As if EliteXC has enough problems to deal with already, yet another one has come to the forefront as according to Franklin O’Neil of ESPN, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation told McNeil that although it – and I will paraphrase the Department’s words,

“doesn’t have any reason to believe there was a problem with the Slice-Petruzelli fight, given the interest in it, the Department has begun a preliminary investigation to thoroughly review the circumstances of the fight.”

Although that at first glance it sounds like much ado about nothing, it appears that there’s some teeth to this – otherwise, why are they using state resources to investigate this?  All of this stems from comments made after the Seth Petruzelli-Kimbo Slice bout at EliteXC: Heat from Petruzelli himself, stating that the promoters “kinda” hinted to him and paid him a little extra to stand up and trade punches with him. 

Add to this a statement made by ex-EliteXC president Gary Shaw who told the Los Angeles Times that it was common for him to, and again I am paraphrasing Shaw’s comment,

“go to a fighter and say, ‘We’re looking for a stand-up fight.’ You’re not asking him to throw a fight. You’re talking about a fan-friendly fight, not about protecting Kimbo.”

I would have to say that regardless of what the end result is from this investigation by the State of Florida, it will definitely hurt EliteXC and especially the sport of mixed martial arts.  MMA does not need the stigma of being a sport that is “on the fix”; MMA, unlike professional wrestling, does not have “pre-determined” results prior to the bouts.  This is one time where UFC president Dana White – like him or not – will need to put his two cents in on this very serious matter.  One thing that you can say about the UFC: they have not had the problem currently dogging EliteXC.