Kimbo the has been lol

[BigDaddy]

Well my friends I just saw Kimbo get his lilly black ass fucked up lol... By Seth Petruzelli the guy that taught me how to spin kick in the airport after he almost took Bob Sapp's head off in Japan. Way to go and humble them there promoters. I think Kimbo was beginning to believe some of that crap too. He was beaten in to me less then 20sec . please post the video anyone.

[Tom Erikson]

Just a few random thoughts on Kimbo.
First, he has been exposed as a quality B level fighter that in time may be more.
Second, we should be careful for what we wish for in terms of someone finally exposing Kimbo.
The reason for that is Kimbo has brought a great deal of attention to the sport of MMA, he has been the poster child for MMA going to free network television, without him would Elite XC even taken a stab at network television. Now that he has been exposed as everyone wished will Elite XC be able to continue to foot the bill for live network TV. Will Elite XC without the all mighty television dollar be able to pay for fighters cast off by the UFC. Without the competition of Elite XC will the other organizations be willing to pay their talent a decent wage. We all agreed that Kimbo was not the real deal and wanted him to get his just dues, but now that he has lost at what cost to the rest of the MMA world.
Just some thoughts for all you Daddy O's

[BigDaddy]

Final curtain for the Kimbo show

By Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports Oct 5, 4:50 am EDT

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* Future of EliteXC in Kimbo's fists Oct 2, 2008

Yahoo! Sports

SUNRISE, Fla. – The legend of Kimbo Slice was built by beating bums in boat yards and back alleys not far from here. It came crashing down Saturday courtesy of a quick punch from a pink-haired journeyman giving up two inches in height, four in reach and 30 pounds in muscle and might.

One simple shot sent Slice to the canvas and from there some guy named Seth Petruzelli needed just 12 punches and 14 seconds to put an end (we hope) to one of the great sporting charades of all time.

It was just a matter of time before Kimbo got exposed. He was little more than a character out of central casting, a bunch of addictive YouTube videos and a lot of insane hype by CBS, which made him a headliner before he made himself a fighter.

He was the Kimbo the Cash Machine, everyone lining up to exploit the lie that this was the baddest man on earth as long as he could walk through hand-picked tomato cans.

Only this time his match with 44-year-old Ken Shamrock, who hadn’t won a fight in over four years, fell apart when Shamrock cut his eye in a light training session Saturday and was deemed unfit to fight by state officials.

In the scramble to find a suitable replacement that Slice couldn’t possibly lose to, EliteXC considered Shamrock’s brother, Frank, who was there to be CBS’s color commentator, hadn’t fought lately due to a broken arm and would have given up around 45 pounds. Despite all this, Frank likely would have submitted Kimbo in the first round.

When that matchup couldn’t happen (EliteXC said state officials wouldn’t clear him, Frank said they did but CBS blocked it), EliteXC promoters turned to Petruzelli. The Fort Myers, Fla., native had been dumped by the big-league UFC, was just 2-2 since 2004, had recently taken a year off to start a business, weighed just 205 (to Kimbo’s 235) and was so lightly regarded he was competing in the non-televised undercard.
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Despite the oft-repeated propaganda that Slice was a man of “courage” for taking a fight with this smaller guy who was likely to stand and trade punches anyway, EliteXC paid Kimbo a cash bonus just to get him to step into the cage.

“We made it up to him,” said Jeremy Lappen, EliteXC’s head of fight operations. He wouldn’t disclose the amount.

For the myth of Slice, the matchup may not be a 44-year-old on a losing streak or someone from the broadcast booth, but really, what was the worst thing that could happen?

“It didn’t feel too flush,” Petruzelli said of the first punch that apparently didn’t even need to land squarely to fell Kimbo.

Make no mistake – or listen to the EliteXC spin – this was a disaster for Slice and the company. “This is MMA, all the best have lost,” said Lappen. True, but Kimbo wasn’t defeated by a crafty Brazilian jiu-jitsu master. He wasn’t caught in a submission by an experienced wrestler. He didn’t lose a decision after a three-round brawl.

Those would be understandable considering his novice status.

Kimbo was KTFO by a guy he absolutely towered over yet was willing to bang with him anyway. Not that Kimbo did any banging. Slice charged him (“He was like a truck,” Petruzelli said) but he never actually landed a punch.

In the end, Kimbo’s hand speed, defense and chin proved incapable against even an average mixed martial artist. Which was pretty much what every hardcore fan had predicted.

Not that CBS didn’t keep up with the Slice willing to fight, “anyone, anywhere, at anytime.” This was a 100 percent true statement if “anyone, anywhere, at anytime” means “no one any good, anywhere, ever.”

Slice seemed stunned and a bit saddened at the turn of events. After it was over, he initially began wrestling the referee. Whether that was a protest for the decision or because he was dazed isn’t certain. Then he walked around the cage complaining to fans about the stoppage.

