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Re: Kimbo in Limbo
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 Were you shocked by Seth Petruzelli's 14-second knockout of Kimbo Slice last weekend? Maybe you had a right to be...
ESPN.com is reporting that the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation has opened a preliminary investigation into whether there is any evidence that ProElite tried to influence the fight.
The controversy took shape in a Monday interview on "The Monsters of Orlando" show. Petruzelli told the show, "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."
Petruzelli later claimed his statement was "misconstrued."
Jeremy Lappen, head of fight operations for ProElite subsidiary EliteXC, isn't concerned about the investigation. He insists there was no attempt to influence the fight in any way.
"We had a main event that fell out three hours before the fight was scheduled to start," Lappen told ESPN.com. "We had to scramble. And rather than call off the event, which is what most promoters would do, we put together something for the fans -- and tried to put on the best fight possible.
"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."
Did ProElite try to protect Kimbo? Does it matter since Petruzelli knocked him out? Sound off here.
Message Edited by Lee_Russakoff on 10-10-2008 01:18 AM
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