EliteXC News - Page 1

Estranged adoptive brothers Ken Shamrock and Frank Shamrock have both signed contracts in principle to fight each other in 2009, according to a new article by Michael Woods of ESPN.com. The two have expressed a public interest in fighting each other for the past several years and plans appeared to be in motion earlier this year to stage a fight between the two sometime in 2008. However, the proposed bout was put on the back burner following Ken’s first round knockout loss to journeyman heavyweight Robert “Buzz” Berry during a ProElite-promoted Cage Rage event in London this past March. Shamrock was released from his ProElite contract following the loss. A further shadow of doubt regarding the bout was cast after Frank suffered a broken arm in a TKO (medical stoppage) loss to Cung Le during a co-promotion between EliteXC and Strikeforce later the same month. Whether the bout comes off is far from certain, as Frank Shamrock went so far as to launch a “Blood Brothers” website earlier this year with a countdown to a pay-per-view event that was never formally set. However, the younger Shamrock is quoted as telling ESPN.com that both have agreed to move forward with the fight.

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Paul was nice of enough to take some time to answer a few questions regarding his recent fight with Jake Shields at EliteXC:Heat, what his plans for the future are, his contract status with ProElite and what he thinks about the recent FSAC investigation into EliteXC.

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The future for EliteXC fighter Seth Petruzelli got a lot brighter on Oct. 4 after his 14-second knockout of Kimbo Slice, but according to EliteXC executives he may stay at heavyweight or even compete in two weight classes. Before the chance to fight Kimbo came along, Petruzelli was all set to do battle against Aaron Rosa, a former training partner of UFC legend Tito Ortiz, at light heavyweight. With Petruzelli’s newfound fame, the question immediately becomes what’s next for EliteXC’s newest star? One possibility is an immediate shot at top 205-pound EliteXC fighter Rafael “Feijao” Calvancante, who has been rumored as part of a light heavyweight title fight for some time now, but according to EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw, the company would like to give Petruzelli more time than four weeks to prepare for a bout of that magnitude. “I think that could be a great fight at 205,” Shaw commented on a fight between Feijao and Petruzelli. “I haven’t even had a chance to have a conversation with Seth Petruzelli since I saw him at the press conference, so I’d like to figure out where he’s going to feel comfortable. He used to campaign as a heavyweight.

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Cyrille Diabate has turned down an offer from EliteXC to fight Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante on November 8 to determine the first EliteXC Light Heavyweight Champion. According to EXC's Jeremy Lappen, Diabate felt he wouldn't have enough time to prepare for the fight. Now it's not known if Feijao's fight on 11/8 will be for the title.

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Dave “Pee Wee” Herman defeats Kerry Schall via technical knockout (strikes) in round one Anthony “The Recipe” Lapsley defeated Mike Stumpf via majority decision Mamed “Cannibal” Khalidov defeated Jason Guida via technical knockout (strikes) in round two Lyle “Fancy Pants” Beerbohm defeats Rafaello Oliveira via technical knockout (cut) in round one Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko defeats Robert McDaniel via technical knockout (knee to the body) in round one. Jared “The Spider” McMahon defeats Jacob Hey via submission (rear naked choke) in round one Jeff Cox defeats Jay Ellis via submission (guillotine) in round one Matt Jaggers defeats Orville Smith via unanimous decision Tiawon Howard defeats Johny Hughes via submission (rear naked choke) in round one Deray Davis defeats John Kuhner via submission (armbar) in round two Josh Barnes defeats Jeremy Norton via technical knockout (strikes) in round one

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I didn't want to post anything else on this, but the situation is getting more and more ridiculous every day. It's hard to know what to make of Jeremy Lappen. He tried to clarify his numerous contradictions today with Michael David Smith of Fanhouse.com, and instead admitted Seth Petruzelli told the truth the first time he spoke: Regarding the controversy over whether EliteXC paid Petruzelli a bonus (or, as some would call it, a bribe) to keep the fight on his feet, I pointed out to Lappen that he had seemed to contradict himself about what, exactly, EliteXC offered Petruzelli. Lappen was quoted by Sports Illustrated as saying that EliteXC does not give submission bonuses, while he was quoted by ESPN as saying that Petruzelli was offered a submission bonus. Lappen said 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."

