When Dana White of UFC said that lightweight B.J. Penn would annihilate heavyweight Kimbo Slice in a match, a response from Elite XC honcho Gary Shaw was to be expected. And respond he has. MMAjunkie.com reports that Shaw went off during a conference call to promote next week's CBS show. "Dana White is a jerkoff. That's what Dana White is -- a [expletive] idiot -- and you can quote me on that. If he cared about mixed martial arts and the sport instead of caring about his big ass swimming pool and his own personal gains, he'd understand that statements like that make someone a jerk. First of all, I love B.J. Penn, and he is a friend of mine. Kimbo Slice, with one shot, would knock B.J. Penn out. But they are never going to fight. It is an idiotic statement from a complete idiot."White wasn't really discussing the fighting merits of either man. He was trying to keep his foot on the throat of MMA in the United States in advance of Elite XC's (and Slice's) debut appearance on CBS on May 31.
While UFC is more established, they've had a hard time finding a network television partner and that's opened the door for another organization to move up quickly. If Elite XC is a ratings success, more people will know who Slice is and, for lack of a larger viewpoint, consider him one of the best fighters in the world. That should worry White and, judging from his comments, it appears that it does.
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