In a development that few of you will admit to caring about, Tito Ortiz now says that returning to the UFC is a real possibility, and he’s looking to emerge from his competitive hiatus this summer. As Michael David Smith at AOL MMA FanHouse writes:
[At] last weekend’s Rumble in the Park in Fresno, Ortiz said, “It’s either going to be with the UFC or it’s going to be with Affliction, but guaranteed, you guys will see me fight — no matter what — by July.”
Ortiz also mentioned that he had back surgery last month, which he deemed successful. He also said it was the same surgery that Nate Quarry had, and Quarry was out of action for 15 months after his back surgery. So Ortiz is very optimistic if he thinks he can guarantee that he’ll return just seven months after the surgery.
He’s also optimistic if he thinks Affliction will still be in the MMA business in July. And he’s optimistic if he thinks UFC will still be willing to do business with him. Bottom line, Ortiz is an optimistic guy.
Of course, it could be worse: Ortiz was close to signing a contract with EliteXC. As former EliteXC fighter Jake Shields said, “Good thing he didn’t sign with them. He’d be on eBay.”
Quick timeline, if you haven’t been keeping up…
May 28th: Tito Ortiz definitively states that his decision loss to Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 was his last appearance in the UFC’s Octagon. “Me going to somewhere else is 100% happening,” he says in his usual eloquent style.
As much as Dana White hates Tito Ortiz, the UFC might be the only organization left that would actually deal with him. Put against the right opponents, he’ll still have a decent amount of drawing power, even though he’s no longer worth as much as he thinks he is. Still, Ortiz should approach a new UFC contract with extreme caution. Because if I was Dana White, there’d be nothing stopping me from signing Ortiz to a three-fight deal — and then making him fight Lyoto Machida all three times.
Sometimes mainstream pop culture is just a tad slow when it comes to keeping up with trends. A little less than a month after his image-shattering loss to Seth Petruzelli, which was followed by the demise of EliteXC, and this week Kimbo Slice’s name is on everybody’s lips. First it was Tracy Morgan on Conan O’Brien, then Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, and then PTI’s Michael Wilbon dressed up as him for Halloween.
Oh, the cruel irony of it all. Has Kimbo been elevated to true celebrity status due to his mainstream exposure, or is he merely the pop culture joke of the week? At this rate he’s nearing Joe the Plumber status, or that ‘Leave Britney Alone’ guy (that was a guy, right?). Kimbo better hope it lasts long enough to sign a new contract.
(’Oh, the bruises? It’s not her fault. I just make her so mad sometimes. She’s really very sweet. You don’t know the things she says to me when we’re alone’.)
“I’ve been in camp for over eight weeks and I’ve been pushing myself hard. It’s one thing if [it happens] two months out from a fight, but two weeks? It’s devastating. Even if I lost, worst case scenario, (including sponsorship money) I would still be out close to $40,000. Until all the paperwork and everything is done I’m not going to be cleared to fight somewhere else before the end of the year. It’s close to the holidays, I got a mortgage to pay, I’ve got two kids, it’s tough.”
Damn, Scott. Now I just feel terrible. There may have been a lot of small failures and a few colossal ones behind EliteXC’s demise, but you sure as hell can’t put any of it on Smith, whose clashes with Robbie Lawler were among the most memorable (for the right reasons) bouts in EliteXC’s brief history.
So if it ain’t Scott Smith’s fault, dammit, whose fault is it? Former Pro Elite VP of Home Entertainment Turi Altavilla doesn’t explicitly say it was Jared Shaw’s fuck-ups that did them in, but he certainly doesn’t absolve $kala from responsibility either. Apparently after Jared’s father, Gary Shaw, left the company under the condition that his son would stay on, things took a turn for the stupid:
“Jared would try and make it very clear that both he and the matchmaking team were calling the shots with the matchmaking,” says Altavilla. “There wasn’t even any pretending that they would try and throw us a bone. There were times when others had different ideas for matches that were clearly better ideas, and he’d make it clear that that wasn’t going to happen.”