Later he walked out on his CBS interview (“Kimbo?” asked a stunned Gus Johnson), although not before inviting America to an after party at a local nightclub. Then he showed up 45 minutes late for the main press conference, where he gave a quick statement and bailed.

“I got my first black eye,” he laughed. He later turned to Petruzelli and joked, “You knocked me out in front of my family; that’s (expletive) up.”

Through it all Slice remained the only likable character of this foolish farce. He wasn’t the one claiming he was the best in the world. He was just a working-class dude who figured out how to beat the system and cash in on his 15 minutes of fleeting fame.

He’s got kids to feed and bills to pay and right to the end, he was milking bonuses out of the promotion, a one-time homeless man holding the Tiffany Network’s prime-time programming hostage. Only in America.

He was the grand actor in the middle of a three-ring circus, a tall tale that would eventually come tumbling down under the bright glare of reality.

Where Slice goes from here is anyone’s guess. He can’t rebuild his reputation without stepping up in competition from the guy who just beat him in seconds. He can’t headline a card and have anyone believe he’s legit. He can’t claim he, “just got caught” when it wasn’t some wild, roundhouse right or sneaky arm-bar that did him in.

The truth was always coming for Kimbo. Saturday it arrived sooner rather than later, the money train grinding to a halt courtesy of a smaller, less heralded fighter that no one can claim is some elite champion.

No, this was it. It’ll never be the same, not for the fighter and not, perhaps, for his entire promotion that just lost its signature star on top of the $58 million it’s burned the past two years.

Afterward, EliteXC execs tried to paint a bright future but admitted they needed a drink. Lower-level employees used gallows humor about finding new jobs.

Kimbo just said he was going home to see his kids.

In 14 seconds flat, the whole mirage was gone.

[IdaFreak]

It's only too bad they were afraid of you Big Daddy it would have been better if you were the one who derailed the Kimbo express !!

On the other hand I agree with the ever knowledgeable White Whale it may slow down Elite's rise in the ratings and the mma world swinging more power back to the UFC who already has the rest of the industry in a pretty tight rear naked choke.

[BigDaddy]

Well It looked just as good he lost to the sliver back. A walking in in a few hours till fight time. lol... Tom is right though, but I don't think we need to be fooled on who is good and who isn't

[IdaFreak]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feT03JgqOQo

Here ya go Dana weighs in

[Hemlock]

FIN

[IdaFreak]

I am pretty sure you will remember Da Freak called this.............

Mismanagement Caused Elite Collapse

by Loretta Hunt (lhunt@sherdog.com)



Though it had a platform that rivaled all others in mixed martial arts, EliteXC and its parent company, Pro Elite, couldn’t stop themselves from falling off the ledge.

Launched in December 2006, Pro Elite entered a booming market and quickly established a place behind perennial leader, the UFC, with the sheer magnitude of its size and scope. However, it was a combination of mismanagement, runaway personalities and frivolous spending that led to its demise, said one of its consulting executives, T. Jay Thompson.

“Mismanagement, it was mismanaged by people that didn’t know MMA, that didn’t have the proper years of experience,” said Thompson of the company’s cease of operations Monday after only 22 months in business. “It’s not an exact science. There’s not a book that you can write to learn how to promote shows.”

Thompson, who promoted 55 events under the Icon Sport and Superbrawl brands over 13 years, was one of the more experienced individuals brought into the Pro Elite fold, but he said he was under-utilized from the start.

Pro Elite paid Thompson $350,000 in cash, hundreds of thousands of shares in stock and signed him to a five-year consultant’s position in return for his Icon Sport promotion and all its assets, which included a 50-plus event tape library.

Thompson’s Icon Sport was not the only bold purchase made in that first year of operation.

Pro Elite also paid $3.75 million for longtime promoter Terry Trebilock’s regional juggernaut, King of the Cage, $5 million for the UK’s Cage Rage outlet and invested $1 million cash in South Korea’s SpiritMC –- all hefty price tags to ensure the fledgling promotion gained unfettered access into each respective region and had a healthy stable of farmed talent from which to pull.

Instead, SEC reports listed losses from all four acquired companies totaling over $20 million.

“They didn’t use it,” said Thompson of Pro Elite’s ill-fated farm system. “They bought too much too fast. To be in second place in five years, we needed to [still] be here in five years. First and foremost, we needed to find a way to make money.”

But instead of raking in the dollars, Thompson saw them fly out the doors of the company’s overpriced Wilshire Blvd. rental offices in Los Angeles.

“It had to be $100,000 in rent [a month],” said Thompson. “It’s a beautiful place to bring someone up and hold a meeting and try and impress someone, but who we trying to impress? It’s MMA.”

Thompson said the warning signs were apparent from his initial negotiations with Pro Elite in late 2007. A deal that was supposed to be signed a month before EliteXC’s inaugural event in Hawaii turned into a verbal tug-of-war between himself and former EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw a day before the announcement of Icon’s purchase was made. Once onboard, Thompson found he didn’t mesh with the outspoken Shaw, an import from the boxing world.

