Seth Petruzelli is Fighting for a New Legacy Even Though He Won't Get It

For better or worse, Seth Petruzelli is a name that will forever be synonymous with the short-lived EliteXC promotion. Petruzelli was an eleventh-hour replacement opponent for notorious street brawler and YouTube sensation Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson back when Slice had been built up and marketed as the next MMA wrecking machine. That wasn’t the case: Petruzelli stone-cold KO’d Kimbo fourteen seconds into their fight. Petruzelli recently returned to the ufc for the first time in three years, and despite losing his return fight, recently vowed that he’s going to do everything in his power to get rid of his “Kimbo Killer” status and establish himself as a credible threat in the ever-expanding UFC.

Here’s what Petruzelli had to say over at UFC.com: “I just want people to recognize me not as “The Kimbo Killer”… I want people to know me as a great mixed martial artist… I want people to know that I’ve been doing this for a long, long time, and it’s still my passion. I’ve been in martial arts since I was six and I want to be known as a great martial artist, someone who made it his career, did big things with it, and helped other people by teaching them and giving them advice.”

Petruzelli isn’t joking when he talks about his experience level, he’s competed in professional MMA fights for over ten years. Petruzelli has nineteen official fights on his record, with twelve of his fourteen wins coming by way of (T)KO. It’s true that he remains winless in the UFC, but the man is by no means untalented.

But here’s some brutal honesty: Petruzelli will never fully emerge out of the shadow of his “Kimbo Killer” moment. I certainly empathize with the man, I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to have your career defined by one quick victory over a flash-in-the-pan that, let’s be honest, never had any business stepping into a cage in the first place. But there’s simply no coming back from something like that.

No matter what Seth Petruzelli does in the future, he’ll always be known as “The Kimbo Killer”. It’s just too notorious of a story. Many fans and insiders consider the “Kimbo Killer” controversy both the biggest and the final nail in EliteXC’s coffin. When people think of the rise and fall of EliteXC, they think of Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzelli.

And in the same vein as my earlier brutal honesty, I must ask the following: is it really so bad to be known as “The Kimbo Killer”? Sure, Petruzelli could be called a literal one-hit wonder, but isn’t five minutes of fame better than no fame at all? Would Seth Petruzelli even be in the UFC right now if he didn’t have the Kimbo Slice KO on his record?

In the end, I think Seth Petruzelli does have a right to complain… but not by much. It must be very hard to know that you’ll be defined by one thing for the rest of your career… but at least you’ll be remembered. If he can’t be famous, at least he’s infamous.

And what about you, fans and friends? Do you see Petruzelli ever getting out of the shadow of the Kimbo Slice KO?