[…]
“At the end of it all, you’re talking about guys with years and years of experience that have seen and done this on many levels, and then you’re talking about Jared, who was basically a fan,” says Altavilla. “It often seemed to me like he was a fan who won some reality show and got to be a part of an MMA company.”
[…]
“I think a lot of us were guilty of keeping our mouths shut, because we thought it was a matter of time before Jared was going to get the boot,” says Altavilla. “We thought it would be any week. Obviously, that never happened.”
Altavilla also criticizes the younger Shaw for becoming a part of Kimbo Slice’s entourage, for making their contract dispute with KJ Noons both public and personal, and for being a general jackass who preferred to show up and steal the limelight rather than do the actual work that makes an MMA event happen. Somehow I remain completely unsurprised at these accusations.
As for what ultimately went wrong with EliteXC, Altavilla said they simply “blew it.” Some more than others, it would seem.
(’Hey, just because the company has gone under that doesn’t mean we can’t still hang out, right big guy?’ Photo courtesy of Esther Lin.)
If you’re wondering why we haven’t heard from Jared Shaw (aka: “little rapper kid”) since the collapse of Pro Elite, there’s a good reason. $kala has not been heard from because $kala does not want to be heard from. He has retreated from the media spotlight, as our friends at MMA Rated learned when they attempted to get him on the phone and instead got this outgoing voicemail message:
“This is the voicemail of Jared ‘Skala’ Shaw. Leave me a message and I will return it at my earliest opportunity. If this is a member of the media, I will not be returning your call. I’m sorry. Namaste.”
Seriously, Jared? Namaste? Does that mean you won’t return calls because you have a yoga class to get to?
Not that I blame $kala for not wanting to talk to the media right now, but it is something of a chickenshit move. Maybe it’s because he knows he doesn’t have any good answers to give. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to hear the inevitable questions about what role his cageside freakout might have played in the whole ordeal, and whether Pro Elite was truly forced to keep him on in order to get his father out. Who knows.
What we do know is that not returning calls isn’t going to keep people from talking about you, so wouldn’t you at least like a chance to give your perspective? Who would have thought that this is how Jared Shaw would go out. Freaking Namaste.
Dana White is downright pissed off. He’s so mad at EliteXC in this video, one camera angle is insufficient for capturing his rage. He lays into EliteXC for the Seth Petruzelli “knockout bonus” scandal and suggests that Jeremy Lappen and the Shaws should look into the kickboxing business if they want to keep fights off the ground so badly. I couldn’t agree more.
For his part, EliteXC Head of Operations Jeremy Lappen changes his story yet again in a talk with AOL Fanhouse. First, Lappen told Si.com that Petruzelli was offered a knockout bonus, but the company doesn’t offer submission bonuses. Then he told ESPN.com that Petruzelli was offered a KO bonus, a submission bonus, and a fight of the night bonus. Now he says both stories misquoted him:
“They’re both wrong,” Lappen said. “We have given submission bonuses in the past but they’re not as common as knockout bonuses. If the question is, ‘Have we ever given submission bonuses?’ The answer is yes. But we give knockout bonuses more often. We gave Seth a knockout bonus before the fight started. That was part of the deal.”
Hold up, you gave him a knockout bonus before the fight started? As in, before he had knocked anyone out? Goddammit Lappen, I sure as hell hope you were “misquoted” yet again. At the very least I hope it’s just poor phrasing on your part and what you meant to say was you told of him of a potential knockout bonus before the fight. But either way, it’s still bullshit. You offered him an incentive to win a fight in a very specific manner, not an incentive to simply finish the fight.
Not to mention, this is the third time you’ve changed your story. Nobody gets misquoted this often. Not unless they keep changing their story so often that they can’t keep all the versions straight in their own mind.
