Slice & Diced

What was meant to have been one of the mainstream's in-thing's greatest nights turned into a disaster on Saturday as Kimbo Slice was knocked out by a mainstream nobody.

Slice became a household name after his underground street fights made their way to Youtube. He was signed by UFC rival, Elite XC and he took part in numerous bouts on American TV securing a fight record of 3-0.

Despite his fights getting good to great ratings for CBS, the company that ran the shows were swimming in serious debt. Their solution to the problem was to promote Kimbo Slice against the legendary, Ken Shamrock in an MMA dream match.

Shamrock is a household name himself. He fought for UFC for many years and also wrestled for the WWF during its biggest boom period to date.

The fight was built up superbly. I don't get Elite XC cards on television in the UK but from the sport websites I visit I could tell they were looking forward to the bout.

Shamrock, at age forty-four, is in the twilight of his career and many suspected he was in for a pounding from Slice. Me, on the other hand, felt Slice's lack of stamina - judging from the Youtube clips I saw - could have worked against him opposing the veteran.

We never got the answer to the question.

Shamrock was deemed medically unfit to participate after he cut himself in training on the morning of the fight. Elite XC, in a desperate attempt to save their show, managed to offer a cautious Kimbo Slice a big pay-off to face a substitute fighter.

Seth Petruzelli.

Petruzelli is a fighter known in the MMA world but a virtual nobody in casual viewers' eyes. Those people at home probably thought they were about to see a slave fed to the hungry lion.

And they were right - yet wrong.

It took Petruzelli fourteen seconds to finish Kimbo Slice's perfect MMA record.

There is going to be tons of fallout from this result. Elite XC's biggest draw has now been proven to be not as tough as he has been promoted. Worse than that - how much goodwill will the company have for not delivering the fight people had tuned in to see?

Only time will tell but Kimbo Slice may end up being another one of the media's flash-in-the-pans that fell from popularity.

Ironically, his employers may be the ones that fall first.