The first time we posted a statement from the camp of Brett Rogers it got us kicked off of our server. Well, FiveOuncesOfPain.com was contacted again by Mike Reilly, the manager for Rogers as well as the head trainer at Team Bison, who has issued a second statement released EXCLUSIVELY to Five Ounces of Pain (note to other editors: feel free to use excerpts and post a link to the complete statement on our site, but unless the statement is released directly to you, you do not have our permission to run it in its entirety).

This second statement from the Rogers camp is in response to a rebuttal that had been issued by Team Kimbo late last week.

Below is the response to the response, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that it doesn’t crash the site:

OFFICIAL RESPONSE FROM THE CAMP OF BRETT ROGERS

We laughed and laughed and then laughed some more… then sort of forgot what we were laughing about and then we remembered and laughed some more; grabbed a bag of Doritos and those KICK ASS brownies they sell at Costco (they fucking rule!) and came up with this response that Kimbo will understand.

With all the talk and about the Kimbo situation let me be Blunt. I would hate to see this whole deal go up in Smoke when Kenny hammers Kimbo. We don’t want to be a Chronic pest; like a Roach on a white rug but we want our shot. Now far be it from us to Harsh anyone’s Buzz so we will be nicer in our comments going forward.

My Auntie Mary Jane said what the world needs is more Tender Huggin Care (THC). So before any bridges get burnt we will put a lid on the negative. We are not just going to huff and puff; we will just wait ’till the numbers are right and then we will get out from behind the 8-ball, jump from limbo and just hope it happens sometime before Kimbo B-40. Right now I know a lot of hoppers be looking at us with Chinese Eyes wondering if we will set the whole world a blaze. But we like they will just have to wait and while our desire to hear the bell go bam grows like a weed; we will just lay in the grass biding our time with our buds.

Thanks

– Team Bison on behalf of Brett Rogers

P.S. Damn it is 4:20… I gots to go… Anyone see Kimbo tell him I said HIGH-HIGH

To read the first statement from the camp of Brett Rogers, click here.

To read the response from Team Kimbo to the Rogers camp, click here.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com was notified through a third-party Wednesday afternoon that the camp for EliteXC heavyweight Kimbo Slice was looking to respond to an exclusive statement issued to us by the camp of Brett Rogers earlier in the day.

We contacted Icey Mike, the manager for Slice, who issued a response that differed greatly from that of Rogers. The nature of Team Kimbo’s response evoked the old proverb that says “A picture can tell a 1,000 words,” as Icey Mike only requested that we run a picture with a simple one line of text below as Kimbo’s official response:

“Rogers, don’t quit your day job.”

The response is a reference to Rogers’ former vocation as a tire repairman at a Minneapolis-area Sam’s Club, where he worked up until this past January before quitting so that he could pursue mixed martial arts on a full-time basis.

(Photo By Esther Lin)

With EliteXC’s recent public announcement that it had decided on Ken Shamrock as the next opponent for Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson during its next installment of “Saturday Night Fights” on CBS on Oct. 4, it has once again left Brett Rogers and his unblemished 8-0 record on the outside looking in.

Securing a match against Slice has been a tremendous source of frustration for the massive heavyweight, who has compiled a 3-0 record while competing under the EliteXC banner. His angst was never more apparent than during the post-fight press conference that proceeded EliteXC and CBS’ first-ever network primetime telecast on May 31.

During the presser, Rogers offered a negative critique of the effort Slice had turned in during the night’s main event against James Thompson. Rogers went so far as to label the effort as “garbage” with Slice sitting just several feet away from him. Slice eventually took exception to Rogers’ words and stood to face him.

Unwilling to back down from Slice, a near brawl between the camps of both fighters almost ensued.
The post-fight drama was a manifestation of Rogers’ dissatisfaction with the fact that Thompson had been awarded the coveted main event slot vs. Slice in spite of the fact that Rogers had recorded a first round knockout over him just months earlier during EliteXC’s “Street Certified.” Cooler heads prevailed but the frustrations linger to this day.

With Rogers once again being passed over, many reporters have attempted to contact Rogers through his Team Bison camp. While Rogers is expected to start granting interviews soon, his manager and Team Bison head trainer, Mike Reilly, has released an exclusive statement to FiveOuncesOfPain.com that states for the record how Rogers and his camp feels about the recent decision to grant Shamrock the main event slot vs. Slice.