(Just think of what might have been. Or better yet, don’t think about it. Ever.)
Oh, Ken Shamrock. Somehow the controversy over whether you cut yourself on purpose or whether you were just unlucky/dumb has been overshadowed in the past few days by other EliteXC controversies. It’s almost as if people have completely forgotten that it was supposed to be you who got paid extra to stand and trade with Kimbo Slice. Instead, you didn’t make a dime and ended up being but a footnote in this sad spectacle.
But fear not, MMA fans, for Ken Shamrock has composed (read: asked someone to write for him) an open letter explaining what went on this past Saturday and what he’d like to do about it. Take it away, Ken:
On October 4th, I was set to fight Kimbo Slice on the EliteXC/CBS Saturday Night Fights in a highly anticipated event. Unfortunately, because of a training accident and the intervention of the Florida State Boxing Commission, our fight did not happen. I suffered a cut above my left eye that required six stitches, and the cut was significant enough to cause the Florida State Boxing Commission to refuse to allow me to fight.
The scheduled bout with Kimbo on the EliteXC/CBS Saturday Night Fight card was a great opportunity, and it is unfortunate that I was unable to face Kimbo as planned. I want to apologize to all of my fans, and to the EliteXC and CBS executives who worked so hard to put this fight together. I also want to apologize to Kimbo, Bas Rutten and their entire camp for what happened. I recognize that I put them in a very bad situation, particularly Kimbo. It’s difficult to walk into the ring after training for one opponent only to find out hours before the fight that you have to face some you don’t know or have never seen fight.
Over the years there have been many great times as well as disappointing times and I know Saturday the fans were as disappointed as I was. I was worked up so I decided to train with my partners in order to stay focused on the fight. I was just doing a light roll to check holds when I got caught by a head butt. It was a freak accident and I didn’t think anything of it until I saw drops of blood. It appeared to be a deep laceration so I had my physician look at it and we immediately went to the emergency room. When they said the cut would require stitches, my heart sank because I knew that the Florida Boxing Commission would not let me fight. I was disappointed because I knew this was an opportunity to give the fans, my friends, and my family something to cheer about. It has been a hard couple of years for me, and for my fans. I have suffered some disappointing losses. I definitely regret my decision to train on the day of the fight.
I promise that I will make this up to all my fans. I know that there is nothing I can do about what occurred, but I plan to get back into the ring soon. I would like it to be against Kimbo Slice. Hopefully EliteXC/CBS will still be able to put a fight together. It’s is the right thing to do. The fans want it and I want it.
I would also like to congratulate Petruzelli on his win. He did a phenomenal job. Seth not accepted the challenge of facing a new opponent; he also had to move up in weight class. He came in, dominated Kimbo and walked away with a great victory.
To the fans, I appreciate all of your support.
Thank you and God Bless.
Ken Shamrock
Yeah, Ken, about getting that fight with Kimbo now? I don’t know. Before, it seemed kind of sad and a little exploitative for EliteXC to match you and Kimbo up, for many reasons. But now, after you had to pull out of the fight and EliteXC got really, really mad at you and then Kimbo got TKO’d in fourteen seconds against a mediocre light heavyweight, it seems downright bizarre. Kind of like getting fired from your job one day and then coming in to the work the next and acting like nothing happened. They are not going to play along. Trust me. They are going to call security. And it only gets uglier from there.
Spoiler alert: Ninja, Gina, Andrei, Jake, and Kimbo (!) are going to win, maybe all within the first round. If you’re curious about how exactly it’ll happen, read on. Hit that “more” link and refresh the page every few minutes to get all the latest updates from the live CBS broadcast, comin’ atcha from the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. Seriously though, this is about to be some lopsided shit. Grab some beers.
