ProElite Consultant T. Jay Thompson Spills Some Beans

by mythbuster on Oct 25, 2008 4:07 PM EDT Comment 27 comments

Fronted by Kid Nate.

CBS Sports has an interview with T. Jay Thompson (former promoter of the SuperBrawl and ICON Sport promotions, and later a consultant to ProElite) up with some nice bits of information.

Regarding Gary Shaw:

I just didn't like Gary and that I didn't like him morally or ethically. That's just the reality. I was hoping I was going to come in and learn from him. I really was. I was excited to come and work with another promoter that had more big show experience than me. I didn't find him smart, I didn't find him engaging, (and) I didn't find him to be compelling. I am amazed that he's gotten where he's gotten.

About ProElite's professionalism:

And with that group of people there, the matchmaking team ended up being Jared Shaw, J.T. Steele, who was just an intern at the time, and Rich Chou. It was at that point that I realized that things weren't going spectacular. Literally, of the ten people there, the three with the least experience were picked as the matchmaking team.

I saw immediately was the entire company acting like we were the 400 pound gorilla in the room and treating fighters and relationships not with the degree of respect they needed. There was a lot of talk of "You want to fight on CBS? You fight for cheap (and) you better behave, or you're not going to fight on CBS." I didn't feel that was the right way to go. We were still a company that was bleeding money (and) that was in trouble financially, yet we were treating sponsors and everyone without the respect they deserved.

About Gary Shaw's scumbagism:

Jeremy had pretty much everything to do with signing Kimbo in the first place and developing that relationship. And then once we got him onboard, Gary immediately took a hold of Kimbo and I think had decided that as his power in ProElite was waning that he would really try and quarantine Kimbo from anyone else. Including Jeremy Lappen, which was really frustrating to Jeremy. And when he went to sign a new contract, Gary Shaw actually put some provisions in the contract that may have been illegal - and they were certainly ill moral and unethical - that if Gary Shaw left the company that Kimbo's contract could be re-negotiated and that Kimbo would be allowed to box outside of the company. And he put that in without Jeremy Lappen's knowledge and Jeremy happened to catch it on the way through and it didn't stay in the new contract.

About Jeremy Lappen:

I am a fan of Jeremy Lappen. I think he's a really hard worker and an honorable guy. But I don't think he was in the right position as the person taking control of head of fight operations towards the end and being the face.

About StandGate:

I'll start by saying talk to ten people that you respect that are as close to the company without being a part of the company and ask them what they think. And they aren't going to say they think it happened they are going to say they know it happened. The MMA industry is small and word gets around.

I was told by two executives at cageside when I showed up -- and I don't have exact quotes and this definitely isn't a smoking gun -- but I was told, "We don't have to worry about that. The fight is going to stay standing." And it was said in a way so that I understood what it meant. And I didn't have ask any other questions.

On Ken Shamrock's getting cut before the fight:

Uh, the stitches were beautiful! The big stitches? They were like bows on a wrapped Christmas present. Know what I mean? Those were impressive stitches, man!

It's interesting because in my experience I know that fighters in general as it gets closer to the fight are dying to fight. And a lot of times they need to fight for financial reasons. I never have heard of a fighter getting cut the morning of a fight but I know on a number of different occasions, one happened to Robbie Lawler for a fight here in Hawaii, where he got cut badly the week of the fight. A cut bad enough that a doctor wouldn't have allowed a fight to go on. What he did and what's been done, you super glue the cut really well and you put makeup on it if you need to and you keep that injury as far away from the doctor as you can. I am surprised that wasn't done. You go on to fight and fight the best you can and hope it doesn't open up but if it does, you lose by cut and you collect your paycheck.

photo via via www.mmahawaii.com

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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As always mythbuster, great find, great post. Front page material 4 sure. recd

by nitro on Oct 25, 2008 10:22 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Mythbuster is the man. Great find. Interesting quotes here.

by Cannon Jacques on Oct 25, 2008 11:17 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

2 thumbs up

all you gotta do is...

by imapimp08 on Oct 25, 2008 1:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

He was also pretty insightful on Inside MMA yesterday.

He said he thought they should be aiming to be the number 2 company in 5 years, but it seems like everyone else was trying to be #1 right now. That’s not a very smart business plan.

by Phildo on Oct 25, 2008 1:50 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Rec'd

Some very interesting disclosures.

