Jon's MMA Juggernaut 10.08.08: The Petruzelli Shocker and Aftermath

Posted by Jonathan Solomon on 10.08.2008

The Juggernaut looks at the future for EXC, Kimbo Slice and Tito Ortiz in the wake of Seth Petruzelli. Plus, a comment on Ultimate Fighter chaos advertising.

Well, the weird thing about our Devil Advocate Preview is in the two edition's thus far, two fights have been called off for various reasons. Of course this weekend's fight was bigger than Karo Parisyan, but then again, what isn't these days. With our picks, Roy Nelson did not fair too well after a suspicious stand-up by the referee. Meanwhile, Paul Daley was schooled in jiu-jitsu by EXC Welterweight Champion, Jake Shields in a dominating performance. Well all that sucks for our purposes. So with an 0-2 (1 No Contest) record this month, the overall D.A.P. record drops to 1-3 with 2 No Contest's. That's pretty damn bad. As long as there is no money involved, next time is only a short breath away.

With all that business aside, holy cow.

Welcome to this week's Juggernaut and I must admit, I was not looking forward to this column. A simple review of the (potentially non-eventful) fights would not have been too fun. Instead, the world of Elite-XC was shaken up like Rush Limbaugh going through your medicine cabinet. Word made the rounds Saturday afternoon that Ken Shamrock was not going to be given the O.K. by the Florida physicians due to a cut caused by an errant head butt delivered by his gym buddy while preparing for the fight. Obviously Shamrock was not going to be allowed to fight with fresh stitches above his left eye. Then, Elite-XC went into a panic and rightfully so. It is no exaggeration to say their future was and is riding in the success of the show and the main event not taking place was not going to make CBS and viewers happy.

You can argue whether or not Kimbo Slice should or should not have accepted the fight with Seth Petruzelli, a veteran with a winning record (cut from the UFC after going 0-2 since his stint on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter). Even Frank Shamrock offered to step into the cage and fight Kimbo Slice on hours notice, a thought I'm sure EXC was none too thrilled to have to ponder. In the end, after (I'm sure) much cajoling and a financial incentive (according to Dave Meltzer), Kimbo Slice accepted the fight.

It was eerie, weird and even exciting in some way to see Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo, and the Brothers Shamrock tell the CBS audience the circumstances of the situation. Obviously, Frank was adding more fuel to the fire for that fight that just won't go away with his brother with his hilarious comments. In fact, I think I was most amused by Tito Ortiz when they interviewed him during the Andrei Arlovski/Roy Nelson fight.

Obviously the aura of Kimbo Slice is gone. Now, he's just another fighter. A big guy with heavy hands and a great look. How many guys does that describe?



Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzelli -- according to Gus Johnson, the greatest upset in the history of MMA. Gus is great, but come on now.

According to early numbers, the broadcast had about four and a half million viewers (a number CBS is reportedly content with). I imagine more than that saw the end of the show, which to the non-hardcore fan (ie. the key demographic), they witnessed some dude with no name knock out KIMBO SLICE in mere seconds. Sure, EXC attempted to spin the result as if they were campaigning for the office of President of the United States. Kimbo could only prepare for a few hours (as did Petruzelli), his mind was f%$ked with due to the unforseen events, even claiming Petruzelli landed at least one illegal punch (to the back of the head). WOW. Everyone understands Slice is their cash cow, but why even think of putting a fighter under the bus like that?

Unless given a marquee opponent (not named Ken Shamrock), Slice will not be a huge draw on pay-per-view for Elite-XC. It's no secret they want to run a PPV in early 2009, but (especially) now they have only one fight people want to see. I'm not so sure people will pay to see it; Gina Carano vs. Christiane Cyborg. As for Kimbo and where he goes from here, there are not many options. Obviously the two that immediately pop up are to revisit the Shamrock fight or a rematch with Petruzelli. Other potential options always include Brett Rogers or someone else EXC figures would be an 'easy' fight for Kimbo to regain some steam. If my last name is Shaw, I'd lean toward a match with Shamrock. Give Kimbo and his group plenty of time to prepare for the eventual fight for redemption.


I still want to see this damn fight.



As for Tito Ortiz, did that interview make anyone else just feel weird?

Why would you give precious (broadcast) TV time to someone who is allegedly not signed to a contract? According to Ortiz, within the next two weeks, he should be a contracted EXC fighter. Reportedly, Ortiz will go under the knife, for back surgery and be back and able to fight by early-mid 2009. Where is EXC receiving the large amount of coin necessary to sign Tito Ortiz? Your guess is as good as mine. My guess is Affliction is in some way involved. I'm not saying there will be an EXC/Affliction merger but I just don't understand how EXC will be able to come up with the funds when they have done nothing but lose money.

In any event, it sure sounded like they were beginning the build for a potential dream fight between Tito Ortiz and Frank Shamrock. Now that would certainly be a PPV-worthy fight, possibly the biggest non-UFC MMA fight on the horizon. That includes Fedor Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett or Andrei Arlovski. By the way, weren't those Fedor commercials awesome? The only thing, to the non-hardcore fans who were introduced to Fedor through those 30-40 second spots, is Fedor a fighting clothing designer?


The next Elite-XC show is slated for November in Reno, Nevada and will air on Showtime. The card is looking fantastic with some great match-ups, including Middleweight Champion Robbie Lawler vs. Joey Villasenor, and Nick Diaz fighting Eddie Alvarez for the vacant Lightweight Championship.


Ultimate Fighter Hysterics

This week's episode of The Ultimate Fighter is being promoted around the continued hysterics and chaos created by Junie Browning. In the promo for the episode (which obviously can be edited to show one thing when something totally different occurred), Junie gets into a tussle at the house with not one but several of his housemates. Then, he proceeds to jump INTO the cage (before or after a fight). Plus, Dana White is called to the house and refers to Junie as a, "sick f&^k."



Junie Browning, from this week's episode.

Now your guess is as good as mine as far as what the result may be but it will royally suck if Browning does something and is kicked off the show. I hope whatever happened is not as bad as they portrayed.


Thanks for reading and remember, the biggest fight of the year is only thirty-eight days away. In 2003, if you had told me the biggest fight in MMA in 2008 would be Brock Lesnar fighting Randy Couture, I would have had you suited up for a padded room. Four weeks ago, if you told me Seth Petruzelli was going to knock out Kimbo Slice on CBS, I would have laughed in your face. So just like Michael Bisping shouldn't talk smack about pro wrestling, you should never say something is impossible, because we have learned better. Do not forget to WATCH the fights.