A copy of the explosive statement that was released to us is now available below:

On behalf of Brett Rogers and the Team Bison Camp -

We are getting a lot of requests for interviews concerning the recently announced Shamrock vs. Slice match up. I believe many people are looking for us to be upset and join the pig pile on EliteXC. Well, people have to keep on looking.

Brett has two words tattooed on his arms: one is success and the other is patience. We of course would like to fight Kimbo here and now. We would like to fight him today. We would love to fight a legend like Shamrock as well. We would also like to fight for the title. There is no doubt we will get to do all three; we just need to have patience and then we will have success.

As for Elite – this is our home. We are excited to be part of Elite, CBS and Showtime. We are proud to be part of one of fastest-growing and best backed promotions in the world. We are proud to be part of a show that treats their fighters with love and respect and is not afraid to let their fighters compete outside the boundaries. Elite is also not afraid to give fighters the opportunity to develop and grow as athletes and entertainers. Elite has a growing network of mid-level and developmental shows that are bringing up true up-and-coming talent that will provide the bedrock of the sport for a long time to come.

I know a lot of people want to dog on Elite; but these same people would have an MMA world where no more then a dozen guys were making a living wage. People who think the real world should run just like it does on their PlayStation. But this is a complicated, difficult business for every side of the equation. For the fighters, promoters and everyone else involved. As a camp we have to negotiate, posture, bully, push, plead to get our share of the love. But at the end of the day we are Elite.

As for Oct 4th; that was our spot. Shamrock with his name and giant ego butted in line to get a slice of Kevin. At 103 years of age Ken usurped our rightful place against the YouTube champ. Our sincerest hope is that Ken whips Kimbo and then we can finally euthanize the “World’s Most Dangerous Man” and relegate him to some MMA dinosaur exhibit. Maybe taxidermy him and Severn and place them on a rotating pedestal where they can endless circle each other.

If Ken proves to be more sham then rock and Fergi beats him, then the Slice hype grows even greater. Dude is already more myth then Sasquatch, Chupacabra and a fucking unicorn combined. Kevin is the black Yeti.

Caught between a Shamrock and a hard place, Kevin has chosen the old over the new; the past over the future. But Fergi… the hard place is coming. By putting us off, making us wait will only make matters worse. There is nothing business about it anymore. Kimbo made it a point to go frontin’ to our boys at Big Black. But that street thug B.S. might work well with the fan bois and the Internet dorks who think your street cred means something; but Son… Brett comes from Cabrini Green; the worst 12 blocks of America. Compared to that your street is Sesame Street. So you can say it is very personal between Brett and Fergi. So go ahead and make us wait while you fight Tank and Shamrock. Hell, why not fight Hackney, Harold Howard, Fred Ettish and the rest of Jurassic MMA? And while your shuckin’ and duckin’ we will be hustlin’ and muscilin’ and when the bell finally tolls the only real question left is … do you wake up looking at canvas or arena lights?

On behalf of Brett Rogers – Team Bison

First things first. Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock is a marketable matchup. It’s one that I’m sure will draw ratings. Shamrock has been around the game for a very long time, can hype a fight, and has name recognition from his time in the UFC, WWE, and his run on TUF 3. Kimbo is Kimbo. We’ve seen what kind of attention he draws and what kind of drawing power he has. This has all been stated in the past. It’s a fight that will get eyeballs on CBS, EliteXC, and have people tuning in.

That being said, EliteXC is getting as close to scripting fights as possible in MMA without actually determining the outcomes. Say what you will about the UFC, at least they give us legitimate fights where the best fighters on their roster fight one another and they let the chips fall where they may. It may be better off for one of their fighters to win over another but they let the fighters decide what the outcome is and not the matchmaking.

With EliteXC it’s the complete opposite. Going into the fight we already know who’s going to win. And it shouldn’t be that way. Part of the allure to MMA is that the sport is so unpredictable. But nine times out of ten, Slice dominates Shamrock. There’s no fun in that. Are we supposed to legitimately think that Shamrock has a chance in hell to win this fight? That it’s a competitive fight? Anyone with half a brain knows that Shamrock will get knocked out within the first couple of minutes. The guy hasn’t won a fight since he beat a washed up Kimo back in 2004 and his chin has turned into absolute glass over the past few years. Sure, the guy knows his submission game and there’s a small chance he might catch Slice in something but Shamrock is following the path of Tank Abbott as just another guy to throw in the cage against Slice so Kimbo can knock his block off. If “Buzz” Berry can do it then Kimbo certainly can. EliteXC looks second rate as it is. This matchup only helps solidify that fact.

