Seth Petruzelli determined to shed “Kimboslayer” label
Mention the greatest night of his professional life, and Seth Petruzelli won’t give you that here-we-go-again stare, even though he’s…
Mention the greatest night of his professional life, and Seth Petruzelli won’t give you that here-we-go-again stare, even though he’s heard it all before, at least 1,001 times.
As you know – and he knows well – Petruzelli was a UFC failure 10 months ago, buried on the preliminary card of “EliteXC: Heat” and set to face Aaron Rosa before Ken Shamrock suffered a cut over his eye and was forced to back out of the main event against Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson.
Scrambling in a panic, EliteXC executives turned to Petruzelli, allegedly telling him to keep it standing up. It took 14 seconds for “The Silverback” to be splashed on the front of every major MMA Web site (not to mention a slew of mainstream publications, including TIME Magazine). In some ways it’s a curse – Petruzelli turns every which way and hears about it. And he will live with it until he starts rewriting the story.
But part of it’s also a blessing – to an extent.
“If they’re going to market it like that, they’re going to pay me better because of it,” Petruzelli told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I don’t want to say it’s a bad thing to talk about because it’s a great thing that happened to me. But it’s just getting old, and I’d like to put it past me and get some more wins.”
Fighting for the first time since conquering Ferguson, Petruzelli (10-4) will co-headline Art of Fighting’s Aug. 22 event in Tampa, Fla., against local police officer and one-time IFL fighter Chris Baten (5-4). Little else is known about the Baten beyond the IFL, a 2007 win over former NFL player Herbert “Whisper” Goodman and his IFL loss to Jamal Patterson. When asked for a scouting report, all Petruzelli could do was shrug.
“He’s a big scary black guy,” he said.
