From TheGarv.com:

Seth Petruzelli had a very Kimbo Halloween.

Check out Kimbo–I mean Seth.

That is hilarious. I really hope someone is able to get Kimbo's reaction to this. I can't imagine he would be too happy, although judging by their last fight there isn't much he can do about it!!

From Sherdog.com:

The Florida State Boxing Commission’s preliminary investigation into the Oct. 4 EliteXC matchup between Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and Seth Petruzelli found no wrongdoing, according to Alexis Antonacci, a Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation representative.

Molloy also contacted David “Tank” Abbott, who lost to Ferguson at a Miami EliteXC event in February 2008. Molloy asked if Abbott had been asked to fight in a particular manner, to which the former UFC superstar answered, “No, nothing was said.”

What a shocker. I knew that this was more or less done to appease the public. I really don't think much of an effort was put into finding out the truth. If there was I think eventually something would have come out as not only were Petruzelli's comments completely incriminating but so were the comments that came from someone who worked for the company -- former ICON promoter T.J. Thompson. I really don't think asking Tank Abbott whether or not EliteXC tried to influence the fight was going to bring out any semblance of the truth. I am actually happy this is over now, though, so the sport can start to recover from this crap and no more egg will be thrown on to the face of MMA.

DALLAS (October 16) Tomorrow's INSIDE MMA will feature a special interview with Alexis Antonacci, the press secretary for Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation. In the interview, Ron Kruck speaks with Ms. Antonacci about why theFlorida Boxing Commission chose to move forward with their investigation into the bout between Kimbo Slice and Seth Petruzelli - and the controversial remarks that Petruzelli made after the fight.

In an interview last week with an Orlando talk radio show, Petruzelli made comments that suggested that EliteXC tried to influence the outcome of his fight with Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson at last Saturday's "Heat" event.

Petruzellistated in the interview that, "the promoters kind of hinted to me and they gave me money to stand and trade with him (Ferguson). They didn't want me to take him down-let's put it that way. It was worth my while to try and stand up and punch with him."

While no formal complaint has been filed, the Florida Boxing Commission is currently investigating the situation and interviewing EliteXC officials.

On this Friday's program, Kruck also has an exclusive interview with Ken Shamrock who, for the first time since the controversial evening discusses the circumstances that knocked him out of the fight with Kimbo Slice.

INSIDE MMA airs every Friday on HDNet at 9:00 p.m. ET and is hosted by Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten and features all the latest news and highlights, along with in-depth features, analysis, and rankings. In studio this week with Kenny and Bas is an all-star panel that includes Rashad Evans, Bobby Lashley and Dave Meltzer.

I grew up reading both Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser when they were columnists for The Washington Post. While Kornheiser has no special insights into sports, he's a great writer and his articles were always amusing. On the other hand, I held Wilbon in high regard as he discussed the Redskins, his hometown Bulls (who featured a certain Michael Jordan at the time), and generally looked at sports from a responsible social angle.

So, it was no surprise to me that the two were paired up on PTI on ESPN, a show which I generally enjoy. However, I've begun losing respect for Wilbon as he opens his yapper about a sport which he clearly knows nothing about: MMA. While I expect Kornheiser to be stupid with his MMA-related comments, I was taken aback by Wilbon's thoughts when he decided to weigh in on the Kimbo-Petruzelli controversy on last night's show.

I've looked for video of that segment on ESPN.com but haven't been able to find any so far. But, AOL Fanhouse has a partial transcript of Wilbon's discussion with fill-in Dan Le Batard.

"That was a more phantom punch than Ali had to knock out Liston in that fight in 1965," Wilbon said of Petruzelli knocking Kimbo to the canvas. "Kimbo Slice, your boy, is a fraud."

During a brief look-in on the next commercial break, Wilbon said, "I don't know what Kimbo's ties are. Kimbo still could have taken a dive while others are trying to prop him up. He could have gotten paid."

While these comments are damning, what AOL Fanhouse did not include in its transcript are Wilbon's statements about MMA fans. He called us "sycophants" who don't care whether the fight was fixed or not.

Wilbon, how dare you presume to know what we think. MMA fans are more sick about all these accusations than you could ever imagine. You know why? Because an incident like this gives mainstream, ratings-whoring dolts like you an opportunity to spout your venom and showcase your ignorance to the masses and unfortunately damage the sport even more.

From ESPN.com:

After repeated calls from ESPN.com, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation -- which oversees the State Boxing Commission -- said Thursday that it has opened a preliminary investigation into the matter.

"While the Department of Business and Professional Regulation doesn't have any reason to believe there was a problem with the Slice-Petruzelli fight, given the interest in it, the Department has begun a preliminary investigation to thoroughly review the circumstances of the fight," said Jennifer Meale, Communications Director for the DBPR.

Jeremy Lappen, head of fight operations for EliteXC, responded with the following comments:

"We offered Seth Petruzelli a knockout bonus, a submission bonus and "fight of the night" bonus. If we were trying to influence the fight, why would we do that?

"We were not trying to protect Kimbo. He had been training to fight a guy in Shamrock who has a better ground game than Seth. If we were trying to protect Kimbo we would have sent him home. We put him in a dangerous fight."