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Upon contacting EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw earlier this afternoon, FiveOuncesOfPain.com can confirm that a reported bout between Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Fergsuon vs. Ken Shamrock is set for the promotion’s next CBS telecast on Oct. 4.

When asked to comment on the reports, Shaw stated that the reports were accurate and that the bout is indeed official.

Sherdog.com was the first to break the news citing unnamed sources as revealing that the UFC Hall of Famer, Shamrock, had been chosen as the latest opponent for the former Internet street fighting sensation, Slice, during CBS and EliteXC’s next installment of its “Saturday Night Fights” franchise to emanate from BankAmerica Arena in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Upon learning of reports over the weekend that EliteXC could announce Slice’s opponent as early as today, we contacted Rodney Donohoo, the agent and attorney for Shamrock. Donohoo respectfully indicated that he could neither confirm or deny the report.

Before reports began to surface, we had also contacted Mike Reilly, the trainer and manager for Brett Rogers, who was believed to have been under consideration to fight Slice as well. Reilly stated a the time that while they believed they were in the mix, they were still awaiting word and that they had yet to receive a formal contract offer.

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Multiple reports in recent days have suggested that Boston-area police officer and one-time UFC competitor Sean Gannon was under consideration to fight Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson on Oct. 4 during EliteXC’s third-ever show on CBS television.

The bout would be a rematch from their controversial “street fight” several years ago in which Gannon won despite uncertainty of the ground rules for the fight that were raised while the fight was taking place.

While it is uncertain whether Gannon was ever truly under consideration as an opponent for Slice on Oct. 4, EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw ruled out any possibility of the bout taking place while speaking exclusively with FiveOuncesOfPain.com.

“No, Sean Gannon will not be the opponent on Oct. 4,” Shaw stated succintly.

Five Ounces of Pain had spoken to EliteXC officials in the past about the possibility of a Slice vs. Gannon rematch and while the fight was never ruled out, skepticism of the bout ever happening was raised due to Gannon’s significant financial demands.

With Gannon not being looked at as an option, it is believed that the leading candidates to face Slice in his hometown of Miami-Ft. Lauderdale are Brett Rogers and UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock.

SI.com’s Josh Gross certainly seems to think so:

Three names keep popping up as the next opponent for Kimbo Slice on Oct. 4: Brett Rogers, Ken Shamrock and … wait for it … Sean Gannon.

The feeling among Elite XC execs, however, is that it’s better to hold off on a Rogers-Slice showdown for fear that its cash cow, Kimbo, would lose, and thereby extinguish his marketability and the organization’s potential pay-per-view debut.

Shamrock would fit nicely — he hasn’t made it out of the opening round since 2005 — but it appears Elite XC is having trouble getting the deal worked out.

And so, that leaves Gannon, a Boston police officer who defeated Slice in the most famous of the Miami street brawler’s underground fight videos.

Well, folks, you knew this was coming. I mean, really, who didn’t see this coming? Rogers vs. Slice is a matchup that doesn’t make any sense for EliteXC right now. If he loses to Rogers, a relative unknown to casuals, then Kimbo’s mystique is all but dead. And at this point, it’s very likely that Rogers would take Kimbo to school in that fight. It’s obvious what kind of plan EliteXC has for Kimbo and that’s to build him up against people that they feel he can beat.

Gannon makes perfect sense in that role. He’s the only guy who has beaten Kimbo in a street fight and the fight has been seen by millions of people on YouTube and other video sharing sites. It doesn’t matter to EliteXC if Gannon is not even a legitimate MMA fighter as long as he presents A) an opponent that Kimbo can beat and B) a marketable story. Gannon fits the description for both of those requirements.

So for those, like myself, who are still waiting to see what Kimbo does against a legitimate MMA fighter it looks like we may have to wait even longer. Eventually EliteXC is going to have to put Kimbo in against a real fighter because at some point people are going to get tired of watching him beat up on lesser fighters.

Update: MMAWeekly.com is quoting EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw as saying the promotion is considering several options for Slice’s option on Oct. 4 but that Gannon is not one of them.

Now this is just hilarious. San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson doing some “old school” training with none other than Kimbo Slice.

HT: AOL Fanhouse via Rear Naked News

When: Saturday, Oct. 4, 2008
Where: BankAtlantic Center; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Watch: CBS @ 9 p.m. ET

EliteXC has already started selling tickets for “Saturday Night Fights III“:

• Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson vs. ??? @ HW
• Gina Carano vs. Kelly Kobald-Gavin @ 140 lbs. (not finalized)

Card subject to change. All matchups are rumored unless stated otherwise.

