EliteXC MMA CBS October 4, 2008 Fight Night Results – Kimbo Slice Vs Seth Petruzelli

Okay, I know that I am not the only one that wasn’t only not shocked by the results of last Saturday’s fight between Kimbo Slice and Seth Petruzelli on CBS’s EliteXC Fight Night, but also thought that it was about time that it happened. Now although I wasn’t shocked by the results of that fight, I was shocked by the weird set of events that took place with Ken Shamrock, who as we all know was supposed to be fighting Kimbo in the main event. However, this was not to be, instead what we got was a freak accident which set in motion the turn of events that led up to Kimbo fighting Petruzelli instead of Shamrock.

What will follow is a detailed professional analysis of the fight from start to finish, concluding with some final thoughts concerning both fighters. Please keep in mind that these are my views from my own perspective of the events that transpired. They are by no means intended to shed any kind of negative or disparaging thoughts, words, etc. on either one of the fighters involved. I have a great deal of respect for anyone, and I do mean anyone, who steps onto the mat. So, with further ado let’s get started.

Before the night even got underway, we who were watching the program learned that Shamrock had suffered a cut over his left eye which required six stitches mere hours before he was scheduled to fight Kimbo. Now I know there is a lot of speculation out there as to why the accident happened and if it was due to negligence upon the part of Shamrock and/or the person he was warming-up with, or was it simply a freak accident.

Another school of thought is that the accident shouldn’t have taken place because Shamrock shouldn’t have been doing anything before the fight that could have led to any sort of injury. Now I don’t know about you, but I always trained my hardest up until one week prior to a fight and then gradually tapered off the training each day to where I was only doing some stretching and very light shadow sparring and maybe some very light bag work the last couple of days, and usually nothing at all on the day of the fight except for some stretching and light shadow sparring.

Anyhow, with all that aside, it was very unfortunate for Shamrock and Kimbo both because Kimbo ended up losing badly to a relatively unknown especially when compared to the status of Shamrock. Would Shamrock have beat Kimbo had they fought? Or, would Kimbo have beat Shamrock?

If Shamrock had stood his ground and decided to trade punches with Kimbo it would have been a very short night for Shamrock. However, if Shamrock had learned from his previous mistakes of trying to go toe-to-toe with a much more powerful puncher, and decided instead to take Kimbo to the ground, then I think Shamrock would have won.

Okay, now that I have all of that out of the way, let’s get going on the actual fight that did happen between Kimbo Slice and Seth Petruzelli. Now I really don’t know how much I can right on a 14 second fight, but I must admit that I am curious to find out.

Kimbo came out and charged across the cage towards Petruzelli, who in turn threw a front kick with his right leg to Kimbo’s midsection which, although it didn’t really land with any effect, did make Kimbo hesitate a bit in his attack and this allowed Petruzelli to bring his right knee up again where he left it hang momentarily in the air. Kimbo in the meantime started to come in towards Petruzelli and was rewarded with a straight right hand that landed squarely over his left eye resulting in not only a knockdown for Petruzelli, but also split open the eyebrow above Kimbo’s left eye.

Petruzelli never hesitated and took advantage of the knockdown to rain down a barrage of heavy-handed punches with his right hand to Kimbo’s head, which forced the referee to step in and stop the fight. Was this a good call by the referee? Absolutely! Kimbo was knocked down by a heavy punch and was unable to defend himself after turning his back and trying to cover up his head from the numerous blows delivered by Petruzelli.

After the fight the commentators who were analyzing the fight made some valid points of contention concerning the fight and its combatants. One in particular was the fact that Kimbo had trained for and was expecting to fight Shamrock. Therefore, the freak accident which sidelined Shamrock also left Kimbo in a different state of mind since he was no longer going to be fighting the person he had trained for.

However, when you look at the other side of the coin, the very same thing can also be said for Petruzelli. He had trained and expected to fight another fighter (whose name I don’t recall) on the undercard and wasn’t even going to be part of the televised event. Just hours before he was supposed to fight, he was asked if he would like to fight Kimbo in the main event instead of his expected opponent on the undercard. Petruzelli immediately agreed. Under these circumstances, both parties were in exactly the same boat. Neither one was going to be fighting against the opponent they had trained for and were expecting to fight. So in this case I would say that this shouldn’t have been that big a factor. This of course depends upon how their mental and physical training had been conducted. And since I do not have that information, I can not legitimately comment on that.

I have heard since the fight that Petruzelli was lucky in bearing Kimbo and that Kimbo was unlucky in the fact that Shamrock had got hurt and that Petruzelli was put in as a replacement. Well, I do have a lot to say about that.

First off, Petruzelli was only lucky in the fact that Shamrock got hurt and that he was asked to step in and be Shamrock’s replacement in fighting Kimbo. Now if you are saying that once he was named as Kimbo’s opponent that he was lucky he beat him, I only have one word to say about that, and that word is “bullsh*t.”

My definition of luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Petruzelli was obviously prepared to fight and Kimbo wasn’t. I have no doubt that Kimbo was prepared to fight Shamrock, but he wasn’t prepared to fight. If he had been, the results of his fight with Petruzelli may have been different, but they weren’t. So don’t knock Petruzelli for taking advantage of a lucky set of circumstances that gave him the opportunity to excel, because that just isn’t right. And by the same token, don’t knock Kimbo because he didn’t take advantage of those very same circumstances that presented a great opportunity for Petruzelli.

John Oey

John Oey is a senior sports writer at Blowers Racing covering NASCAR, drift, Olympics, and sports analytics. 7+ years, 180+ guides. Method: official rulebooks, historical archives, and statistical databases.