Elite XC: "Return of the King" 6/14 Re-Cap/Thoughts

Elite XC: Return of the King

They focus on the Main Event during the lead-in promo with KJ Noons vs. Yves Edwards. This show is named for KJ Noons who is returning to his home, Hawaii, to defend the lightweight title.

The card for tonight is:

Rafael Feijao – (205) vs. Wayne Cole – (204)
Dave “Pee Wee” Herman – (243 ½) vs. Ron Waterman – (263)
Murilo “Ninja” Rua – (184) vs. Tony Bonello – (185)
Nick Diaz – (169) vs. Muhsin Corbbrey – (163 ½)
EliteXC Lightweight World Title Match: KJ Noons ©– (160) vs. Yves Edwards – (158 ½)

Light Heavyweight Fight- Wayne Cole (11-6) vs. Rafael Feijao (5-1)

Wayne Cole was last seen on the Frank Shamrock/Cung Le card destroying Mike Kyle. Feijao has trained with Anderson Silva and Noguiera. This will be the first time I’ve seen Feijao fight. Looks like Anderson Silva is in Feijao’s corner, or someone who looks a lot like him. Maura Ranallo notes that Feijao’s lone loss was due to disqualification.

R1- They mix up at the beginning with both guys landing shots and then Rafael takes Cole down. Back to their feet and they clinch. Ranallo confirms that Anderson Silva is in Rafael’s corner. Rafael is hitting some knees. The ref stops the fight and tells Cole that he has five minutes, looks like he called a low blow. They come back and Rafael hits a couple of kicks and then they clinch again. Both guys are very quick and aggressive. Rafael separates from the clinch and hits a couple of nice punches. He goes for a knee but Cole grabs it so Rafael hits him with this other knee. Rafael with two more knees and Cole is down and in trouble. Rafael just nailing Cole with shots and the ref stops the fight. Rafael Feijao looked very impressive in victory in this fight.

Winner: Rafael Feijao by TKO (strikes) R1 2:47

Scott Smith joins Mauro Ranallo ringside and they show highlights from the CBS Saturday Night Fights show. Scott says his eye is fine and that his foot is also fine, he pulled some ligaments in it but he’s running on it now and he’s ready to fight. Says he and Lawler have some unfinished business to take care of. Smith says he needs to move around move during the next fight and not eat as much punishment (jabs). Ranallo announces that the re-match is coming up Saturday July 26th at 9PM on CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights. I definitely will tune in for this as I really liked their first fight.

Heavyweight Fight: Dave Herman (10-0) vs. Ron Waterman (15-5-2)

They hype Waterman as a “Jack of all Trades” and talk about some of the former jobs he’s had, they don’t mention WWE developmental wrestler. He’s 42 years old. Ranallo says that Cro Cop called Waterman the most powerful man he’s ever faced. Herman is hyped as an undefeated young prospect. Herman is 10-0 with 7 KOs and 3 Subs.

R1- Herman boxes around Waterman early but Waterman quickly takes him down. Waterman has Herman against the fence and is getting some Ground and Pound. They sprawl and Herman gets up but Waterman takes him down and Herman gets up again. Good job by Herman escaping with minimal punishment. Herman hits a Karate Kid kick right to Waterman’s face that just looked fantastic as it echoed when it hit. Waterman trying to take Herman down again and Herman is hitting him with some elbows, a couple of which are dangerously close to the back of the head. Herman hits a knee to the side and Herman is in full mount and Ground and Pounds Waterman until the ref stops the fight. Really impressive fight for Herman.

Winner: Dave Herman by TKO (strikes) R1 2:19

Two impressive victories by young fighters to start off this show as Herman and Feijao are both guys that I want to see more from.

Stephen Quadros interviews Yves Edwards backstage. They talk about Yves’ comeback and working with American Top Team and of course the fight tonight.

Middleweight Fight- Tony Bonnello (16-0-1) vs. Ninja Rua (15-8-1)

Bonnello is undefeated and he is looking to get the fight on the ground. Ninja says he’s never submitted and the only way he is leaving the cage is if he gets knocked out. Ninja is a former EliteXC Middleweight Champion but he lost to Robbie Lawler. This is Bonnello’s US TV debut. Bonnello looks pretty intense during the pre-fight ref talk. I think he was cussing at Rua during this as the ref was giving instructions.

