EliteXC's fight fixing controversy continues, Dana White & Jim Rome weigh-in

For those that aren't already familiar with the ongoing controversy surrounding EliteXC's latest CBS event, Heat, here is as quick a rundown as I can provide:

Kimbo Slice was set to fight Ken Shamrock in the main event. Shamrock injured himself in warm-ups and EXC offered Seth Petruzelli, who was fighting someone else at the event, the chance to replace Shamrock. Seth accepted and won the fight, knocking Kimbo Slice out in 14-seconds.

The controversy began when Petruzelli told an Orlando radio show that EXC hinted that he would be given a bonus to stand and trade with Kimbo rather than take the fight to the mat where his chances of victory would be much higher, on account of Slice's powerful striking but non-existant ground game. He later backtracked on those comments, saying that EXC offered him a knockout bonus but didn't tell him how to fight. Here is his quote from the interview:

Knockout bonuses have been given out by the UFC in the past in addition to submission and fight of the night bonuses. They are typically large but equal bonuses ranging from $20,000 to $60,000 or more depending on the fiscal success of the event. EliteXC does not have a history of handing out bonuses and according to some of the other fighters on the show, including Benji Radach, no bonuses were mentioned for any fighters other than Petruzelli, if they were mentioned to him at all. No submission bonuses were announced or revealed, so there is an implication that a knockout was preferred by EXC management.

If EXC did encourage Petruzelli to stand with Slice, it is tampering (fight fixing) which is illegal. If they offered him a bribe to stand with Kimbo slice, that also is fight fixing. Their defense is that they offered him a bonus, which isn't unusual unless its only offered to one fighter, and that the bonus was not specifically to knock out Slice in a stand-up war. The Florida State Boxing Commission has decided not to investigate the events that evening, which is their prerogative.

But the controversy isn't going away. Jim Rome and Dana White both had comments for the debacle recently. Video of Rome's commentary follows this quote from Dana White via The Boston Herald:

EliteXC executives Jeremy Lappan and Jared Shaw have both denied any wrongdoing, though the later's credibility was put into question for his outrageous behaviour cage-side during the fight. Shaw screamed at the referee to stop the fight during Petruzelli's assasult because of a hammerfist that hit the back of Slice's head. He has since apologized for his conduct, but if it doesn't suggest a bias, or a vested interest, I don't know what more he might have to do.


Here is the video from Rome is Burning:


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Seth has said that his gameplan was to keep Kimbo at a distance with push kicks then take the fight to the mat. When the management of the company encourages him to do otherwise, that's crooked.