Elite XC Ken Shamrock (Petruzelli) vs. Kimbo Slice

Sunrise, Florida—South Florida was alive Saturday, October 4th with Elite XC Cagefighting on the CBS Network. Street Brawler Kimbo Slice was set to fight the Legendary Ken Shamrock, but a last minute scratch by Shamrock due to a pre-fight training injury bumped UFC fighter and alternate Seth Petruzelli up from the undercard. Shamrock was disappointed at not getting a shot at Kimbo, especially after he turned his back to the former Wrestling star in weigh-in’s. Shamrock responded by pushing Kimbo off the stage and warning him never to turn his back on him.

In what may have been the bout of the night, current champion Gina Carano faced Kelly Kobold in the 140lb class. Pre-fight, Kelly said she wanted to “break something beautiful,” in which Carano merely smiled laughing and retorted “she called me beautiful.” Kobold came out like a pit bull ready to kill someone and charged right into Carano off the whistle, pushing her against the cage. In what looked like illegal hair-pulling, Kobold grabbed Carano’s head and introduced it to her knee. Carano came back in the second round and taught Kobold how to throw a real knee, laying shot after shot of smash knees to her torso. A jump knee by Carano didn’t quite land but looked cool nonetheless. Kobold managed a takedown and wailed punches down on Carano from inside her guard until the round ended.

Round three, while Kobold came into the fight looking like a mad dog, she came out of the last round looking like a dog that got hit by a car. With Kobold tired and sloppy, Carano turned on the heat, landing low and high kicks like something out of Soul Calibur. Gina Carano won by decision barely sweating and without a scratch on her while even the announcers agreed that the ladies needed and deserved three 5 minute rounds like the men.

Two Champions came out of brief retirements as Andrei Arlovski fought Roy Nelson. Andrei opened with a classic Gracie leg trip from the clinch while Nelson went with the momentum and flipped him over into guard. He passed to side-control and went for straight armlocks and Kimura’s until the round ended. Second round was spent with Andrei’s back to the cage pushing Nelson’s head out with Nelson in turn blocking Andrei’s knee. Andrei created some space and dropped a mean right cross to knock Nelson out cold in 3:15 of the second round.

For the Welterweight title, Jake Shields fought Paul Daley of the UK. The two fighters touched gloves and circled. Daley threw inside leg kicks that echoed of the walls. Jake’s single leg took Daley to the ground where he gained full mount. He punched from top to set up the armbar but slipped in his execution and ended up back in guard with Daley raining down punches on him. In the second round, Jake regained the full mount and set up the armbar again, this time isolating both arms and securing his far leg over Daley’s head to crank the arm in a way it doesn’t bend. Jake Shields taps Paul Daley by armbar in the second round.

For the main event, people were counting on a surprise, and a surprise they did get but maybe not the one they were expecting. Alternate Seth Petruzelli stepped up to fill Ken Shamrock’s spot against Kimbo Slice. Petruzelli unleashed hell, throwing a stop-kick to create space and a mean jab to stun Kimbo, making him fall and not get up. Petruzelli leapt on him and smashed him again and again with rocketing punches, causing the ref to stop the fight at 14 SECONDS of the first round! Seth Petruzelli wins by TKO in 14 seconds of the first round, however he was humble in saying that neither fighter trained for the other and they met under stressful last-minute circumstances. Surprise nonetheless. This was a great event.