MMA legend Ken Shamrock (26-13-2) was prepared for one final shot at glory.
After winning just one bout since 2002, Shamrock's heavily publicized return against street-fighting legend Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson was to be the main event of this past weekend's "EliteXC: Heat." Instead, a laceration suffered on the day of the event forced Shamrock off of the card -- and left EliteXC officials scrambling for a replacement.
While Seth Petruzelli stepped on short notice, and took full-advantage of the opportunity by taking out the heavily favored Slice in just 14 seconds, Shamrock was forced to walk away amidst a chorus of boos from the BankAtlantic Center crowd -- and a slew of question marks from the MMA community.
Shamrock has not been available to MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) for comment since his medical disqualification, but the 44-year-old yesterday released an open letter on his official website, Ken Shamrock.com.
Shamrock not only apologized for his unfortunate injury, but also expressed his desire for EliteXC to schedule the bout with Slice again.
The full release can be found below (unedited).
Open Letter From Ken Shamrock on CBS Fight
Published Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 11:51 am
On October 4th, I was set to fight Kimbo Slice on the EliteXC/CBS Saturday Night Fights in a highly anticipated event. Unfortunately, because of a training accident and the intervention of the Florida State Boxing Commission, our fight did not happen. I suffered a cut above my left eye that required six stitches, and the cut was significant enough to cause the Florida State Boxing Commission to refuse to allow me to fight.
The scheduled bout with Kimbo on the EliteXC/CBS Saturday Night Fight card was a great opportunity, and it is unfortunate that I was unable to face Kimbo as planned. I want to apologize to all of my fans, and to the EliteXC and CBS executives who worked so hard to put this fight together. I also want to apologize to Kimbo, Bas Rutten and their entire camp for what happened. I recognize that I put them in a very bad situation, particularly Kimbo. It's difficult to walk into the ring after training for one opponent only to find out hours before the fight that you have to face some you don't know or have never seen fight.
Over the years there have been many great times as well as disappointing times and I know Saturday the fans were as disappointed as I was. I was worked up so I decided to train with my partners in order to stay focused on the fight. I was just doing a light roll to check holds when I got caught by a head butt. It was a freak accident and I didn't think anything of it until I saw drops of blood. It appeared to be a deep laceration so I had my physician look at it and we immediately went to the emergency room. When they said the cut would require stitches, my heart sank because I knew that the Florida Boxing Commission would not let me fight. I was disappointed because I knew this was an opportunity to give the fans, my friends, and my family something to cheer about. It has been a hard couple of years for me, and for my fans. I have suffered some disappointing losses. I definitely regret my decision to train on the day of the fight.
I promise that I will make this up to all my fans. I know that there is nothing I can do about what occurred, but I plan to get back into the ring soon. I would like it to be against Kimbo Slice. Hopefully EliteXC/CBS will still be able to put a fight together. It's is the right thing to do. The fans want it and I want it.
I would also like to congratulate Petruzelli on his win. He did a phenomenal job. Seth not accepted the challenge of facing a new opponent; he also had to move up in weight class. He came in, dominated Kimbo and walked away with a great victory.
To the fans, I appreciate all of your support.
Thank you and God Bless.
Ken Shamrock
