Elite XC "Street Certified"

Fight One: Brett Rogers vs. James Thompson

Thompson rushed Rogers at the beginning and then it was a bunch of uneventful holding. Thompson briefly took Rogers down but Rogers got right back up. Thompson held Rogers a lot but never got in a good shot or move on him. Rogers finally distanced himself with a knee and then landed a series of pretty good looking punches and Thompson went down. Nice showing for Rogers as he stays undefeated.

As a sidenote, I like the set-up of the Elite XC show and the announcers are solid (yes including Bill Goldberg- he actually showed more mic skills in his opening segment than he did in his entire pro wrestling career). I don't really like the ring announcer though. Good build-up for Kimbo- I'm really interested in seeing him fight after the hype he's been getting lately.

Fight Two: Edson Berto (158.25) vs. Yves Edwards (160)

They started off by exchanging some kicks and punches. Both guys are really quick and Berto is borderline lightning quick and showed a ton of promise with some of his kicks and one punch combo in particular. They went to the ground and Berto briefly got a guillotine submission but Edwards brillantly slipped out of it and got a Kimura but couldn't hold it. Edwards took control here as he was on top and controlled this portion of the fight and landed one particularly nasty elbow to the chops. The ref stood them back up towards the end of the fight and Berto came at Edwards again with a real quick combo and in my opinion looked to be the dominant fighter when both guys were standing (while Edwards was clearly the better wrestler). Berto went inside for a takedown and grabbed Edwards leg but Edwards countered with a vicious knee for the KO. I enjoyed this fight a lot as both guys showed a lot of good things and Berto looked really talented just overmatched on the experience side of things.

Fight Three: Kyle Noke (184.75) vs. Scott Smith (184)

First round of this one was real uneventful and the crowd mildly booed throughout. Noke won Round 1 from what I saw because he dominated the first half of the fight with jabs. Smith started to come on in the last 30 seconds as he finally got aggressive. I think Smith is going to open up and take this one as Noke really didn't seem like he wanted to do anything even though he had the early advantage except stand there and hit one jab and then back up.

Seven seconds into Round 2 Scott Smith got a quick knockout of Kyle Noke. This was the exact opposite of the first round and to me showed a great adjustment made by Smith and his corner. He came out and took Noke's jab and then laid into him and knocked him out cold.

Fight Four: Ricco Rodriguez (262.75) vs. Antonio Silva (259.75)

First round was kind of even with the edge going to Silva but neither guy really inflicting any damage onto their opponent. Silva controlled the early portion of the match as he landed most of the punches in Round 1. Ricco got a nice takedown but didn't do much with it once he got on top and in fact Silva landed several blows from the bottom.

Round two picked up a little bit with Silva controlling this one much more than Round One and being the clear winner of this round from my point of view. Silva controlled the stand up and take down game and landed some nice blows from a top but both guys seemed pretty gased and Silva didn't follow-up as well as he probably should have. The ref stood them up and then stopped the fight to check on a cut above Ricco's eye.

Third Round was probably the closest of the fight as Silva controlled early but couldn't put Ricco away and then Ricco came back and had a decent showing with a takedown and mount.

Silva won a split decision and I definitely think it was the right decision although Silva didn't look as good as I thought he would based on how the announcers were pimping him. Only having seen him once I'd say he really needs to work on his conditioning- as he didn't really look winded but when he was on top he couldn't put together sustained offense. I'd also say he needs to work on his gameplan as he looked much better standing up but continued to try to take down Ricco late in the fight. Overall, it was a tough fight for Silva due to Ricco's experience but I'd say it was a good win for him even if it wasn't in impressive fashion.

Fight Five: Tank Abbott (263) vs. Kimbo Slice (234)

This one was really fun although very short but I think that's pretty much what was expected. Kimbo looked great as he avoided a takedown and wailed on Tank. It will be very interesting to see how Kimbo matches up against other MMA guys as Tank's style fit his. Kimbo seemed to overwhelm Tank with his punches and rocked him with quite a few so it will be interesting to see who can stand up with him or can out gameplan him.

Verdict:
This was a good show. My Fight of the Night went to Edwards/Berto as I just really liked both them and the energy and fast paced match that they had. Second was Kimbo/Tank just for the atmosphere and crazy haymakers being thrown. Other than that Brett Rogers looked good, Scott Smith had a great knockout and Silva survived a tough fight. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing some of these guys again.