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Love her or not, she pulls no punches. I am not sure if she isthe Charles Barkley , or Brenda Warner of mma, but she definitely pulls no punches. Even seems to like tthrowing secrets out there. It wasn't that long ago that she let slip that Kimbo got KOed by Forres in trainint, and now all this info.

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Josh Barnett 'The Watchman' Josh Barnett talks about Andrei Arlovski, Fedor Emelianenko, his fighting future, more video games, movieland, the fall of Kimbo Slice and Randy Couture versus Brock Lesnar. PDG: Since you brought up Kimbo; you have been in the sport for a long time. What are your thoughts on him losing to the first experienced fighter that was not a tailor-made opponent for him? Barnett: I was sitting in the bar and a bunch of people started cheering. The bar had a bunch of other fighters there and everyone was cheering except for me, I was actually upset. I wanted Kimbo to win and I was cheering for him. I wasn't real sure about him fighting Ken Shamrock because I have always been a big fan of Ken. It is really hard for me to watch Ken go out there and under perform like he has as of late compared to when I first started watching him compete. Kimbo is still a relative newcomer to this sport and I don't have any problem with how he has been brought up into the spotlight so fast. I like watching him fight and I wanted to see his ongoing progression fight to fight. I was disappointed because I wanted to see Kimbo do well.

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Mired in the center of controversy for several months, former EliteXC lightweight champion recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) he could have saved the organization substantial time and trouble. After all, Noons offered to give his title back. "I gave (EliteXC) five days notice, before I was stripped, that I wanted to give the belt back and be released from my contract," Noons said. "Then they stripped me without even (telling me) -- I found out on the internet. That was I guess (EliteXC) trying to prove a point, I guess you could say." After refusing to accept a September bout with lightweight contender Nick Diaz -- citing financial concerns and a desire to fight a more-deserving competitor -- Noons was stripped of his title by way of an EliteXC press release. Noons said he has remained quiet about the saga while trying to continue negotiations for his EliteXC return. "We were talking," Noons said. "I was hoping the Nov. 8 bout was going to happen. We were going to redo contracts or whatever, and hopefully I could fight Nick. But they're already moving forward with that. Once I found out Saturday night that [EliteXC] was moving forward with [a Diaz vs. Alvarez fight], I'm moving forward over here."

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HAMMOND, Ind. -- Dave "Pee Wee" Herman (11-0) is not your typical undefeated heavyweight prospect. But as Herman told the media at Thursday's official "ShoXC: Elite Challenger Series" weigh-ins, don't expect him to change anytime soon. "Yes, I am still training alone and, no, I’m not really worried about joining a camp or team," Herman said. Herman will meet former "The Ultimate Fighter 2" cast member Kerry Schall (21-10) in the main event of tonight's card at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind. Herman has notoriously shied away from traditional training methods in favor of garage work-outs by himself. Herman has also generally relied on his buddies to hold pads for him while honing his striking skills. While eight of his 11 victories have come by knockout or TKO, Herman did admit to taking a little different route in reparation for tonight's bout.

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After repeated calls from ESPN.com, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation -- which oversees the State Boxing Commission -- said Thursday that it has opened a preliminary investigation into the matter. "While the Department of Business and Professional Regulation doesn't have any reason to believe there was a problem with the Slice-Petruzelli fight, given the interest in it, the Department has begun a preliminary investigation to thoroughly review the circumstances of the fight," said Jennifer Meale, Communications Director for the DBPR. Being honest I think nothing is going to come of this, especially considering that Jennifer Meale is already saying that they don't believe there was a problem with the fight. Regardless, the investigation had to start at some point and as long as the DBPR is not just saying they're investigating without actually DOING IT something could very well turn something up. Regardless all of the "will this hurt EliteXC?" talk is missing the big point. ESPN is running multiple articles talking about the possibility of fight fixing on an EXC show. The company is already hurt badly, regardless of if anything is turned up or not.