Get this: At about 6:20 p.m. ET, MMA Rated passed along the word that Ken Shamrock sustained a cut above his eye in the last 24 hours while training, forcing him to pull out of tonight’s main event against Kimbo Slice. Frank Shamrock — who is handling commentary tonight for CBS — actually volunteered to step in as a last-minute replacement, but he isn’t licensed to fight in Florida, so EliteXC instead had their eyes on KOTC brawler/UFC castoff Seth Petruzelli, who was supposed to face Aaron Rosa on tonight’s undercard. Then, MMA Rated reported that a very shady doctor was found who cleared Shamrock to fight around 7 p.m., saving “Heat” from one of the greatest Epic Fails in MMA history. Well, we hope. MMA Weekly now says that the fight has a 50/50 chance of happening. Other sources say the fight is 100% dunzo.
Update: Ariel Helwani tells Ben Fowlkes (who tells me) that Seth Petruzelli is 100% in as Ken’s replacement. Wow. On the bright side, Kimbo is finally fighting a legitimate heavyweight who isn’t riding an eight-fight losing streak. This should be interesting…
Update #2: “JM” wins the t-shirt. Shoot your address and size to feedback@cagepotato.com, brah.
CagePotato.com’s EliteXC: Heat liveblog is brought to you by Old Speckled Hen and Debbie’s Killer Wings.
Quick poll: Does the replacement of Ken Shamrock with Seth Petruzelli make this event more or less compelling for you?
The broadcast begins with Gina, Kimbo, Andrei, and Jake slow-walking in front of a sunset, a narrator descriving how badass they are. Then we have a highlight montage, which even features Mauro Ranallo in slow-mo. They show Ken shoving Kimbo at the weigh-ins, a total bitch move — real sub-WWE shit. Gus Johnson confirms that Ken is out and Seth is in. We cut to a very disappointed Ken Shamrock. His cut, which required six stitches, does indeed look pretty nasty. But Shamrock expresses that he’d rather fight through it. (”I’ll fight right now…I’ve fought worse than this.”) He apologizes. He says “Kimbo deserves a beating, and I’m gonna give it to him.” Alright, stop talking now so we can get on with it.
Frank Shamrock wonders aloud why Ken is training this hard so early before the fight, “jeopardizing his career and the Shamrock family legacy.”
We see Kimbo walking backstage with his entourage. Icey Mike is definitely in the mothafuckin’ house. And there’s the first Affliction commercial of the night, plugging Fedor Emelianenko and his “signature line.”
Murilo “Ninja” Rua vs. Benji Radach
Fun fact: Radach is a practitioner of “facesmashing fu.” Round 1: Radach rushes in with punches, then some more, rocking Rua. Rua swings back, but he’s in trouble. Radach nails Rua again, and swarm him against the cage. Rua tries to clinch, but Radach punches out of it. They both connect and we almost get a double KO as both fighters go down! Groggily, Radach crawls over to Rua and tries to get on top but Rua gets up and clinches. Radach is bloody. Radach thinks about a gillotine, but Rua backs him off and lands a flying knee. Radach takes Rua down and takes his back. Rua twists around and tries for an armbar. Radach gets on top and Rua tries for an ankle lock. It’s a close call, but Radach escapes. Rua tries again for the foot lock, Radach escapes again and gets to his feet. They soon go to the ground again and the bell rings as Rua tries for a rear-naked choke. Amazing round.
Round 2: Rua with a hard leg kick, then a nice knee to the body. Radach brushes him back with a left hook. Radach sticks Rua with a punch as Rua comes in for a kick, then lands a big straight right. Rua clinches and goes for the single leg, but Radach shakes out. Rua slips while throwing a flying knee and falls on his back. Radach jumps on top and punches Rua’s lights out. KO, Radach, 2:31 of round 1.
Gina Carano says she’s considering going to 145 from now on. “Conditioning isn’t an issue, but the steam room is.”
