MMA: EliteXC is Dead!

Ken Shamrock did not fight Kimbo Slice last night in the main event. Yesterday Kenny was practicing and he took an accidental headbutt to the head which opened up his head along the eyebrow. He had to have 6 or 7 sutures to close the wound. He visited three different doctors after the injury and none of them would clear him to fight last night due to the wound.

I have not seen the overnight rating for the show, but it opened with Ken Shamrock cutting a promo in which he told the crowd that he was injured and not allowed to fight. At that point you could hear channels changing across the country.

The last second replacement for the oft-injured Shamrock was Seth Petruzelli. Petruzelli is a relatively unknown fighter who is best known for his appearance on the second season of UFC's The Ultimate Fighter.

The hope was for Kimbo to make quick work of a way past his prime Ken Shamrock. A dominant win for Kimbo would have further made him star. Going into last night's show Kimbo Slice was EliteXC's only legitimate big money draw. This is probably no longer the case.

Petruzelli is a much younger and stronger fighter than Ken Shamrock.
The fight begins with Kimbo Slice immediately taking the center of the ring and closes in on Petruzelli with punches. In the exchange Kimbo gets hit on the chin and he collapses. Petruzelli pummels his opponent with 10 or so unprotected head shots and the referee has seen enough.

Kimbo Slice was defeated in 14 seconds. Seth Petruzelli delivered the knockout that destroyed an entire MMA company.

I for one welcome our UFC overlords. Somewhere Dana White danced a jig.

MMA: Randy Couture Returns to UFC

Randy Couture is the current UFC World Heavyweight Champion. Last August he destroyed Gabriel Gonzaga, and then two months later he announced that he was resigning as UFC champion. This happened right after the negotiations between the UFC and heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, which was a fight that Couture had publicly stated he wanted.

Then it came out that Couture was not actually retiring, and he felt his pay level was a sign of disrespect.

In February Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira beat Tim Sylvia in a match for the UFC Interim Heavyweight title. Couture was never stripped, because UFC contracts have an automatic roll over if you are a champion. Your contract won't expire until you lose the belt. Randy Couture being the Heavyweight Champion helped the UFC's legal standing.

He sued to be released from his contract, the UFC counter sued, and then Couture appeared on the Affliction PPV in July. The court date for his contractual dispute was schedule for September/October, and I guess Couture realized that he had no legal standing.

A week ago www.f4wonline.com had reported that Couture was in negotiations for a new 3 fight deal with the UFC. Yesterday the UFC held a press conference where they announced the new contract for the 45 year old Couture.

His first fight back will be at UFC 91 on November 15th against Brock Lesner. It will be a 5 round title fight in Las Vegas. Then winner of the Couture-Lesner fight will face the winner of December's Interim Heavyweight title fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir sometime next Spring.

UFC President Dana White, Randy Couture, and Brock Lesner were all present for yesterday's press conference. Many of the questions were about a possible Couture-Fedor fight, which is a fight that would make a ton of money. Dana White said that they were interested in that fight, but Fedor is under contract with Affliction and he is not interested in tampering. The Fedor questions continued, and Brock Lesner had finally heard enough and he responded with the highlight of the press conference:

"Who give a shit about Fedor? I'm sick of hearing about fucking Fedor. He's not with the company, he might not ever be with the company, so who gives a shit?"

This was awesome! If Fedor ever does sign a deal with the UFC then the pre match hype videos will be filled with that quote, and everyone will want to see that fight. Brock Lesner is a former WWE professional wrestling champion, and he knows how to sell a fight.

Also in the press conference Dana White says that the Couture-Lesner fight will top 1 million buys. The UFC has not yet reached the 1 million buys mark, so it's difficult to estimate that high but this is definitely going to be a huge fight.

The next few months of UFC action is going to be very exciting, and the company is about to make a ridiculous amount of money over the next quarter. Affliction on the other hand? Well, Dana White said in the press conference that he would be shocked to see Affliction in business come January, and I can't say that I disagree with him.

Rampage!

Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson was arrested yesterday after police were responding to reports of a hit and run involving his vehicle. As you can see from the AP picture, his truck is easy to find since it has a huge picture of himself on it. Awesome.

Once the police caught up with him he continued to drive on a flat tire and led the police on a short chase before he finally stopped. Police officers had their guns drawn as he was taken into custody.

THIS IS HUGE NEWS

Rampage lost the Light Heavyweight title to Forrest Griffin on July 5th. It was a very close and an extremely awesome fight. The UFC Light Heavyweight Championship is the premier title belt in the premier mixed martial arts organization in the world.
Quinton Jackson was the 12-5 favorite in Vegas for this fight, and chances are he will be the odds makers favorite for a potential rematch. He is one of the top fighters in the world at the premier weight class in the UFC.

The only reason why this story isn't being reported everywhere is because it's going to take the media sources a while to figure out who this guy is and what it means. The sports writers in this country are an old boys club, and they are slow to learn no things. They didn't spend anytime learning about MMA as a sport growing up, so as it becomes more popular they have no idea how to report on it. So instead they look down upon it and publish lies. The weekend of the last UFC pay per view where Rampage lost the title ESPN gave something like 12 times the amount of coverage to the competitive hotdog eating contest in Long Island. Let me rephrase that- The premier sporting news network in the world spent 12 times as long covering an eating contest than they did on a title change in the UFC.

The Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer reported that UFC President Dana White went to Orange County to post bail. I hope that someday n I get into trouble a very powerful rich man will come to my aid.

He was booked on suspicion of felony evading, hit and run and reckless driving.
There were no injuries, so I would not be surprised to see absolutely no jail time handed down. Then again this is the United States and Quinton Jackson is a black man, so you never know. With the PPV buyrate percentage that is negotiated into his contract it's estimated that he made right around 7 figures for his fight on July 5, so he should be able to afford to get himself some excellent lawyers.

It has been a full 24 hours since the incident and no one is reporting that there were drugs or alcohol involved. It does seem like erratic behavior of sorts from the former champion.

In other MMA news the UFC is running a free a show on Spike TV this weekend with a main event of current middleweight champion Anderson Silva vs James Irvin. This will not be for the Middleweight Championship as Silva will be fighting up a weight class. He is hoping to defend the Middleweight title at 185 lbs and also fight at 205 lbs. I hope he holds two belts in two weight classes at the same time.

This free Spike TV special is going head to head with the first pay per view from the Affliction group which has a main event of former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia and Fedor Emelianenko. Fedor has long been considered the top heavyweight in the world, but since he's never fought in the UFC my question is, then who has he really beaten? I hope Fedor wins, because I sure hate Tim Sylvia. Regardless I'm only watching this match if it shows up on youtube.

Save your money, watch the free show on Spike.