happen and for all you know, your "boy" Frank was lying. Are you really to the point in your pathetic life where you have to spew hate on people just because your friend doesn't like them? Wow…you're an idiot.


Matt Serra and Matt Hughes will hopefully have their epic showdown sometime this January or February. I think that is outstanding news; I just hope so much time hasn't passed that people have forgotten who either guy is and why they don't like each other. I also hope that Serra drops back down to lightweight after this fight, as I don't think he is big enough to stay at welterweight.


Kurt Angle says he will make his MMA debut in 2009. Bullshit. In other irrelevant news, Tito Ortiz said he would be undergoing the same back surgery Nate Quarry had, but planned to fight again in 2009. Good for him. Maybe he and Kurt can have a match to see who has the biggest ego.

Where does Tito plan to fight? I guess he plans to sign with Elite XC, or he at least wants people to think this. Way to go Tito – sign with a company already $55M in the hole. Just make sure they pay you in cash. Is this how he expects to keep himself employed? Who would he be fighting? Guys not nearly talented enough to make it in Affliction or the UFC? Does he really think they'll be around by the time he's healed enough to compete? What a joke.


Benji Radach is apparently unhappy the UFC didn't jump to sign him when he approached them about rejoining the promotion. Is this really what makes the news? Someone has something bad to say about the UFC and suddenly this is news? So basically, Radach is all butt-hurt because the UFC wanted him to win a fight somewhere before they signed him and he thought they should have signed him based on his past record. Sorry Benji, but did you think maybe they don't think as highly of you as you do? Get over it. You have your victory, so now tell them you think you are ready to take on Anderson Silva.

The Wrap

Well, that's it for this week. The fallout from this weekend will probably be legendary, but at least I don't have to hear idiots tell me how unstoppable Kimbo is.

Leave me something below.