UFC 116: Seth Petruzelli Answered When Opportunity Knocked

Seth Petruzelli (12-4) will make his return to the world famous octagon after a three-year UFC absence on Saturday, July 3rd as a part of UFC 116 in Las Vegas.   Petruzelli will meet AMA fighter Ricardo Romero in a light heavyweight contest that will air as part of the SpikeTV prelims.  However, the road to get back to the UFC was a controversial journey unlike no other.

After losing to Wilson Gouveia at UFC Fight Night-9, Petruzelli was signed by the now defunct Elite XC organization.  Originally, Petruzelli was scheduled to fight on the undercard of “Elite XC: Heat” against Aaron Rosa.  However, Ken Shamrock who was scheduled to fight “Kimbo Slice” had to cancel last minute and in stepped the highly overlooked Petruzelli. Twelve seconds into the first round is all it took for Petruzelli’s life to change forever, as he had been the first man to defeat the former YouTube sensation, “Kimbo Slice”.

Following the fight with Slice, it was destined for Petruzelli to make his return to the big stages of MMA.  In order to stay active after Elite XC folded, Petruzelli would fight two-times on the smaller circuit of MMA.  In Petruzelli’s last fight, he scored his first submission victory in MMA over the tough Brit, Ryan White via armbar. 

Petruzelli had to be getting anxious to get back into the UFC, and a fan of the Florida based fighter started his own facebook page trying to get Petruzelli back into the UFC. 

The number of facebook fans kept growing and hit over one-thousand fans in almost record time and the UFC seems to of taken notice.

It was announced on June 4th that Petruzelli would get a second opportunity to showcase his skills in the worlds premier mixed martial arts organization (UFC) after former WEC champion Steve Cantwell had to withdraw from the bout against Ricardo Romero at UFC 116.  

Opportunity wouldn’t stop there either, as Kendall Grove was demoted to the unseen preliminary card and now Petruzelli has been offered a great opportunity to display his skills live on Spike TV.