Check out more CBS Saturday Night Fights content on 5 Oz. of Pain.

In the past, EliteXC has been late to finalize shows and the end result has been a short turnaround time to sell tickets to its live events.

However, it’s looks like the promotion is learning from past mistakes as tickets for CBS’ Saturday Night Fights III on Oct. 4 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. at the BankAtlantic Center are already on sale through Ticketmaster outlets.

While the card has yet to be finalized, EliteXC announced during Saturday Night Fights II this past weekend that both Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and Gina Carano will be returning to action during the event.

Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that CBS wants to build on the success of the May 31 EliteXC: Primetime show by holding another show on July 26 on the network:

While not finalized, Elite XC promoter Gary Shaw said that CBS is requesting his company’s next two live specials for late July (believed to be July 26) and October.

As things stand, plans are to build the show around the creation of both heavyweight and welterweight championships, as well as creating an October opponent for Carano in a fight where the promotion will create a woman’s championship.

The heavyweight title bout will involve Antonio Silva and an opponent to be determined. Names being tossed around are Brett Rogers, the winner of tonight’s fight between Dave Herman and Ron Waterman, and possibly IFL heavyweight champion Roy Nelson. The welterweight title fight will involve Jake Shields and an opponent also to be determined. Names being tossed around for that fight include Cage Rage welterweight champion Paul Daley, Drew Fickett, and IFL welterweight champion Jay Hieron.

EliteXC is also looking into the possibility of a rematch between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith for the EliteXC middlweight title. It appears that Lawler is ready to go but the question mark lies with Smith who injured his foot in the bout.

Another interesting tidbit from Meltzer’s piece is that EliteXC is going to create yet another weight class for Gina Carano because she seemingly is unable to make her contracted weight of 140 lbs.:

They are also looking at a women’s match, featuring Shayna Baszler (9-4). The winner of that match would most likely face Carano in October to create the company’s first women’s champion, in a 145-pound weight class.

“I don’t believe Gina Carano can make 140 pounds,” said Gary Shaw, after Carano came in at 144.5 pounds on May 31 for her 140-pound weight class win over Kaitlin Young.

IFL CEO Jay Larkin released a statement earlier today about EliteXC: “Primetime” on CBS:

Saturday’s ratings success of ProElite’s show on CBS again shows that the market for the sport in the mainstream is growing, and we at the the International Fight League are very excited to be one of the industry leaders that can help grow the sport of Mixed Martial Arts collectively. We look forward to continuing our work both independently with our great roster of young, marketable athletes, and with other promotions, to help make exciting fights and encourage further growth of the sport to a larger audience.

Paired with the recent reports about a possible Roy Nelson and Kimbo Slice fight taking place in the future, maybe co-promotion is just the route the IFL needs to take to change reportedly tanking finances.

Our good friend at MMARated.com, Ariel Helwani, worked overtime this week getting tons of great video pertaining to the buildup and aftermath of EliteXC’s debut on CBS.

Ariel and his crew were able to get video of the post-fight press conference altercation between Kimbo Slice and Brett Rogers, which you can view here. MMARated.com also has a ton of other video I highly recommend you check out.

There has been much said, post-fight, about EliteXC: Primetime’s main event between Kimbo Slice and James Thompson. The majority of which surrounds fight-fixing conspiracies, premature stoppages, phantom taps, why Kimbo will never be a top 10 heavyweight and how terrible it was that that fight was the main event on MMA’s first network card.

Much of the criticism levelled at the main attraction pre-fight was that Kimbo Slice was undeserving of the role of ambassador for mainstream mixed martial arts because of his lack of experience and his backyard brawling background and that the fight would be just be an early first round knockout and would be more about showcasing Slice than it was MMA.

A quick first round knockout wasn’t what we saw on Saturday night though and I for one am glad that I got to see 10 minutes and 38 seconds of back and forth MMA action instead. Granted, the fight wasn’t filled with the cleanest of exchanges and grappling transitions but in my opinion it was a lot better viewing than the much predicted alternative.

If Slice/Thompson went as everyone expected it to go then MMA’s first foray into the world of network television would of come across to the novice viewer as just sloppy kickboxing with the occasional tackle.

