Florida State Boxing Commission clears Elite XC

The Florida State Boxing Commission — in a joint effort with The Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) — concluded after an investigation that there was no foul play involved with the scandalous Elite XC: “Heat” main event, which took place at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., on October 4.

The investigation was in its preliminary stages, centering around Seth Petruzelli’s comments about being paid extra money to keep his fight with Kimbo Slice standing. The problem with that, clearly, is that a stand-up fight favored Kimbo’s comfort level and gave the promotional poster boy a better chance at winning against the late replacement.

However, based on the findings the DBPR didn’t see any merit in continuing on with a full investigation and the case was closed.

Plenty of people still believe that Elite XC was operating with shady intentions that night, including one of its own — T. Jay Thompson, CEO of Icon Sport and Pro Elite executive consultant.

Here’s a snip from a recent interview with MMAWeekly.com:

“I have no proof, [but] I’d be amazed if [Seth Petruzelli] wasn’t paid to stand up 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.”

However, according to Sherdog.com, the commission never interviewed Thompson during their investigation.

It doesn’t end there … not even close.

Keith Kizer — the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission — claims he was hearing rumors of Elite XC trying to fix the match as well.

Here’s what he had to say:

“Someone affiliated with ProElite told me that the fighter (Kimbo) 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.”

If the speculation is accurate, it sounds like Elite XC — or someone involved with Elite XC — was clearly worried about the possibility of Kimbo losing and how that result could effect the long-term viability of the struggling company.

Those concerns proved to be accurate, but it’s highly unlikely that Pro Elite could have dreamed up how this wild and sordid tail eventually unfolded — not even in their wildest of imaginations. Even though the official ruling is that Elite XC did nothing wrong, the whiff of possible “fight-fixing” alone and the stigma it creates were the final nails in the coffin.

Too little, too late.


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