STORY OF THE YEAR: StandGate and EliteXC’s Downfall
After a controversial and lackluster TKO of James Thompson in May, Kimbo Slice hoped to rebound with a decisive victory over aging legend Ken Shamrock. Fans and media alike blasted the matchmaking leading up to the event. Shamrock, a pioneer of the sport, hadn’t won a fight since 2004 and was coming off an embarrassing knockout loss to English journeyman Robert “Buzz” Berry. Lacking any semblance of transparency, everyone saw this bout as an attempt to milk the Slice cash cow without putting him in any sort of danger.
Hours before the event was set to go live, reports trickled out of Florida that Shamrock was pulling out of the fight. When the CBS telecast started, Gus Johnson and the broadcast team announced Shamrock had opened up a cut above his eye while warming up, would not be cleared by the athletic commission, and would be replaced by former UFC fighter Seth Petruzelli who was originally scheduled for the undercard.
Fans instantly blasted Shamrock and questioned the legitimacy of the injury. Freak accidents are not foreign to combat sports, but the story Shamrock gave suggested he was either a) warming up entirely too hard or b) intentionally cut himself to get out of the fight.
The show, as they say, must go on. Sportsbook scrambled to put up a line for the new contest, inserting Petruzelli as a heavy underdog. Sharp bettors and hardcore fans alike understood the stand-in opponent offered a much more significant challenge for the inexperienced Slice.
It wouldn’t take long for those pundits to see the fruits of their prognostication.
Less than twenty seconds after the opening bell, Petruzelli dropped the Miami native with a perfectly placed jab. Slice instinctively turtled up as Petruzelli jumped on the offensive and the ref stepped in. Gus Johnson lost his mind comparing Petruzelli to “Rocky” and labeling the KO as the biggest upset in the sport’s history. Hyperbole and exaggeration aside, the incident certainly warranted Johnson’s passion as it would change the direction of the company in a heartbeat.
Petruzelli made overtures the next morning about being told of a knockout bonus before the bout. Performance bonuses are a standard practice in mixed martial arts, but are usually offered for a knockout OR submission. The utterance, which set off a wave of criticism from media and blogs, proved to be the final straw that broke the fledgling promotion’s back. Executives forced Gary Shaw into taking a diminished role in the operation, essentially rubbing him out of relevance. The move foreshadowed the beginning of the end as less than a month later, Pro Elite announced they were closing up shop.
It’s not usual for the same events to win the awards in consecutive years, but this story carries aftershock into the new year. Former elements of the company are attempting to resurrect the fallen promotion. Former fighters end up in contract purgatory stuck with an organization desperately trying to hang out to whatever assets it has left. The fighters have banded together in an attempt to break away from the crippled company, and the upcoming legal battle is an early contender for “Story” and “Disgrace of the Year.”
2nd PLACE: Randy Couture Returns to the UFC
3rd PLACE: The Death of Evan Tanner