Was Petruzelli was asked to fix the fight? What does Kimbo’s loss mean for EliteXC? Where does he go next? How much did they get paid? How much were the bonuses? What kind of ratings did EliteXC get? If you have been asking yourself these questions and are looking for answers, you came to the right place. Also, look at our EliteXC category to your left to look at GIFs and results from the “Heat” event, as well as past results, articles, and GIFs.
Did Seth get paid to keep it standing?
First, let’s clarify the “Petruzelli was asked to keep it standing” fiasco. Seth DID say this in a video interview:
“I knew I would do all right, actually, standing up with him, 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.”
I am not sure of any other way to take it beyond they didn’t want him to take Kimbo down. Did this mean that they thought of this as Kimbo’s Achilles Heel and didn’t want him to lose or that they thought it would be a more entertaining fight if it remained standing? The folks at EliteXC of course, denied that they requested this tactic. Petruzelli has since reneged on his comment and said:
“What was meant to be said was that I wanted to keep the fight standing for myself because I knew that was what the crowd, the promoters, and everyone wanted to see because that’s more exciting than just taking someone to the ground. That was my thing only. I wanted to keep it exciting, so I decided to keep it standing. It had nothing to do with anybody else. That was all me.”
What did everyone get paid?
Smell like rotten fish? Well you can make it smell even worse when you find out that Seth was paid $50,000 to fight Kimbo and got a $15,000 win bonus, yet he said on a 104.1 FM interview on Monday that he got 6 figures. Hmmm…..2+2=7?
Kimbo on the other hand got a cool $500,000 for his fight and missed out on his $100,000 win bonus. Andrei Arlovski also scored $500,000 to beat Roy Nelson who got $80,000. These guys were both paid by Affliction and it is not known whether Arlovski got a win bonus. Other high earners included Jake Shields who got $40,000 and a $10,000 bonus to defeat Paul Daley who got $12,000. Benji Radach got $15,000 to fight and another $15,000 for defeating Murilo Rua who got $35,000.
Next in amount paid was Gina Carano who got $15,000 to fight and a $10,000 bonus to beat Kelly Kobold who got $6,000. The rest of the payouts are as follows:
Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos: $4,000/$4,000 win bonus
Yoko Takahashi: $2,000
Conor Heun: $2,500/$2,500 win bonus
James Edson Berto: $6,000
Mikey Gomez: $2,000/$2,000 win bonus
Lorenzo Borgomeo: $1,500
David Gomez: $1,000
Bryan Hamade: $500/$500 win bonus
Jorge Boechat: $1,000
Nicolae Cury: $750/$750 win bonus
What kind of ratings did “Heat” pull?
4.3 Million viewers tuned in to the EliteXC “Heat” Event. In the first installment of Saturday Night Fights, they drew 4.85 million viewers, so dagnabit….that’s pretty good! CBS suits said that they don’t have the stats for the expected increase in viewers for the last 20 minutes when Kimbo fought yet, but it is expected to rival or better the first show. Full ratings are expected to be released some time today. As for gate receipts and attendance the event drew a total attendance of 9,414 (7,723 paid) for a live gate of $826,433.
Perspective on the Petruzelli/Slice fight: what does it mean?
While not necessarily a Kimbo fan, I think the rape that he is getting by journalists is overly aggressive and unwarranted. Most articles are trying top paint him as a farce, or that his loss is the death knell for Kimbo and EliteXC, or that he got exposed. Give me a break.
Kimbo took the sport seriously, begun training under the tutelage of one of the all time greats in Bas Rutten, and has shown himself to be respectful of the sport and the fighters. In his 4th fight he and a few hours notice he took on a fighter that has years more under his belt and 10 more fights. Yahoo! Sports Writer and MMA NOOB Wetzel sated that Kimbo towered over Seth, like Kimbo was some kind of enormous monster. Seth is 6′ tall and Kimbo 6′ 2″ and though Seth weighed 205#s for this fight, what is not known by the casual fan is why Seth is called the “Silverback”: because he has fought at 245#s, and is a monster of a man:
What is also not known by an amateur like Wetzel is that Seth has 9 TKOs in his 10 wins, which equates to a 90% TKO ratio and with 4-6 oz. gloves on ANYONE can get KOed. Apparently, this is lost on Wetzel, who would rather write an article about the Boogeyman being slaughtered so he can sleep at night than be an objective journalist. Fie on him.
What other goodies are going on?
Jake Shields who defeated Paul Daley on the same card is discussing a possible move to Middleweight. After 11 wins in a row, he has more than made a statement at 170#s. Since it seems he won’t be picked up by the UFC or he simply doesn’t have an interest, it’s probably a sensible move. At press conference on Saturday Night he stated about why he is considering the move:
“It’s more (due to) a lack of people for me to fight. I have no problem fighting at 170 (pounds) if I had the right fights. But unfortunately, outside the UFC, there just really aren’t any big fights right now. And, there really are some good 185-pounders out there outside the UFC.
It puts me in a situation where I’m kind of stuck. I have to go up in weight or fight guys who don’t hold the same name recognition. If you want a big fight, you have to fight guys with equal name recognition. I’m kind of stuck in a situation where I need to go to the UFC or fight up a weight (class).”
Director of Fight Operations Jeremy Lappen stated that it’s only a matter of time now that Cyborg and Gina Carano face off. “I know it’s a fight they both want. We’ve talked about early next year — February, March-ish. That’s a fight that the fans want to see. I think it’s going to be the biggest fight obviously in female MMA history. I think it will be one of the biggest fights in MMA history. I just think there’s that kind of buzz about that fight. So we’re extremely excited about putting it on.”
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