Okay, I know I’m not the only one who not only wasn’t surprised by the results of last Saturday’s fight between Kimbo Slice and Seth Petruzelli on CBS’s EliteXC Fight Night, but also thought it was about time it happened. Now, while I wasn’t surprised by the results of that fight, I was surprised by the strange events that took place with Ken Shamrock, who, as we all know, was supposed to fight Kimbo in the main event. This wasn’t to be, however, instead what we got was a freak accident that set in motion the turn of events that led to Kimbo fighting Petruzelli instead of Shamrock.
What will follow is a detailed professional analysis of the fight from start to finish, concluding with some final thoughts on both fighters. Please note that these are my views from my own perspective of the events that occurred. They are in no way intended to spew any kind of thoughts, words, etc. negative or derogatory. on any of the wrestlers involved. I have great respect for anyone, and I mean anyone, who gets on the mat. So, with more ado, let’s get started.
Before the night began, those of us watching the show learned that Shamrock had sustained a cut over his left eye that required six stitches just hours before he was scheduled to fight Kimbo. Now I know there is a lot of speculation as to why the accident occurred and whether it was due to negligence on the part of Shamrock and/or the person he was warming up with, or if it was just a freak accident.
Another school of thought is that the accident should not have happened because Shamrock should not have been doing anything before the fight that could have led to any type of injury. Now, I don’t know about you, but I always trained my best until a week before a fight and then gradually tapered off each day until I was just doing some stretching and very light shadow fighting and maybe something very light. bag work the last few days, and usually nothing at all on fight day, except some stretching and some light shadow fighting.
Anyway, all that aside, it was very unfortunate for Shamrock and Kimbo because Kimbo ended up losing heavily to a relative unknown, especially compared to Shamrock’s state. Would Shamrock have beaten Kimbo if they had fought? Or would Kimbo have beaten Shamrock?
If Shamrock had stood his ground and decided to trade blows with Kimbo, it would have been a very short night for Shamrock. However, if Shamrock had learned from his previous mistakes of trying to go toe-to-toe with a much more powerful puncher and decided to take Kimbo to the ground, then I think Shamrock would have won.
Okay, now that I have all of that out of the way, let’s get started with the actual fight that happened between Kimbo Slice and Seth Petruzelli. Now I really don’t know how much I can hit in a 14 second fight, but I have to admit I’m curious.
Kimbo came out and charged through the cage towards Petruzelli, who in turn delivered a front kick with his right leg to Kimbo’s abdomen which, although it didn’t really land to any effect, made Kimbo hesitate a bit in his attack and this allowed Petruzelli to bring his right knee back up where he left it momentarily suspended in the air. Meanwhile, Kimbo began to close in on Petruzelli and was rewarded with a straight right hand that landed squarely over Petruzelli’s left eye, resulting in not only a knockdown for Petruzelli, but also splitting the eyebrow over Kimbo’s left eye.
Petruzelli never hesitated and took advantage of the knockdown to unleash a barrage of hard right hand punches to Kimbo’s head, forcing the referee to step in and stop the fight. Was it a good decision by the referee? Absolutely! Kimbo was knocked down by a heavy punch and was unable to defend himself after turning his back and trying to cover his head from Petruzelli’s numerous blows.
After the fight, the commentators who were analyzing the fight made some valid talking points about the fight and its fighters. One in particular was the fact that Kimbo had trained and expected to fight Shamrock. Therefore, the freak accident that sidelined Shamrock also left Kimbo in a different state of mind, as he was no longer going to fight the person he had trained for.
However, when you look at the other side of the coin, the same can be said for Petruzelli as well. He had trained and expected to fight another fighter (whose name I can’t remember) on the undercard and was not even going to be a part of the televised event. Just hours before he was supposed to fight, he was asked if he would like to fight Kimbo in the main event instead of his expected opponent on the card. Petruzelli immediately agreed. Under these circumstances, both parties were in exactly the same boat. Neither was going to fight the opponent they had trained for and expected to fight. So in this case, he would say that this should not have been such a big factor. This, of course, depends on how the mental and physical training of him has been carried out. And since I don’t have that information, I can’t legitimately comment on that.
I heard from the fight that Petruzelli was lucky to bring Kimbo and Kimbo was unlucky in the fact that Shamrock got hurt and Petruzelli was replaced. Well, I have a lot to say about it.
First of all, Petruzelli just got lucky in the fact that Shamrock got hurt and was asked to step in and be Shamrock’s replacement in the fight against Kimbo. Now, if you’re saying that once he was named as Kimbo’s opponent, he was lucky to beat him, I only have one word to say on the matter, and that word is “shit”.
My definition of luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Petruzelli was obviously prepared to fight and Kimbo was not. I have no doubt that Kimbo was prepared to fight Shamrock, but he was not prepared to fight. If he had been, the results of his fight with Petruzelli might have been different, but they weren’t. So don’t criticize Petruzelli for taking advantage of a lucky set of circumstances that gave him a chance to excel, because that just isn’t right. And by the same token, don’t drop Kimbo because he didn’t take advantage of those very circumstances that presented a great opportunity for Petruzelli.
