Jim Rome is one of the few on-air ESPN personalities who understands mixed martial arts, so I was glad to see that he took some time to address the controversy about EliteXC allegedly paying Seth Petruzelli extra money to stay on his feet against Kimbo Slice:
"I'm not saying that EliteXC was looking to fix the fight, but of course they were looking to manipulate the outcome," Rome said. "Knowing their guy was vulnerable on the mat, and that that would be Petruzelli's best chance to win, is it possible that they made it worth his while not to go down there? Possible. Who knows? This much I do know. If you really are choreographing fights and manipulating their outcome, then you're no better than pro wrestling, which isn't a sport but a soap opera. Which is fine, because we all know pro wrestling is fake. But we're assuming what we see in the cage is legit."
EliteXC hasn't done a good enough job of addressing this, and until the folks at EliteXC are more forthcoming, they should expect to take more lumps in the media.
"I'm not saying that EliteXC was looking to fix the fight, but of course they were looking to manipulate the outcome," Rome said. "Knowing their guy was vulnerable on the mat, and that that would be Petruzelli's best chance to win, is it possible that they made it worth his while not to go down there? Possible. Who knows? This much I do know. If you really are choreographing fights and manipulating their outcome, then you're no better than pro wrestling, which isn't a sport but a soap opera. Which is fine, because we all know pro wrestling is fake. But we're assuming what we see in the cage is legit."
EliteXC hasn't done a good enough job of addressing this, and until the folks at EliteXC are more forthcoming, they should expect to take more lumps in the media.
Get the latest gear