"It's like a flying knuckle sandwich." --Rogan
"And many men have eaten it." -- Goldy

by thetakeover on Oct 25, 2008 2:46 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

rec'd

good stuff here…

by Tonley on Oct 25, 2008 2:48 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Congrats on the front page, good sir

The Keystone Kops of MMA… classic.

by subo on Oct 25, 2008 4:52 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Rec'd

Love the quotes…

and the phrase “scumbagism”, thats going into my vocab…

by Shackelford on Oct 25, 2008 5:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

You cut your forehead, your finger, your foot… you superglue it up… This guy is completely retarded, (to the point where it makes me question the rest of what he said even), if he thinks anybody is going to superglue their eyelid back together. Getting superglue by the eyeball is definately the safest way to close a cut. sarcasm included

by skwirrl on Oct 25, 2008 5:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

How many professional fighters have you worked with?

by Simco on Oct 25, 2008 6:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

And yourself?

Ask them if they would close a cut on their eyelid with superglue for a mediocre payday

by skwirrl on Oct 25, 2008 8:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Was Shamrock only getting a mediocre payday?

by mythbuster on Oct 25, 2008 8:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I’d just like to know what you base your information on.

by Simco on Oct 26, 2008 1:59 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I feel comfortable in speculating that a fighter who has been training for a couple of months to fight would chance injury by superglue to not miss out on a fight, and in turn a payday.

by Cannon Jacques on Oct 25, 2008 6:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Who got cut on their eyelid? I though Shamrock got cut on his eyebrow.

by who me on Oct 25, 2008 6:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

This happens all the time and is relatively common practice

Def. not the first time I heard about it.

The thing I find interesting is that this is happening covertly, and in some ways is a very twisted form of “throwing” a fight because you’re going in knowing the cut will open up easily, just to collect the paycheck.

"It's like a flying knuckle sandwich." --Rogan
"And many men have eaten it." -- Goldy

by thetakeover on Oct 25, 2008 7:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree

I was thinking the same thing. If that’s true that it’s fairly common, that’s as scam from the fighters as anything else.

by mythbuster on Oct 25, 2008 8:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nice job mythbuster.

This story is gaining a ton of momentum amongst fans and internet blogs. I think he is pretty much confirming what most of us suspected…EXC was a great concept that was run into the ground by a bunch of scumbags. i expect to be hearing much more about these stories as we go.

One concept I find interesting, is the apparent inability to account for where all of the 60 million in losses went. I think there is some implication that EXC higher ups may have been “on the take”, so to speak.

http://eliotmarshall.com/

by BJJDenver on Oct 25, 2008 5:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I would LOVE to hear from someone other than T. Jay Thompson on this matter. It seems like he is everywhere this past week.

by smoogy on Oct 25, 2008 5:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Here’s some horseshit from JT Steele if you’re interested:

"There was no fixing fights involved," Steele said of the Slice/Petruzelli fight. "We were there, the commission was there, and we made our statement pretty clear. And anything contrary, without any type of evidence other than a suspicion is really worthless. Those type of comments are very damaging to everyone around it. I think it’s completely inappropriate to base something off of your opinion."

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=7429&zoneid=13

by Chris Nelson on Oct 25, 2008 6:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Smoogy now feels better…

But make sure you don’t tell him Santa isn’t real.

by mmalogic on Oct 25, 2008 7:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What are you babbling about? All I said was I want to hear from someone other than Thompson, who has been giving quotes 24/7 since Pro Elite folded.

by smoogy on Oct 25, 2008 8:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

In the past

Petruzelli, Lappen and the Shaws have all said various versions of “the fight was fixed”. Thompson isn’t the only one, just the most recent one.

by mythbuster on Oct 25, 2008 9:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thompson has been the most vocal over the past week. I’m kind of interested to hear some of the other executives’ takes. I would think others would have to speak up soon if they don’t feel Thompson’s remarks give an accurate portrayal. If they don’t, Thompson has pretty much framed the situation.

by Cannon Jacques on Oct 25, 2008 9:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree

and on the other side, I’m sure there are quite a few people who kept their mouths shut because they had an interest in seeing ProElite succeed, and now would be free to say what they wanted all along. Would be nice to hear from them too.

by mythbuster on Oct 25, 2008 9:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kizer:

"Someone affiliated with ProElite told me that the fighter [or his camp] said that he had not been training to fight a Muay Thai specialist and thus he had not trained to defend Muay Thai-style kicks," Keith Kizer said Wednesday at a public meeting of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. "So he would agree to fight the proposed opponent if the opponent agreed not to use any such kicks, and that information was told to that opponent."

Story is up at yahoo.

by mmalogic on Oct 25, 2008 7:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I’d love to know how FL can say they cleared Elite by talking to Kizer when he is on record saying this.

This statement, plus the contradictory statements the week after sure make up a lot of smoke. It doesn’t prove that there’s a fire, but I think it deserved a more throrough investigation.

O well.

by Phildo on Oct 26, 2008 1:29 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs