EliteXC is Dead, 'StandGate' Controversy Is Not
by Cannon Jacques on Oct 28, 2008 8:57 AM EDT
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PrintFronted by Luke Thomas.
In a response to a request made by MMAConvert.com to the Florida DBPR for further clarification of that statement as to whether a “knockout bonus” clause was present in the contract, Florida DBPR press secretary Alexis Antonacci stated, “There was not a ‘knockout bonus.’ There was a win bonus.” The Florida DBPR also provided MMAConvert.com with an electronic copy of Petruzelli’s revised fight contract, and we can indeed confirm that there was no clause for a “knockout bonus” included as Lappen claimed, only the $35,000 to fight and $15,000 to win declarations as Florida’s report stated.
Antonacci also confirmed to MMAConvert.com that if sufficient reason is found to warrant further investigation of this situation, a new case could be opened by the Florida DBPR.
This situation has gotten to the point where a thorough investigation must be done so the sport of MMA can move on. Any impropriety should be punished. This scenario is difficult, but the difficulty is greatly exacerbated by the Florida State Boxing Commission's unwillingness to perform due diligence.
HT: Fight Opinion
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I don’t see any good way of spinning this. The sport needs finality in regards to the situation.
by Cannon Jacques on Oct 27, 2008 9:44 PM EDT up reply actions
What a great investigation. Maybe they hired a bunch of kids to play detective and present their findings.
I really don’t get what they did.
They say they interviewed Kizer, but he’s on record saying
"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, so that 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."
It’s not exactly someone agreeing not to take a fight to the ground, but isn’t this exactly what they should be investigating?
Florida Boxing Commission is in on it. EXC held their card in Fla. cuz they know that they can’t get away with scumbagism in Las Vegas.
Do UFC contracts explicitly mention a knockout bonus?
If not, I don’t think this is exactly “smoking gun” material, even though I am a strong proponent of further investigation.
Also, someone must get clarification on what would constitute “sufficient reason … to warrant further investigation …”
"It's like a flying knuckle sandwich." --Rogan
"And many men have eaten it." -- Goldy
seriously
someone should compile all the post-fight statements from the parties involved (in a timeline) and send them to the commission. if they’re not gonna bother “investigating” themselves, might as well try to get their line by line response to all the contradictions. at this point it seems like much more than a miscontrued statement during petruzelli’s radio interview.
The “locker room bonus” that the UFC offers fighters isn’t a contract stipulation…it’s solely at the promotion’s discretion. I’m not trying to say XC isn’t guilty here, but offering a guy a bonus that isn’t in his contract isn’t unheard of. This isn’t proof that Lappen’s lying.
If pretty much everyone at EliteXC said their was a knockout bonus and Florida says their wasn’t one then it would have to be a unreported bonus. Nothing neccessarily wrong with that but it does mean that the Florida Athletic Commission didn’t even look into the knock out bonus or take it into account as trying to influence the fight, heck they might be the only people in the industry that still don’t realize it exist. ProElite is dead and gone but this sure isn’t making the Florida Athletic Commission look very good.
Something is wrong with it because Lappens “OFFICIAL” statement (after every other contradicting statement he threw out) was that in fact there was a KO bonus in Seth’s contract.
It seems like the only thing that is reported to athletic commissions is the base pay and if there is a win bonus. We know guys like Chuck Liddell and Anderson SIlva have ppv cuts as part of their contracts but that is never part of the athletic commission payout reports. Several EliteXC sources have said there were knock out bonuses for many of the fighters but we’ve never heard of them and none were ever on the athletic commission payout reports. We just don’t know enough about what is and isn’t reported to the athletic commissions.
This whole thing gets more and more stinky.
Over this last year I have come to the conclusion that its not the sport itself holding it back from mainstream, its these damn ignorant and blase’ commissions that treat this sport as an irritation to their day jobs.
Every time you hear about a commission being involved in an incident there is never a satisfactory resolution.
This is what happens
When you’re a lie to begin with. It begets more and more lies until eventually you have no more room to lie. Those dudes at Elite simply are non-integrous. It’s been painfully obvious from the get-go, and this was bound to happen eventually.
This investigation
really does need to move forward. If for no other reason than to make sure the Shaws/Lappen can’t promote any more fights in the future.
Frankly, even their story before had me baffled. What is the supposed difference between paying a fighter to “not take the fight to the ground” and giving a knockout bonus, but not a submission bonus…PRE-FIGHT? Both are trying to influence how one fighter competes in favor of their opponent.
Either way, good riddence to EXC…and hopefully good riddence to the Shaws and Lappen, etc…
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