“I think Gary Shaw has a lot of positive traits as a promoter,” said Thompson. “I didn’t necessarily see him as someone morally or ethically that I wanted to learn from though.”

A frustrated Thompson found himself on the outside looking in, absent from the initial meetings with CBS that Shaw spearheaded and the company’s day-to-day decision making led by the Los Angeles office.

With the company showing signs of internal dissention, Shaw was downgraded to a consultant’s position in late July. Thompson does not believe Shaw’s pay was reduced in the demotion.

Shaw’s son, Jared, stayed on with the company as a vice president, though his role with the organization was never clear.

“It was my understanding that to get Gary out, they had to keep Jared in,” said Thompson.

Like his father, the novice Shaw seemed to have issues fitting in with Pro Elite and the sport in general.

“I think Jared Shaw is a passionate kid,” said Thompson. “I don’t think he knows MMA. I don’t think he should making decisions in an organization of that size. I believe Jared Shaw’s heart was in the right place. I think Jared Shaw wanted badly to succeed and for what reasons I don’t know, whether to be in the front, to be the star himself. I think he tried his hardest and just did a rotten job.”

Nowhere was Shaw’s struggle more apparent than Oct. 4, when EliteXC made its second trip to Florida to promote its third card for CBS. Shaw, who didn’t hide his affinity for the promotion’s biggest star, Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson, caused more commotion outside the cage then Seth Petruzelli’s 14-second decimation of Slice inside it.

“When you have a high-level representative of our company in Jared Shaw on national television jumping up and screaming, it’s extremely embarrassing,” said Thompson. “To have people like that calling the shots, I’m not all that surprised that the company’s where it’s at right now, and I’m not surprised that CBS doesn’t necessarily want to put their eggs in that basket.”

Just who called the shots Oct. 4 -- which unknowingly became EliteXC’s swan song -- will remain a hot topic as the promotion’s death is dissected from every angle. The loss of Ken Shamrock just a couple of hours before his main event bout with Slice was a brutal blow, and the decisions that came afterward proved crucial to the company’s survival.

“It was a scarily run show from what I saw,” said Thompson, who said his attempts to assist the company in its most desperate hour were disregarded. “It’s really easy to be a promoter when your star’s winning fights, when everything’s going well. Crisis management is really what makes a good promoter.”

Thompson said he flew down to Florida on his own dime and was sitting cageside when he got word that Shamrock had sliced the skin above his eye and would not be cleared to fight. Unable to get clearance to head backstage, Thompson said he tried to relay suggestions to upper management through assistants and unanswered phone calls.

“Number one, they picked the wrong opponent,” said Thompson, who confirmed that light heavyweights Aaron Rosa and Petruzelli were considered for the opening. “Do I want my star getting his ass kicked by the unknown guy that’s a dropout from the UFC, or do I want his ass kicked by a guy that I can call Tito Ortiz’s number one student protégé and the next big thing in MMA?”

The second mistake proved poisonous, said Thompson, and pertained to alleged talks between Petruzelli and the promotion for the fighter to stay on his feet and in Slice’s comfort zone.

“I have no proof [but] I’d be amazed if he wasn’t paid to stand up,” said Thompson, who was absent from the last-minute negotiations but claims co-employees intimated to him their confidence in an arrangement that had been made prior to the bout. “I sent [Pro Elite CEO] Chuck Champion an e-mail basically telling him my concerns the day after, and after talking to him, he made it clear to me that isn’t what happened, and I had to go with his word.”

Once keen on purchasing and bailing out the EliteXC brand, Showtime, a subsidiary of CBS, terminated the nearly negotiated agreement with Pro Elite last week. Thompson doesn’t blame them.

“Watching the company from the inside out for this long, I don’t want them running my show if I’m CBS,” he said. “I don’t want that group running my show.”

Thompson believes the Icon Sport brand will be returned to him, but fears it, and many of the fighter’s contracts, could be held up in bankruptcy court for an extended period of time.

And as Affliction Entertainment and possibly others swoop in on the still-warm spot once held by the first promotion to score a live broadcast TV deal, Thompson hopes someone will succeed where his company has failed.

“I think CBS is deciding whether or not they want to be in the MMA game at all, and I think they’re leaning away from it to be honest with you,” he said. “If they do it, they’re going to go into business for themselves and bring a couple of key people on. I would love to be involved with that.”

[BigDaddy]

Well when you put your hopes and dreams on one man, that can't even fight. What would you think would have to happen???? Sorry for all of them, but smarten up.

[NRG]

To everything is a time and a place - for glory and for defeat.
Kimbo met his fate, at last.
Hype can only take one so far.
It is skill and character that carry one to the end.
Only some fighters hold these qualities, many of which frequent this site, lol.