UFC President Dana White also weighs in in the article, saying that any sort of influencing is criminal. I'm sure he's enjoying this (even though he says the incident hurts the sport) because the turmoil surrounding the "influencing" has obscured the fact that 4 million viewers tuned in Saturday night.

What's also disturbing is that the comment by Lappen about the bonuses contradicts an earlier statement made by him to SI.com in which he said no submission bonus was offered and a statement made by Gary Shaw to the LA Times, in which he stated that EliteXC does go to fighters and request fan-friendly fighting styles.

Let's see what this investigation digs up.

Gary Shaw, former President of EliteXC and now a very well-paid consultant for the promotion, took time out of his day to comment to the LA Times about the "Was Seth Petruzelli Paid to Stand?" scandal. You probably won't be surprised by what the longtime boxing promoter had to say about his new love, MMA.

About making fights more exciting:

But Elite XC consultant Gary Shaw said he wouldn't hesitate to "go to a fighter and say, 'We're looking for a stand-up fight.' You're not asking him to throw a fight. You're talking about a fan-friendly fight, not about protecting Kimbo."
...
"Do I think that's unethical? No," Shaw said. "Because in MMA, you get bonus money for a knockout. I don't see it as unethical . . . asking him to be TV and fan friendly."

About Kimbo Slice:

"I don't think the loss does anything. He's got the 'it' factor, like Mike Tyson," Shaw said. "He walks into a building and the place erupts."

Sam Caplan at FiveOuncesofPain.com has an excellent interview with Kimbo-killer Seth Petruzelli. Petruzelli clarifies earlier comments about being paid extra by EliteXC to stand and bang with Slice, talks about his wife being threatened by Kimbo's posse after the fight, and also discusses his K-1 fight against Bob Sapp years ago.

But, what really caught my eye was the following exchange between Caplan and Petruzelli:

Sam Caplan: I believe EliteXC has an opening on Nov. 8 for a light heavyweight bout vs. Rafael Feijao. There has been talk of him competing for a title. I know you mentioned interest in fighting Tito Ortiz for the light heavyweight title but would you have any interest fighting Feijao for the title and coming back early next month?

Seth Petruzelli: It’s kind of short but I would have no problems doing it. Whatever they want me to do, I’ll do for them. I don’t think they want me to fight until after the New Year, but we’ll see what happens. But I don’t see myself fighting again until the beginning of 2009.

How did Petruzelli's name suddenly become connected with an EliteXC title fight? How did a journeyman fighter who went 0-2 in the UFC and spent the last year running his Smoothie King business all of a sudden become a title contender?

Simply put, Petruzelli has now become part of the Kimbo myth. And, there's no doubt -- based on how EliteXC runs its promotion -- that the Kimbo myth will continue to be extended for as long as possible.

EliteXC continues to want fans to believe that Kimbo is a fighting superstar. By extension, the man who beat him has now become the man. So, rather than framing this fight as one mediocre fighter defeating a less-than-mediocre fighter, we are being given an election season-worthy narrative that flips that notion on its head.

EliteXC continues to miss the boat with fighters like Jake Shields, the middleweight division, and the lightweight division as it spends far too much time on the Kimbo mythology.

And, while I love the idea of free MMA on network TV, and I know that EliteXC treats its fighters well, it's becoming increasingly difficult to listen to, read, or watch anything connected with EliteXC VP Jared Shaw with a straight face.

Assist: FightTicker.com member EERS_1_Fan

From CagePotato.com:

Seth Petruzelli: My original plan was to throw a lot of push kicks, they’re called teeps…have him think that I’m going to throw ‘em to try to rush in more, and then shoot in on him, obviously…I knew I would do alright standing up with him. The promoters kinda 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 and stand up and punch with him.

Interesting...not surprising, but interesting.

But check this out from FiveOuncesofPain.com:

Upon being contacted by FiveOuncesOfPain.com for a followup, Petruzelli indicated that he felt his words during the 104.1 FM interview are being twisted and he categorically denied accusations that EliteXC somehow tried to influence his strategy through financial considerations.

Upon being asked directly whether EliteXC officials had even hinted that he could receive a bonus by keeping the fight standing, Petruzelli clarified that no such act had taken place.

Is that so? It's funny how people's words get twisted around like that. I recently came across a similar situation in my professional life where a defendant said he couldn't show up for a court appearance because his sister was in a car wreck and he was at the hospital with her. However, he later stated that we misunderstood him, and what he meant was that his aunt was in the hospital with a diabetes-related condition when he wasn't even in the same town. Yeah, we clearly misunderstood him, just like everyone misunderstood Petruzelli.

Did EliteXC "hint" that they wanted it to be a stand-up fight? Probably. Did they offer Petruzelli extra money for that? Maybe. Regardless of any of that, was it hilarious to watch Kimbo get knocked on his ass while $kala yelled in the background? Absolutely.

-PreView

From Deadspin.com:

Seth obviously was trained at the "Patrick Cote School of what not to post on the internet if you are suddenly in the limelight."

These are from Seth's MySpace page.

I was initially skeptical about posting this because I was afraid that Phoenix would drive Pramit nuts asking him for Petruzelli's contact info. I chose to go ahead and post it anyways.