FanHouse SethPetruzelli

2009 isn't over yet, but if you're wondering who my landslide choice for MMA businessman of the year is, it's already Roy Nelson.

Consider the fact that six short months ago Nelson was fighting on the undercard of the forgettable Roy Jones-Omar Sheika MMA/boxing pay-per-view and now he is a few hours away from being featured on what is shaping up to be the most watched telecast in UFC history.

Late Monday night, Dana White tweeted that he would be handing out free tickets to UFC 104 at a Pinkberry in midtown Manhattan. Several minutes before his expected arrival, I decided to check out the scene, fully expecting there to be 10 to 15 people hanging outside. Not so.

When I arrived there were at least 50 people anxiously waiting for White, and when he showed up 30 minutes later, there were at least 100 people outside, along with two police officers. Without hesitation, White promised every single person there a free ticket to UFC 104 in Los Angeles. FanHouse then briefly spoke to White while he was enjoying his frozen yogurt about Wednesday's much-anticipated edition of The Ultimate Fighter featuring Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson. The interview is below.

Seth Petruzelli was victorious in his first fight back since knocking out Kimbo Slice last October on CBS and Marcio "Pe de Pano" Cruz captured the WFO heavyweight belt in the co-headlining bouts at Art of Fighting 3 Saturday in Tampa, Fla.

Petruzelli, who told FanHouse last week that wins on the local circuit could lead him to a UFC return against Slice, stopped one-time IFL competitor Chris Baten at 2:43 of the first round. Petruzelli sent Baten to the floor with an overhand right and followed with punches on the ground to call on the referee stoppage.

In his first fight since dispelling the EliteXC myth of Kimbo Slice, Seth Petruzelli returns Saturday against IFL veteran Chris Baten at Art of Fighting 4 in Tampa, Fla.

Last October, Petruzelli (10-4) became an unlikely hot topic when he accepted a main event fight against Slice on a few hours notice and proceeded to stop the EliteXC main draw in 14 seconds. Although the event on CBS turned out to be the third most watched MMA card ever, Slice's loss in credibility and Petruzelli's controversial comments following the fight heavily contributed to the company's closure within the end of the month.

LAS VEGAS -- Kimbo Slice is picking technique over power in the UFC heavyweight championship clash between Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar at UFC 100.

"I dont like picking fights, everyone knows you can't pick fights, but you can go with who you think. I like Mir," he said. "I like them both, but the reason I say I like Mir is because he's a specialist.

"Brock got power," he continued, "but Brock got a lot of body that Mir can catch him with, so I kind of like Mir, man. I like Mir."

Back when Kimbo Slice was the biggest star of EliteXC, which was once viewed as the Ultimate Fighting Championship's biggest competitor, UFC President Dana White was fond of saying that Kimbo wasn't even good enough to win the UFC's reality show for MMA beginners, The Ultimate Fighter.

Now Kimbo has been given a spot on the 10th season of The Ultimate Fighter, which begins taping this week, and I believe White will be proven right: Kimbo won't make it out of the house and into the UFC.

Roy Jones Jr. will return to the ring on March 21 to take on the little-known Omar Sheika in a card that he's promoting himself, with mixed martial arts fights featuring Seth Petruzelli and Bobby Lashley on the undercard.

Combining boxing and MMA has been tried before, although never in a card featuring a fighter as well known as Jones. And although neither Petruzelli nor Lashley is anywhere close to being a great MMA fighter, they're both well known: Petruzelli beat Kimbo Slice on national television in October, while Lashley was once among the most popular pro wrestlers in the WWE. Another MMA fight on the card is supposed to match Roy Nelson against Jeff Monson, although Monson's legal problems could make that difficult.

As regular readers know, I don't have much respect for Kimbo Slice as an MMA fighter. But I do have a lot of respect for Bas Rutten as a fighter, trainer and commentator, and I was interested in some of the complimentary comments that Rutten had for Kimbo on this week's edition of HDNet's Inside MMA.

A segment of the show included a question from a viewer asking Rutten to name the best fighters he's trained. Rutten mentioned several, including Kimbo, whom he has consistently praised for his natural ability as a striker and his hard work and dedication to improving his craft.

"I think Kimbo's striking really came together," Rutten said. "His boxing got better and better."

Seth Petruzelli ended the Kimbo Slice mystique with a 14-second knockout in October, and he contributed to the end of EliteXC when he suggested afterward that officials with the organization tried to manipulate the outcome. Now he wants everyone to know that he'd like a rematch with Kimbo. Oh, and he's not gay:

"It's all about if he agrees to it," Petruzelli said of a rematch. "I already agreed to it, I already agreed to what money I would need to do it, and it's just up to his camp now. I think the exact same thing will happen, if not that fast. If I didn't want to stand up with him I know I could take him down and just ground and pound him the entire three rounds. If not that, then I would just definitely go for the knockout again. It might not be as fast, but I know I would win the fight again."

On October 4, Seth Petruzelli knocked out Kimbo Slice in 14 seconds, and in the fallout from the fight, the mixed martial arts promotion EliteXC went out of business.

But another MMA promotion might want to put Petruzelli and Kimbo back into the ring together: The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that a Kimbo-Petruzelli rematch could take place at the annual K-1 Dynamite MMA and kickboxing show in Japan on New Year's Eve.

Zach Arnold of FightOpinion.com writes that Petruzelli wouldn't be a draw in Japan, but that Kimbo has the kind of outsized persona that Japanese fans love. And Petruzelli, who has worked for the K-1 organization before, including once fighting the Kimbo-like Bob Sapp, has said he's open to fighting there again.

Neither Kimbo nor Petruzelli is a big name in Japan, but a fight between the two of them would be a big draw for HDNet, which has the American TV rights and might be willing to pay more to get Kimbo-Petruzelli 2 on its network.

The problem, of course, is that there's no reason at all to believe that the result of a second Kimbo-Petruzelli fight would be any different from the first: Petruzelli, who unlike Kimbo is actually a skilled martial artist, would likely knock Kimbo out easily, again. Still, it would be a quick KO that would draw a big audience.