From what I can gather, Nelson is suggesting Jared Shaw either instructed the referees ahead of time or yelled at the referees during the fight such that it compelled them to stand up when he had Arlovski pinned in side control. He also goes on to suggest a huge portion of MMA fighters are on steroids, though the method behind his math is certainly questionable.

Sherdog reports:

A preliminary investigation launched by the Florida State Boxing Commission into the circumstances surrounding a last-minute Oct. 4 matchup between Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and Seth Petruzelli at EliteXC “Heat” has been closed, according to Alexis Antonacci, a Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation representative.
...
FSBC Executive Director Thomas Molloy interviewed Petruzelli, EliteXC Head of Fight Operations Jeremy Lappen and inquired with both the Nevada and California State Athletic Commissions regarding the promotion’s past conduct in their jurisdictions.

Molloy also contacted David “Tank” Abbott, who lost to Ferguson at a Miami EliteXC event in February 2008. Molloy asked if Abbott had been asked to fight in a particular manner, to which the former UFC superstar answered, “No, nothing was said.”

Though Pro Elite officials denied any wrongdoing on Oct. 4, at least one employee has stepped forward to voice his doubts following the company’s demise.

“I have no proof [but] I’d be amazed if [Petruzelli] wasn’t paid to stand up,” Pro Elite executive consultant T. Jay Thompson told Sherdog.com Tuesday.

Thompson also said two EliteXC employees expressed their confidence to him cageside of an arrangement that had been made with Petruzelli before the fight. Thompson said he alerted Pro Elite CEO Chuck Champion the next day.

"As Icon's ex-promoter, I've had fighters calling me all day about the EliteXC situation. I Just wanted to say that as everyone here is dancing on the EliteXC's grave, I think its important to remember that a shitload of good fighters (and great people) just saw their contracts disappear into the ether. I mostly dealt with the Hawaii talent, so Icon champs like Kala Kolohe and Mark Oshiro, as well as up-and-comers Poai Suganuma (BJ Penn's LHW), Koa Ramos, Kaleo Kwan - to name a few - just lost big time. 20x this many mainland guys are going thru the same thing. Really sucks for all of them.

Not all of them are UFC material, but the EliteXC model allowed them to earn much better paychecks than living in the local shows. It's too bad that most of them have to go back to the tiny paychecks of the local shows."

It’s safe to say that EliteXC and I rarely saw eye-to-eye on marketing. We did things a lot differently than them at Icon. I was frequently outvoted in the committee process, but I just thought that was part of the deal of going from the 2-man admin of Icon to the corporate structure of ProElite. I brought Mousasi, Aoki, Hunt, and a number of other legit guys (all at a fair market price) to the matchmaking team back Oct/Nov 2007, but my talent selections didn't match their agenda.

No disrespect to them cuz they are all nice guys and gals...we just saw things differently.

Guys like Lawler, Diaz, Shields, Bigfoot, Feijao, and Herman will all land on their feet when the dust clears, but many others will suffer. I hope everything turns out okay for the rest, including nearly all of the staff at Elite.

Would've been awesome if TJay and I coulda had a crack at steering the ship, but certain people - and their methods - were already in place when we arrived. It was clear from day one it was 'their' show, and we were there just to help out on request. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do but go along with it.

Such a wasted opportunity, eh?

-- Patrick Freitas, Ex-Director of Promotions for Icon

"I was there cageside and watched the whole thing happen," he said. "I think (CBS) got cold feet watching. The way the Ken Shamrock pullout was handled, all the way from the beginning to the end with Seth Petruzelli. Watching Jared Shaw jumping up and down and screaming as a representative of the company, I think was disgusting and embarrassing."

"I don’t have a smoking gun, (but) I’ve been around long enough, I’ve talked to enough people that were there, I won’t name names of executives in the company that I know — Seth was paid to stand up. I’m confident of that. If the commission wants to talk to me, I’ll tell them what I know."

-- Icon Sport founder T.J. Thompson speaking to MMA Weekly.

From a press release in my inbox:

"INSIDE MMA" TO FEATURE INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESS SECRETARY SPEAKING ON BEHALF OF THE FLORIDA BOXING COMMISSION
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17 AT 9:00 PM ET
 
Ron Kruck speaks with Alexis Antonacci regarding the ongoing investigation into the Kimbo Slice v.Seth Petruzelli fight

DALLAS (October 16) Tomorrow's INSIDE MMA will feature a special interview with Alexis Antonacci, the press secretary for Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation.  In the interview, Ron Kruck speaks with Ms. Antonacci about why theFlorida Boxing Commission chose to move forward with their investigation into the bout between Kimbo Slice and Seth Petruzelli - and the controversial remarks that Petruzelli made after the fight.
 
In an interview last week with an Orlando talk radio show, Petruzelli made comments that suggested that EliteXC tried to influence the outcome of his fight with Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson at last Saturday's "Heat" event. 
 