Gina Carano vs. Kelly Kobold
Kobold gets some boos. A Team Bison member, her rash guard plugs DoWork.com. (That’s like CareerBuilder, right?) Round 1: Kobold gets cracked going in for a takedown, and clinches with Carano against the fence. Carano gets a knee in, but she seems to be overpowered. Kobold trying hard for the single-leg but Carano gets out and starts throwing leather. Both women land shots before Carano gets the thai clinch and throws a couple knees. Kobold bulls Carano against the cage, trying again for the takedown. Carano escapes. Kobold is bleeding from the forehead. Carano takes a hard punch as the round ends.
By the way, Cyborg won a decision against Yoko Takahashi earlier in the evening.
Round 2: Carano lands a nice right and throws a flurry, smelling blood. Kobold grabs on to stops the damage. Kobold tries for a guillotine, but Carano escapes and throws punches. Kobold slips in a left hook, Carano answers with her own. Then a right from Carano. Carano is sticking n’ moving very well now, but Kobold doesn’t stop moving forward. Tough broad. Kobold rushes forward pinwheeling her arms then gets a takedown. Kobold throwing down shots from the top as the round ends. A lot closer fight than expected.
Round 3: Kobold bulling forward, clinches with Carano against the cage. Kobold really wants to take it to the ground, but Carano’s defense is solid. Gina looking for a guillotine. A stalemate against the cage and the crowd boos. The ref separates them. Kobold’s punches are wild, but she gets Gina against the cage again. Knee from Carano. Carano sinks in a weird side choke from the top, but Kobold pulls out. Gina lands two punches and two front kicks, and three body kicks as the round ends. She stole the round in the last 15 seconds, and will probably get the decision. Kobold was tenacious, but didn’t do enough damage. Meanwhile, Kelly’s face is bleeding hard. Judges love blood.
Sorry, technical difficulties. Gina wins the unanimous decision.
Roy Nelson vs. Andrei Arlovski
Next to Andrei, Roy just looks like some short fat guy. Round 1: Arlovski lands two leg kicks and Nelson clinches against the cage. Nelson takes Arlovski down and gets on top, passing quickly to side control. Nelson tries for the straight armlock, but Arlovski gets out. Arlovski pops out from under Nelson, kicking him off, but Nelson dives back on into half-guard. Nelson again works for an armlock from the top. The ref brings them back to their feet. Nelson whiffs on a huge haymaker and clinches again with Arlovski against the cage. Arlovski gets in a nice knee to Nelson’s face, then one to the body. The ref breaks up the stalemate against the cage. Arlovski lands a leg kick and a solid straight punch. Nelson swings and misses. Nelson again pushing Arlovski against the cage and the crowd boos. The round ends.
Tito Ortiz says he’s about a week away from signing with Elite. Ooh! He says he’d like a rematch with Frank Shamrock.
Round 2: Arlovski gets in two punches, but slips and Nelson mobs him against the cage. Arlovski gets out and gets in a right straight then a head kick, wobbling Nelson. Arlovski gets the thai clinch and drives in a knee, then a punch flurry when Nelson wriggles out, and Arlovski finds Nelson’s off button. He hits the mat in a heap. Great knockout punch, 3:14 of round 2.
Oh, hey: The person who predicts the ending of Kimbo/Petruzelli the closest gets a CagePotato “Hall of Fame” t-shirt.
Jake Shields vs. Paul Daley
Shields runs out to the cage with his championship belt over his shoulder. Dude’s psyched. Round 1: Jake Shields throws some kicks to start, then shoots for a takedown, but Daley sprawls and stuffs it. Good leg kick by Daley. Shields shoots for another takedown and gets it. He passes to side control, then full mount. Daley is jammed up against the cage; a bad spot. Shields throws down some punches from the top. Daley tries to wriggle out, but Shields sticks on him, posturing up and dropping shots. Shields is high on Daley’s chest now, jackhammering punches. Daley’s covering up, but has no answer. Shields tries for an armbar, but can’t get it. He tries again, and Daley rolls on top of Shields, bashing him with elbows. The round ends. Still, it was Shields’s round.
