Instead, they brought Seth Petruzelli. He was already there that night, fighting on the undercard at a lower weight class. He was a journeyman fighter who had already come and gone through the more well-known UFC, and was merely working his way around wherever he could get a fight.
The bout still almost didn't happen, as EliteXC wound up having to give Slice more money in order for him to agree to fight an opponent of lesser status than Shamrock.
In spite of all this, 11 p.m. rolled around Saturday night, and the main event was about to begin. There had been several good undercard fights that had the crowd in the mood already, and Slice's big stage was at hand.
Then everything came tumbling down like a house of toothpicks. Slice went charging after Petruzelli, attempted to dodge around a high kick, and dodged right into Petruzelli's fist. Slice fell to the mat, dazed, and Petruzelli proceeded to get in another half-dozen clean smacks to Slice's head before the ref pulled him off and called the fight.
A mere 14 seconds after it had begun, the main event was over. Slice then provided some entertainment, as he grappled with the ref for a moment and then played to the crowd about feeling fine before his team could get to him and take care of the fist-shaped gash around his left eye.
Slice is surely unconcerned, he was just there to fight and make his money. EliteXC, on the other hand, now has egg on its face, since they were the ones who promoted Slice as "the next big thing" and wound up watching him get dominated by a supposedly inferior opponent.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, whether CBS has had its fill of this train wreck, and whether Slice's 15 minutes of fame is already up. Me, I'll probably just keep watching college football instead like I've been doing.
Article comments
1 - RJ Elliott
Kimbo Slice frankly scares me. Although a little less now than, say, a week ago. If some pink-haired nobody can beat his ass down in 14 seconds, then maybe an Average Joe slob like me would have a chance as well.