Petruzelli running his mouth says Kimbo fight was rigged
Medical officials said Ken Shamrock couldn’t fight Kimbo last Saturday because Shamrock had fresh stitches from a a recent sparring blow. Seth Petruzelli stepped up to the fight.
Hip Hop Spy called the Kimbo fight the biggest upset in MMA fighting history. Kimbo loses to a nobody, Kimbo the baddest dude on the planet in a street fight, loses to a nobody because of the Ref.
It looks like there is more to to the story.
That nobody “Seth Petruzelli” become an overnight international celebrity for punching out Kimbo. Maybe the fame went to his head.
Petruzelli told “The Monsters in Orlando” radio show during a Monday interview, “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.”
Ooops. Makes us wonder whether Shamrock’s medical ban was rigged.
EliteXC denies the fixing charge and on Tuesday Petruzelli said he got the story confused.
“What that meant was they offer a knockout bonus, submission bonuses, fight of the night bonuses,” Petruzelli said in a phone interview. “I think it just got misconstrued. I wanted to have an exciting fight and I wanted the knock out bonus so I wanted to keep it standing.”
The orginal story sounds a little more believable. EliteXC had a major financial stake in Kimbo winning. After the knockdown EliteXC exec Jared Shaw charged the cage and screamed at the referee that Slice had been hit illegally. Shaw has since apologized for that reaction.
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I figured there was more to this story – damn, definitely makes me question EliteXC. Seemed like they were helping make MMA even more interesting.