EliteXC Heat
October 4, 2008
BankAtlantic Center
Better Than: The WWE and the WBA combined.
By now you know: Kimbo Slice got knocked out at the BankAtlantic Center last night. Okay, so it was only a technical knock out, but a TKO that comes 14 seconds into a fight may as well be called a knockout. Hell, if the chatter on the MMA blogs is any indication, it may just have knocked Kimbo out of the cage for good.
And, yes, I missed it. Oh, I was cageside for EliteXC’s Heat all right, but I bounced before the main event. Why? Well, because Ken Shamrock, the cat Kimbo was supposed to fight, bowed out right before CBS went live with the program.
The reason: docs determined “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” was unfit to fight because he “suffered” a small cut above his left eye during day-of training.
Really.
That’s the official story anyway. Word around the arena was that Shamrock tried to shakedown the promoters and they weren’t having it. I don’t know, and frankly, I don’t care. If a so-called extreme fighter sissies out of a bout because of a little laceration, he’s no fighter to me. I mean, this is the big, bad dude who’d spent the previous week telling everybody within earshot (including me) that he was gonna “put a beating” on Miami’s favorite brawler, and he can’t get in the cage because of a fucking boo-boo?
Weak.
Kimbo, on the other hand, manned up, insisted the show must go on, and at the last minute agreed to fight one Seth Petruzelli, a UFC vet who was originally slated to cage against Aaron Rosa. Still it was a disappointing development, for me and for the nearly 10,000 fight fans in the house, and they greeted the news with a resounding chorus of boos.
And, yes, I left. Meaning at the very least I missed witnessing what will be a very pivotal piece in MMA history. Kimbo is the sport’s poster boy, so if he’s out, who the hell else will the punter put up on their walls?
Well, Gina Carano for one, the undefeated knockout who fights for Xtreme Couture. Last night the dame nicknamed “Conviction” put the kinda hurting on opponent Kelly Kobold that I wouldn’t wish on any woman, whether it was by another woman or not. Carano, who in a previous incarnation was known as American Gladiators’ Crush, was methodical in her dispatching. A right fist here, a left fist there, a knee to the face, then repeat. And though Kobold did hold her own for the entire three rounds, she couldn’t hold it strong enough, and after Carano clocked her with a vicious foot to the head near the end of the bout it was all Kobold could do to stay standing for the bell.
(Carefully watching cageside was Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, a Brazilian striker who’d earlier dispatched a stiff-chinned Yoko Takahashi. Watch for a Cris/Gina throwdown in the very near future.)
