5 pivotal moments that lead to the dominance of the UFC

#3 Seth Petruzelli knocks out Kimbo Slice and Elite XC at the same time

While UFC’s Fox shows have made MMA on national broadcast TV a regular occurrence these days, back in 2008, despite becoming a PPV juggernaut, MMA had never penetrated mainstream television to that level.

It was actually Elite XC – a new promotion fronted by boxing’s Gary Shaw – that changed all that.

Buoyed by the popularity of their star attraction, former street fighter and YouTube sensation Kimbo Slice, Elite XC signed a deal with CBS in early 2008 to broadcast their shows live in prime time on Saturday nights.

Their first live show, main evented by a fight between Slice and British brawler James Thompson, was a massive ratings hit.

The only problem was that Kimbo wasn’t exactly a world-beater. In fact, he was totally unproven at the top level no matter how hard EXC tried to push him as MMA’s answer to Mike Tyson. And while he’d beaten Thompson eventually, he struggled in the fight due to a limited gas tank.

When the follow-up show – without Kimbo on the card – did a much weaker rating, it was clear that for the time being, EXC still needed to rely on their former street brawler, as despite their best efforts, they’d been unable to woo any top fighters away from the UFC.

The third CBS special was booked for October 2008 and with ratings in mind, EXC booked Kimbo to face UFC legend Ken Shamrock. Ken hadn’t won a meaningful fight in years but it didn’t really matter, he was still a big name who could draw eyeballs to the promotion.

It wasn’t to be.

On the night of the show, Shamrock suffered a cut during his warm-up that sidelined him. EXC replaced him with former UFC fighter Seth Petruzelli - a journeyman, but a very tough fighter too. Kimbo was still being pushed as a world-beater, and that was about to change.

After using a couple of front kicks to gauge the distance, Petruzelli hit Kimbo with a jab that dropped him face-first. A few follow-up punches landed and the fight was over in just 14 seconds.

EXC’s cash cow was thoroughly exposed as a fraud, but somehow the worse was still to come.

The following week, Petruzelli revealed on a radio show that EXC had paid him extra money in order to stand with Kimbo, rather than looking to take him to the ground. While EXC’s executives denied this, the Florida Athletic Commission were concerned enough to launch an investigation immediately.

With the stench of an attempted fix hanging over them – as well as Kimbo’s aura being totally shattered – Elite XC announced that they would cease operations just sixteen days after the fateful event.

For once, Zuffa and the UFC didn’t have to lift a finger to kill one of their competitors – Elite XC had loaded the barrel, pointed the gun and pulled the trigger at themselves.

No other promotion – until the UFC in 2011, with one brief exception that we’ll get to later – would make it as far as national broadcast television, making this one of the most pivotal moments in the story of the UFC’s dominance.