Florida Opens Investigation into EliteXC Fight Fixing

But I still don’t see much coming out of this. Seth Petruzelli can just backtrack, EliteXC won’t admit wrongdoing, and unless someone taped the alleged conversation between EliteXC officials and Petruzelli, I don’t expect anything to come out of this.

Here’s a quick blurb from ESPN regarding the alleged fight fixing of the Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzelli bout.

“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.

Jeremy Lappen, head of EliteXC’s fight operations, had this to say.

“We offered Seth Petruzelli a knockout bonus, a submission bonus and “fight of the night” bonus. If we were trying to influence the fight, why would we do that?

“We were not trying to protect Kimbo. He had been training to fight a guy in Shamrock who has a better ground game than Seth. If we were trying to protect Kimbo we would have sent him home. We put him in a dangerous fight.”

If this is true, the whole investigation will yield nothing. But, if Lappen just made this up overnight and someone is able to expose him, perhaps the story will get juicier. I’m pretty sure EliteXC told Petruzelli to just shutup and let them handle it. Will anything happen? I still doubt it.