Yes, unfortunately you read that headline correctly. King of the Cage will hold the first ever WWF-style “I Quit” matchup between professional MMA fighters. This friday night, August 17th, King of the Cage Canada will hold their “Brawl at the Mall” fight card at the Edmonton Event Center located inside the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada.

The “I Quit” match will feature Cory “Show Time” Knapp, with a pro MMA record of 0-4, vs Paul “The Silent Assassin” Ebejer, with a pro MMA record of 0-3.

According to King of the Cage Canada promoter Ken Kupsch:

Cory Knapp was asking me to fight before, but his record is 0-4, I just didn’t feel I could put him in our events. He just isn’t ready for it. Paul Ebejer — he’s 0-3 — he fought for us at one of our last fights out in Quebec. These guys start bashing each other on our Web site forum and before we know it, the fans got involved and we had a small war going there. These guys really wanted to fight and everyone wanted them to fight, but the loser, I mean, if you’re 0-3 or 0-4 and you get beat by another guy that’s 0-4, you should take a little time off I think. The loser has to retire for two years, he can’t fight pro for two years, so if you go for that, and I’ll put the fight on. They did, they’re excited, the fans are behind it. Should be pretty entertaining, nobody is going to fight as hard as these two guys that night.

Paul Ebejer himself gives the following info in a post he made on the King of the Cage forums:

For the first ever 2 warriors will fight to keep there MMA careers going, the loser quits forever. Yes we are talking about the first ever I quit match from the WWF straight into MMA. Allot of trash talking has started Its going to be a fight filled with anger and rage and who do you think will win and who do you think will be the bitch and start the long walk home. Still waiting on a date for this fight but it will happen, so please feel free to leave your opinion on the first ever I quit match.

I don’t know what to make of this, whether I should laugh or cry. This obviously is an attention grabbing marketing scheme, and actually sounds like the fight fans in Alberta are really looking forward to the fight. The fight fans who really drove this fight on the forums probably feel like they have a vested interest one way or the other in the fight, and really, that is a fight promoters ultimate dream.

Will the loser really retire forever or take at least 2 years off from professional competition? Does any really care if they did?

Thanks to R.J. – our correspondant from the North Country