Petruzellistated in the interview that, "the promoters kind of hinted to me and they gave me money to stand and trade with him (Ferguson). They didn't want me to take him down-let's put it that way. It was worth my while to try and stand up and punch with him."
 
While no formal complaint has been filed, the Florida Boxing Commission is currently investigating the situation and interviewing EliteXC officials.
 
On this Friday's program, Kruck also has an exclusive interview with Ken Shamrock who, for the first time since the controversial evening discusses the circumstances that knocked him out of the fight with Kimbo Slice.
 
INSIDE MMA airs every Friday on HDNet at 9:00 p.m. ET and is hosted by Kenny Rice and Bas Rutten and features all the latest news and highlights, along with in-depth features, analysis, and rankings.  In studio this week with Kenny and Bas is an all-star panel that includes Rashad Evans, Bobby Lashley and Dave Meltzer.

As you might expect, he's pretty pissed off.

Lost in all the scandal is the fact that there is a ton of good news for EliteXC on CBS coming out of their last show, even if Pro Elite is basically on death watch.  Dave Meltzer sums it up well:

On a night loaded with major sports competition, an MMA card came out ahead in the ratings in males 18-34 and 18-49. This was on a night with college football games on ABC and ESPN, two major league baseball playoff games including a major market Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs battle, and a first-time ever airing on television tape of a major UFC pay-per-view event. Even with the advertised main event of Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock not taking place, it ended up as the third most-watched MMA event ever in North America.

Carano, for the second time on CBS, established herself as a huge television ratings draw. Her match with Kelly Kobold, based on the final Nielsen numbers, added 1,022,000 new viewers to the show. In particular, during the course of her match, males 18-34 increased 69 percent. It was the second straight Carano match on CBS to add a million viewers, a figure establishing her as an elite-level draw. The only other MMA match this year to do this was Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin on a UFC show in July.

There's a lot more too.  With CBS taking over, I think there is a lot to be optimistic about.  They just need to clean up the swamp.

I didn't want to post anything else on this, but the situation is getting more and more ridiculous every day.

It's hard to know what to make of Jeremy Lappen.  He tried to clarify his numerous contradictions today with Michael David Smith of Fanhouse.com, and instead admitted Seth Petruzelli told the truth the first time he spoke:

Regarding the controversy over whether EliteXC paid Petruzelli a bonus (or, as some would call it, a bribe) to keep the fight on his feet, I pointed out to Lappen that he had seemed to contradict himself about what, exactly, EliteXC offered Petruzelli.

Lappen was quoted by Sports Illustrated as saying that EliteXC does not give submission bonuses, while he was quoted by ESPN as saying that Petruzelli was offered a submission bonus. Lappen said both stories misquoted him.

"They're both wrong," Lappen said. "We have given submission bonuses in the past but they're not as common as knockout bonuses. If the question is, 'Have we ever given submission bonuses?' The answer is yes. But we give knockout bonuses more often. We gave Seth a knockout bonus before the fight started. That was part of the deal."

Let me make my point clear:  There is no such thing as a knockout bonus before a fight starts.  It is a quid pro quo, not a bonus.  Imagine a company giving you a bonus for hours worked in a year before the year starts.  It's inconceivable.  

Though I'm sure there will be plenty of spin coming on this statement too, this is an admission of guilt.  You don't pay a guy a KO bonus before a fight without the clear expectation on both sides that his job is to stand and go for a KO.  You don't have to say anything for the expectation to be there.

This is going to be my last post on the topic.  For me, the issue is crystal clear.  There is no way to misconstrue Seth's initial statement, I will not believe a spin machine instead of my eyes and ears.  

I've been sick watching people like Michael Wilbon run with this story and turn it into a "fix" for Petruzelli, and have wondered if writers like me are partially responsible for pushing the story.  Perhaps.  But it's also up to the most devoted fans to keep their sport clean.  I want EliteXC to thrive, I want free MMA on CBS, I want there to be a place for fighters like Gina Carano, Jake Shields, and others to fight.  But not at the expense of the sport.

I fully expect a negligible "investigation" that will exonerate the people involved here, but it won't matter.  Nobody needs an investigation at this point to know what happened.  

Update:  Commenter Smoogy notes what will surely become the spin in response to this: that he only meant that they negotiated a bonus before the fight.  Even if this is the case, it still reeks of telling a guy how to fight.  And it's still different than having a best KO and best submission bonus available to everyone on the card before a fight.

The addition of Steve Cofield over at Yahoo has made the MMA community a lot more entertaining.  He interviewed Kim Couture about Night of Combat 2, and as usual she did not mince words:

It was an awkward situation. Thank god her Dad was there. She would've much rather had me holding that towel for her than Jared Shaw in the background trying to peek over the towel. I thought that was pretty low.

She also slammed the low pay for Gina Carano, who made $25,000 from EliteXC despite being the biggest ratings draw of the night.

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