The hardest part, I think, of introducing MMA to the uneducated public is getting the public to understand the intricacies of the ground game. If MMA is going to have any sort of staying power or longevity as a mainstream sport it needs an educated fan base. You can only dish up less than technical stand-up war after stand-up war for so long until the product becomes stale and in my opinion what gives MMA its lure is the contrast between the intensity and power of the stand up and the technical and tactical battle of the ground. Surprisingly, Kimbo/Thompson probably ended up helping the education of the newer audience in the details of the ground more so than any other possible fight could.

Like it or not, the overwhelming majority of people that tuned in yesterday that haven’t watched an MMA event most likely did so in order to watch Kimbo Slice. Now if you had only very limited knowledge about MMA beforehand and were only tuning in to watch Kimbo Slice you would be very eager and interested to learn what was going on when Thompson was on top of Kimbo. The commentators did a good job of explaining what Kimbo needed to do in order to get out of the bad situations he found himself in and what James Thompson was trying to do. For an MMA newcomer and Kimbo fan that would resonate more deeply than it would if it were two BJJ blackbelts rolling in the main event.

With any luck that fight planted seeds in the minds of many newcomers so that the next time they stumble upon an event they will be able to see and recognise those positions and will be able to get more insight and enjoyment out of that fight/event.

During the post-fight press conference for EliteXC: “Primetime” on CBS, Brett Rogers questioned Kimbo Slice’s performance in his bout with James Thompson. Rogers had knocked out Jon Murphy previously during the night within one round. Rogers questioned Slice’s performance before Kimbo was even in the room but then repeated it once Slice had entered the press conference.

Slice shrugged it off at first and was cool about it but eventually Kimbo tried to step to Rogers and get in his face and a brawl almost broke out. People got in the middle and all of Kimbo’s crew were talking trash before the situation was diffused and Slice and his entourage left the press conference.

Keep it tuned to FiveOuncesOfPain.com for more EliteXC on CBS coverage!

Huckaby just posted a great pros and cons article below so I’ll stick to the basics and give you some quick thoughts on the show.

- Gus Johnson was awesome. I’ve always been a fan of Johnson’s work on the NFL broadcasts and the NCAA basketball broadcasts so I was excited to see him working with EliteXC in the same capacity. But his performance tonight was fantastic and brought a great level of excitement to the fights with a familiar voice. Plus having him do in-ring interviews with the fighters as opposed to Frank Shamrock, who usually does them, brought a real degree of professionalism to the broadcast. Props to Gus for keeping it real, talking when he needed to talk, and letting Mauro and Shamrock do their thing when they needed to. The three man booth needs a little tightening up but overall it was a good showing from the commentary team.

- The dancing girls need to go. This point has been hashed out time and time again. On Showtime they’re tolerable because that’s a premium cable channel. But you don’t roll those ladies out in their skimpies on national television. It makes the product come across as sleazy. Not to mention cheesy.

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Courtesy of Esther Lin (updated: Esther rules) at Combat Lifestyle, we have some great pics of the weigh-ins for tomorrow’s fight. See the difference between what a professional fighter who takes the fight seriously looks like (Kaitlin Young) and a fighter who is spoiled and can’t even make weight in a weight class that was created specifically for her (Gina Carano).

Weigh-ins for EliteXC’s “Primetime” show took place today at approximately 2pm ET at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The Prudential Center will also play host to the fight card tomorrow night, which is set to air live on CBS. Pro Elite will be streaming preliminary fights live before the CBS broadcast begins.

The results are as follows:

Televised Card
• Kimbo Slice (235.5) vs. James Thompson (257)
• Robbie Lawler (184.5) (c) vs. Scott Smith (184.5)
• Gina Carano (144.5) vs. Kaitlin Young (140.5)
• Jon Murphy (260.5) vs. Brett Rogers (263.5)
• Phil Baroni (185) vs. Joey Villasenor (184.5)

Internet Card

• Carlton Haselrig (263) vs. Carlos Moreno (261)
• Jim Bova (160.5) vs. Chris Liguori (161)
• Matt Makowski (171) vs. Nick Serra (167)
• Wilson Reis (140.5) vs. Justin Robbins (140.5)
• James “Binky” Jones (154.5) vs. Calvin Kattar (155.5)

Preliminary Card

• Zach Makovsky (135) vs. Andre Soares (134)
• Mike Groves (154) vs. Joe Sampieri (155)

As you can probably tell, Gina Carano once again failed to make weight. According to several reports from on-site sources, Carano must give Kaitlin Young 12.5% of her fight purse as a result of the weight issue.

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