Round 2: Daley’s brushes back Shields with a head kick. Daley rushes forward landing some hard punches. Daley clinches and nails Shields with a knee, and drags him to the mat. Shields gets up. Daley gets in a nice left hook and Shields drops, trying to take it to the ground. Daley wants nothing to do with it. Shields pushes Daley against the cage and takes him down, getting mount again. Shields tries to set up an armbar again and fails. Daley isn’t doing anything on the ground except getting punched. Shields moves to side control, then mount again, and sets up the armbar once again. He gets it this time, and Daley taps, 3:47 of round 2.
Shields says he wouldn’t mind going to 185 and challenging for Robbie Lawler’s belt.
The main event is next, which means the broadcast will only go about 15-20 minutes over, tops. Not bad, guys!
In the highlights from the Cyborg/Yoko fight, we see that Yoko took quite a beating en route to that decision loss. Would you expect anything less?
Kimbo: “I just try to shed blood on the situation.”
Oh, so Seth Petruzelli is a light-heavyweight now? Wonderful.
Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzelli Round 1: Kimbo comes in and gets cracked with a knee right away, then Seth mobs him with punches until the ref stops it!!! Seth Petruzelli SHOCKS THE WORLD! THE MOST INCREDIBLE VICTORY IN THE HISTORY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS, ACCORDING TO THE ANNOUNCER!!!
In the replay, I see that it was actually a punch that rocked Kimbo after a front kick. My bad. Kimbo got his lights turned out by a short punch. And so ends the great Kimbo Slice MMA experiment.
EliteXC is so fucked. This is the worst thing that could have possibly happened.
Who had Seth by TKO in 14 seconds? Because you just won a shirt.
Kimbo says it’s all good, and still thanks his sponsors. He shouts out his afterparty and leaves the building. “Kimbo Slice, who knows what’s next for him.”
Mauro says that Kimbo wasn’t in the proper state of mind when he was walking out to the cage, but this is really a “mulligan” for him, considering he wasn’t preparing for Seth. Gus Johnson is basically eulogizing Kimbo now. And that’s the broadcast.
Major props to Esther Lin @ Combat Lifestyle. (For more pics from the EliteXC weigh-ins, click here.) By the way, that’s her father on the right. Not sure how the dude on the left got the gig. Bonus hotness after the jump…
PSYCHE, BITCHES!!!!!
p.s.: The look on Yoko Takahashi’s face? Priceless.
(Eilers, jobbing in the “fat guys with shirts” circuit.)
Sam Caplan at 5oz. reports that a verbal agreement has been reached for a bout between EliteXC heavyweight standout Antonio Silva and Justin Eilers, which would go down at EliteXC’s second CBS broadcast on July 26th. Jared Shaw indicated that the league’s vacant heavyweight belt would “more than likely be at stake,” though he stopped short of an actual confirmation.
Let’s just say this is a step down from those Sergei Kharitonov rumors. A 19-6-1 veteran of various MMA leagues, Eilers won his Octagon debut against Mike Kyle at UFC 49 (8/21/04), but was bounced out of the league after consecutive losses to Paul Buentello, Andrei Arlovski, and Brandon Vera (all by first-round KO/TKO). Since then he’s gone 10-1, but hasn’t beaten anybody noteworthy, unless you consider Sherman Pendergarst and Jimmy Ambriz noteworthy.
In short, he’s a successful journeyman, but doesn’t quite deserve to fight for a major title on network television. If this is the best heavyweight EliteXC can scare up right now — and honestly, where the hell is Roy Nelson? — they’d be much wiser to save the credibility of their heavyweight strap while it’s still non-existent, and use Silva/Eilers as a non-title squash match to open the CBS broadcast, introducing viewers to the scary power of Bigfoot. If Silva does well, fans would surely welcome him back to fight for the title against someone legitimate. We’ll keep you posted…