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Reports that former UFC champion Frank Shamrock volunteered to replace his adopted brother, Ken Shamrock, in the main event of this past weekends Saturday Night Fights on CBS are indeed correct. The news was confirmed in a press release issued by EliteXC late Wednesday night in which the promotion’s Head of Fighter Operations, Jeremy Lappen, stated that the reports were true. “… Reports that Frank Shamrock volunteered that evening to fight Kimbo Slice are true,” Lappen is quoted as saying in the release. “Frank is a competitive fighter and he was willing to step up for his organization and the MMA fans. His offer was very greatly appreciated, but everyone in the room knew when he made the offer that it wasn’t a realistic possibility on such short notice.” Some of the hurdles standing in the way of a Slice vs. Frank Shamrock fight could have been the ability to get Shamrock medically cleared on short notice; work out a compensation package that EliteXC’s shrinking budget could afford; and obtain consent from Slice’s camp to accept the fight. As dangerous as Seth Petruzelli was to Slice’s perfect record, Shamrock would have been an even greater threat. Slice’s camp was able to negotiate a $500,000 payday for him to fight Petruzelli on short notice and it is likely they were in a position to command even more against the younger of the two Shamrocks.

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"We were having dinner afterwards and Andrei Arlovski's guys were coming over and they were just talking about how they had been studying me and watching film and stuff and they’ve been doing it for over three weeks, and I was like, ‘huh?...And I didn’t say anything to them, but it makes you kind of wonder, three weeks? I thought you were on the same (one) week plan that I was? When you see all the politics all unfold and that made it very interesting." -- Roy Nelson unhappy with the politics of EliteXC the fight against Andrei Arlovski.

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“It disgusts me. I’ve been busting my (expletive) for 10 years flying all over the planet to show everybody what a great sport this is and what amazing people are involved in it. Then CBS throws this guy who fights at people’s barbecues on the main event because they’re trying to compete with us, and he gets knocked out in (14) seconds by a guy who didn’t win ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and couldn’t fight in the UFC. Then the guy turns around the next day and says, ‘The promoters actually paid me to not go to the ground with this guy. They paid me to stand up,’ which I’m pretty sure is illegal…. (Slice is) a joke. It was bound to happen. These guys have lost $60 million trying to get this thing off the ground. They’re building their promotion around a guy who can’t fight. It’s kind of (expletive) stupid, isn’t it? You’re in the fight business and you’re building your business around a guy who can’t fight…. When dirty people go out and do stuff like that, it hurts. Promoters have a bad rap as it is because of the last 100 years of boxing. We actually started to turn that around and were doing the right things and then you have these guys coming out and doing (expletive) like that. It hurts us.”

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Continuing the theme of having at least one female match on each of its big events, Elite XC announced today that Minnesota Martial Arts Academy standout Kaitlin Young (4-2) will face off against undefeated Canadian Sarah Kaufman on the Showtime card set for the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada, on November 8. Young was soundly defeated by Gina Carano during the May 31 debut for the promotion on CBS, but she proved to be a gamer while taking a good deal of punishment during the two round bout. She wanted to continue for a third round, but the fight was called by a ringside doctor because her faced was banged up pretty good. She trains with one of the top camps in MMA where she gets quality sparring and training with fighters like Kelly Kobald. The camp is also known for producing fighters with great cardio by instilling the “caveman training” made popular by Sean Sherk.

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Following a successful run as International Fight League heavyweight champion, Roy Nelson suffered his first loss in his last six fights after he faced off against former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski at CBS-EliteXC Saturday Night Fights. I'm starting to think EliteXC might have wanted people to stand because they know they are presenting MMA to a wide variety of people, most of whom do not understand the ground game at all? Either way, they need to be off CBS ASAP. If this is already posted please delete, I looked but not that hard.

