The Set Up Piece
Published by Charles Jay on November 11th, 2008 in Current Events

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Commentary on MMA history….as it’s happening

THE “SET-UP” PIECE

Seth Petruzelli did everything right in those fourteen seconds his fight against Kimbo Slice lasted, back on October 4.

Then he went on a radio show. And everything changed.

Petruzelli went on a radio station in Orlando and said “The promoters (Elite XC) kind of hinted to me, and they gave me the money to stand and trade with him.” In other words, they orchestrated the way a fight was going to unfold.

A fight that about 9400 people had paid to see. A fight that the CBS television network bought. A fight that was sanctioned by an athletic commission.

So the question was immediately raised: did Elite XC pay him to stand up and punch with Kimbo, and to avoid going to the ground? Sounds completely reasonable to bring that up. Petruzelli’s “retraction” of sorts, later on, was that he was offered a knockout bonus if that was the way he were to win the fight.

Okay, that might actually make sense,

Of course, it would not be the most advantageous thing in the world for Kimbo to have Petruzelli take him to the ground, so it would also kind of make sense if they wanted to “suggest” that the way to guarantee he was going to be in the main event was for him to guarantee he was going to remain standing and flailing away.

There’s something about that original statement, made with more spontaneity and without any “briefing,” that sounds infinitely more palatable.

From a logistical standpoint, it goes without saying that Elite XC could be expected to want a certain result, because they were not only better off with Kimbo winning, he was their entire show. And the CBS deal was worth nothing to them if his value depreciated.

Well, he’s so depreciated that Elite XC is completely out of the ballgame.

I’m wondering why anyone should be so shocked that a fighter could be propositioned to “act accordingly” when it came to a Kimbo Slice fight. He has engaged in fights of a very dubious nature on the internet for a couple of years now.

The pattern is, the camera catches Kimbo throwing a few punches at his opponent, then the opponent goes down. The camera pans away from the fallen fighter over to Kimbo having walked away, or some other scene, then pans back about thirty seconds later, only to find the opponent covered in crimson in such a way that a boxer couldn’t expect to be bloodied up if he’d gone fifteen rounds with Sonny Liston in his prime. I was convinced then - and remain convinced now - that the “loss” to Sean Gannon was an accident. Something went wrong. Somebody didn’t cooperate.

Did Seth Petruzelli “cooperate”? Did he intend to? We’ll never know whether he was going along with such a plan. All fights begin in stand-up mode, and fourteen seconds later it was over. Whether the fight would have ultimately gone to the ground is something that won’t be answered….

….until we have the rematch.

New Year’s Eve in Japan? Who will “influence” that one?