Petruzelli and His Mouth Effectively Murder Elite XC

      "The promoters kinda hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and throw with him, they didn't want me to take him down. Let's just put it that way. It was worth my while to try and stand up and punch him." - Seth Petruzelli on "The Monsters in Orlando" radio show

     Forty five words. Thats' all it took to destroy Jared Shaw and Elite XC in "Nazis at the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'" fashion. Comedy ensued when Shaw responded to Petruzelli's comments with one of those stammering "Uh, can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo" type answers. Freaking hilarious. It was amusing to see a mans nose practically grow on the spot as he spoke about " the integrity of the sport".

     And of course, Petruzelli later backed off his initial statement, saying that he was simply referring to a knockout bonus. But the damage had already been done. He sent EXC's head snapping back on October 4 (which will hereby be known as "The Night That Ken Shamrock Finally Nailed Every Possible Scenario To Pull Out Of A Fight"),  then finished them off with his aforementioned comments. Don't you wish there were cameras' rolling when Jared Shaw heard the quote? How many glass vases do you think he threw around his living room? Or better yet, imagine Jared Shaw appearing on "The Monsters in Orlando" that very morning SITTING NEXT to Petruzelli. Would he still have made the comment? Probably not. It's just fun to think about Shaw pulling a Brian Fantana, hemming and hawing and saying "take it easy, Champ, why don't you stop talking for awhile?" I know, I know -- bad joke -- but something inside of my soul just loves seeing Shaw squirm. I don't feel like I should apologize for this.

        Any MMA fan with more than a few neurons firing in his brain saw this one coming. Hell, I predicted it even before Petruzelli's fateful comments on that show (hold your applause). Just remember the following things: this was an organization that signed a decomposing Ken Shamrock to a three fight deal; hand-picked naturally lighter opponents for Gina Carano and sidestepped any allegations that they were protecting her; knowingly gave Mauro Ranallo a microphone and turned it on; didn't market middleweight champion Robbie Lawler when he was only the most talented fighter they had; and going "all in" after one hand, with their entire fortune riding on a guy who beat up hobos on the internet and had previously fought exactly zero legitimate heavyweights.

      All in all, this was good for the sport. There's a lesson here. When you have people like Gary Shaw, and later Jared Shaw and Jeremy Lappen running your promotion, you don't deserve to be taken seriously. Even if Seth Petruzelli twists the knife even further. Heres' the thing though: I believe him. He probably didn't mean for it to come out like that, but I believe him. And any time you honestly aren't surprised when you hear something like that, then I just have to say "good riddance". Thats' the way it is. I for one cant wait to see where guys like Lawler and Jake Shields end up; it's only going to make legitimate promotions stronger. You're telling me that's a bad thing?