One of the most hilarious things over the past week has been the histrionics over the potential “fixing” of the Kimbo/Petruzelli fight. ESPN, who has done backflips over the past year hyping Kimbo at every turn (remember this?), claims that the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (who oversees the boxing commission) is opening a preliminary investigation at their behest. What would we do without ESPN’s concern about the integrity of MMA?:

Shortly after stopping Kimbo Slice in 14 seconds in Sunrise, Fla., on Saturday, last-minute replacement Seth Petruzelli began granting interviews. But it was the one he conducted Monday with an Orlando, Fla.-based radio station that has put ProElite under the microscope.

“The promoters kind of hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and trade with him,” Petruzelli said on “The Monsters in Orlando” show. “They didn’t want me to take him down, let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try to stand up and punch with him.”

Petruzelli has since claimed his comment was “misconstrued.” But the damage was too great to simply go away quietly. His words implied that ProElite attempted to influence the fight, causing the issue to mushroom.

After repeated calls from ESPN.com, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation — which oversees the State Boxing Commission — said Thursday that it has opened a preliminary investigation into the matter.

Petruzelli’s comments were stupid, but why would anyone think that EliteXC *wouldn’t* want a replacement to trade and bang with Kimbo? Maybe they should have quickly flown in human bulldozer Jeff Monson or judo god Hidehiko Yoshida? Is *that* why EliteXC didn’t send Kimbo to the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling tournament this year? So EliteXC *didn’t* want a groundfighting monster to come in and tap out Kimbo on national TV? Wow–that’s the biggest scandal since the 1919 “Black Sox” fiasco…..next thing you’ll tell me is that water is wet and that cats and dogs frequently don’t like each other.

We’ve intentionally resisted devoting too much coverage to the Kimbo loss “aftermath” for a simple reason–to paraphrase Kimbo’s prefight comments about the change in opponent “it is what it is”. Kimbo isn’t that good. We knew this. He lost. A lot of fighters–good and otherwise–lose early in their career. He lost to a last minute replacement. Happens all the time in both boxing and MMA. EliteXC wanted an opponent to trade and bang with Kimbo and not take him down. We knew this too.

Perhaps the most comical thing to come out of the Kimbo loss is the behavior of much of the MMA and mainstream media. They, along with Internet MMA fanboys everywhere, gave out a collective huzzah last Saturday night amid celebratory shouts that the “EliteXC Kimbo hype machine” is finished. And then they haven’t talked about anything else since.

And that’s for one simple reason–Kimbo brings in ratings, be it viewers or page hits. Which brings us back to why Kimbo is famous in the first place–people, for whatever reason, want to see him fight. These may not be hardcore fight geeks like the SAVSCI crew or Anderson Silva/Dana White nuthugging Internet fanboys, but he generates interest among the mainstream public–and arguably more so than any other fighter in the sport.

Another corollary to the “EliteXC hype machine” gripes is the meme that Kimbo’s popularity is somehow “bad for the sport” and is “keeping good fighters down”. The idea that there’s some faceless BJJ black belt living under a freeway overpass and eated potted meat simply due to Kimbo’s fame is absurd. Much of this is borne out of the fact that a good portion of the MMA media comes from a pro wrestling background, and for a pro wrestling journalist the worst hit your reputation can take is for people to think that you’re a “mark”. While Kimbo certainly has his flaws, it became apparent to us here at SAVSCI that the MMA media’s hatred of him had gone too far when we saw an article comparing him to OJ Simpson. To much of the MMA ‘nee pro wrestling media “hating” Kimbo is as much of a litmus test for legitimacy as “hating” Hulk Hogan or John Cena–its shorthand for “not being a mark”.

If these people were *really* concerned about doing what’s best for MMA they should worry less about bashing Kimbo–a futile exercise since they’re really just ‘preaching to the choir’ as his fanbase doesn’t read their stuff anyway–and trying to understand the crux of his appeal. They need to figure out how to “sell” the rest of the great product that is MMA to newcomers that Kimbo has brought to the sport. The way to do this isn’t to incessantly harp about how Kimbo is a disgrace to MMA….Kimbo “is what he is”. And taking proactive steps to grow and build the sport by making newbie “Kimbo fans” into “MMA fans” is far more important than trying to prove to the Internet fanboy community that you’re “not a mark”.

ProElite faces allegations of Kimbo-fixing @ ESPN.com