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Former middleweight number one contender Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith (13-5) and Cuban Judo Olympian Hector “Shango” Lombard (17-2-1) will soon duke it out the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nevada, adding another exciting bout to the main card of Elite XC’s November 8 Showtime event. Smith has been busy over the past few months feuding with division champion Robbie Lawler. The two competed against one another in the “Fight of the Night” during the debut for Elite XC on CBS back in May before having the bout ruled a no contest in the third round after and inadvertent eye poke. The rematch went down two months later during the second CBS event. This time, however, Lawler proved to be too much for the challenger, handing him a second round technical knockout with some vicious body kicks and strikes. Smith’s road back to a title shot will not begin with an easy fight — Lombard is a highly touted prospect with a solid mixed martial arts resume.

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In just a matter of 2 hours, Seth Petruzelli went from an undercard fighter to the man who would soon knock out Internet and YouTube legend, Kimbo Slice, in a scant :14 seconds in their main event fight last Saturday night. Originally, Petruzelli was scheduled to face Aaron Rosa in a light heavyweight contest and he explained during a recent appearance on MMAWeekly Radio exactly how it all went down to put him in a fight that will now live in infamy. “I was actually warming up for my fight against Aaron Rosa in the back and Elite XC came back and said we need to talk to you for a second,” Petruzelli commented. “I automatically got nervous thinking that Aaron backed out or something like that and then he’s like, ‘look I’ve got a huge opportunity if you decide to take it, Ken got cut on his eye and can’t fight, and we want you to fight Kimbo.” “It took about :10 seconds to let it all settle down and I said heck yeah.” The fight with Kimbo lasted only about 4 seconds longer than it took Seth to decide to take the match-up, but almost immediately after the fight controversy struck.

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Karl James Noons is looking towards greener pastures, which may or may not include his return to the EliteXC cage, he says. “I’m a free agent,” Noons told Sherdog.com Monday, the result of EliteXC taking back his championship belt. Noons, 25, was stripped of his EliteXC 160-pound title on Sept. 19 after the promotion said he refused to defend his title against Nick Diaz. Noons bested the mouthy Stockton, Calif. native with a first-round TKO on cuts in November 2007. Words between the fighters and their families ensued in the cage, and a rematch loomed. EliteXC attempted to promote said rematch on three separate cards since July. But Noons took umbrage with Diaz’s pay scale, which was nearly three times more than his. Private discussions spilled into the public forum when an EliteXC rep announced Noons had been given a 24-hour deadline to accept the bout. Though Noons was subsequently removed from EliteXC’s champions mantle, he said a piece is missing from the timeline. “We weren’t coming to agreements on the fight, so I gave them written notice that I’d give them the belt back five days prior before they stripped me,” he said, in the hopes of “working something out.” “I didn’t make it public, and I guess to prove a point, or maybe out of ego or whatever they want, they stripped me.” Noons said his contract, of which two fights remain, only pertains to his reign as a titleholder. "Since I’ve been stripped, I’m no longer the champion and I don’t owe them the fights," he said. "I owed them fights for being a champion.” Jeremy Lappen, EliteXC’s Head of Fight Operations, doesn’t agree. "KJ still has two more fights on his contract," Lappen said Monday. “I’m hoping we’ll work something out, but there’s really not much to work out. He’s still under contract with us.”

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Dave Meltzer reports on the TV ratings for EliteXC Heat and its not bad: Based on the fast nationals ratings, the show did a 2.65 rating and 4.31 million viewers from 9-11 p.m. (which aired live everywhere except the West Coast). That doesn’t factor in the 11-11:20 p.m. segment featuring the 14-second Kimbo Slice loss to Seth Petruzelli, which based on metered market data was the most watched part of the show and should slightly increase the final average. “It was a great number as far as I was concerned,” said CBS senior vice president of program operations Kelly Kahl. “The people saying it’s the end of Elite XC and the end of Elite XC on broadcast television are misinformed.” ... Based on the data available, the Carano vs. Kelly Kobold fight was the hit of the night, adding 950,000 viewers from the previous segment. That makes Carano two-for-two as the top ratings mover. Carano’s fight with Kaitlin Young on May 31 added 1,020,000 viewers. But there was one glaring exception, Affliction star Andrei Arlvoski: The disappointment of the night was Andrei Arlovski. The former UFC heavyweight cham

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