MMAVu

Rumor has it Kimbo Slice will face off against Seth Petruzelli again on New Year’s Eve in Japan, under the Dream banner.

The two first met under Elite XC: Heat on October 4th on CBS when Petruzelli was a last minute replacement for Ken Shamrock, who had to drop out due to a laceration above the eye. Petruzelli was agreed upon by the Kimbo camp with literally hours to spare, and Petruzelli knocked Kimbo out in 14 seconds.

After wards, Petruzelli hinted on a radio station that Elite officials “suggested” he remain standing and trade blows with Kimbo, rather than take him down, playing into Kimbo’s strength. Elite was firmly on board the Kimbo-Train as their mealticket and wanted to protect him at all costs. A subsequent investigation cleared Elite XC of any wrong doings, but the company folded soon afterwards.

Also rumored to be on the New Year’s Eve card in Japan, are: Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kuniyoshi Hironaka, Caol Uno, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Gegard Mousasi and the “Techno Goliath” Hong Man Choi.

Way to take an opportunity of a lifetime and throw it away just as fast.

Soon after knocking out Elite XC golden boy Kimbo Slice in 14 seconds, Petruzelli went on a Florida radio station and insinuated Elite officials encouraged him to keep the fight standing, and to trade with Kimbo rather than take him down. Here’s the quote:

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.

Those comments obviously did not sit well with the MMA community, so Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation have opened a preliminary investigation into the matter according to ESPN.com.

It doesn’t help matters that Kimbo’s last fight was marred by very questionable refereeing and judging. VERY questionable. Kimbo ended up winning the bout.

Elite XC of course denies any tampering or wrong-doing, claiming Kimbo’s original opponent Ken Shamrock has an even better ground game than Petruzelli, so they were in no way protecting Kimbo. Petruzelli has since retracted his statement, saying he was misunderstood. I don’t think that’ll ease anyone’s minds though.

As if their star being flattened by a nobody wasn’t bad enough, the nobody then goes on and insinuates the officials told him what to do in the fight. Sheesh.