R1- Bonnello aggressive early but Rua gets a take down. Ninja has side control. Ninja with some elbows and some shots to the side. Ninja hitting some nice elbows. Bonnello just getting dominated. Rua is just destroying this guy with elbows. Rua in the full mount now getting some Ground and Pound but then moves back to side mount where he was having more success. Rua is hitting more elbows. Rua hits a couple shots to the side. Rua puts his knee on Bonnello’s belly and starts hitting Bonnello with punches. Bonnello has no answer and the ref stops the fight. Rua just dominated this fight. Nice to see after the other guy was talking trash to him during the ref instructions. Domination. Great showing by Rua. The only things Bonnello showed was that he can take a punch, actually lots of punches.

Winner: Ninja Rua by TKO (strikes) R1 3:16

Post-Fight Rua says he wants his belt back. So we’ve got Smith/Lawler coming up and potentially Rua getting the winner of the fight.

Stephen Quadros is backstage with KJ Noons and they talk about the fight.

Catch weight (168 lbs) Fight- Nick Diaz (16-7-1) vs. Mushin Corbbrey (12-2)

Neither of these guys made weight for this fight. Nick Diaz just fought last month at the DREAM.3 fight. They say that Diaz went to a plastic surgeon after the Noons fight (which was stopped due to a Diaz cut) to get some scar tissue removed to try and correct the issue he’s had with cuts. Neither one of these guys made weight for the fight but the winner is going to be considered a leading candidate to fight the winner of Noons/Edwards for the lightweight belt. Makes perfect sense to me. Diaz missed weight by 9 pounds. Mushin is from Savannah, Georgia.

R1- Diaz goes for an early take down but comes up empty. Diaz has a noticeable reach advantage and hits a couple of jabs. Diaz hits a nice left hand. Both guys are hitting shots now. Diaz is hitting more clean shots but Mushin is hitting some knees and dirty boxing. Diaz hits a couple more nice shots. Mushin has some really quick punches and is able to land a good shot to Diaz but Diaz comes right back with jabs. This was a good first round with a lot of action. It was pretty even but Diaz controlled the fight more and landed more punches. Mushin started to come on towards the end of the round so it will be interesting to see who comes out and controls round 2. Diaz up 10-9 so far on my scorecard.

R2- Diaz trying to get a take down but he is denied again. Diaz is hitting some nice jabs and it looks like he is wearing Mushin down. Mushin getting in some counter punches but is still getting tagged by Diaz jabs. Diaz starting to hit some more punches and is talking trash and putting a little “show” in his game. Mushin hits a good counter punch. Diaz looks like he’s cut. Diaz goes for another take down but he still doesn’t get it. Diaz with more jabs and one of them catches Mushin off balance. Diaz gets a take down but there is only 15 seconds left. Diaz takes this round based on controlling the fight and landing more punches. Diaz’s jabs seem to be talking their toll on Mushin. Mushin is not out of this fight but he needs to finish to win. Diaz is up 20-18 on my scorecard.

R3- Diaz goes for a take down but is denied. Diaz hitting more jabs. Diaz gets a take down after a knee. Diaz moves from half guard to side control and is going after an arm submission. Diaz was going for a kimura, looks like he is going for an arm bar but Mushin escapes. Diaz pins him against the cage and is picking him off with shots against the cage now. Quadros compares this round to a spider and fly. Diaz moves very well to full mount, great move. Diaz is hitting Ground and Pound and the ref stops the fight.

This was an enjoyable fight and Diaz looked really good. Diaz dominated the fight without dominating until Round 3. He just controlled the fight and did what he wanted except that he wasn’t able to get a take down that mattered until the third round. Corbbrey looks to have talented he was just outclassed by Diaz. I would like to see Corbbrey fight Edson Berto in the future. Nate Diaz was in Nick’s corner in a wife beater.

Winner: Nick Diaz by TKO (strikes) R3 3:59

Anderson Silva is shown again in the crowd watching the fights. They mention that he is considered to be one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. Anderson mugs for the camera.
Elite XC hypes some upcoming shows:
July 26th on Showtime (must be the prelims for the CBS show)
July 26th on CBS at 9 PM- Lawler/Smith II

Lightweight Title Fight- KJ Noons © (5-1) vs. Yves Edwards (34-13-1)

R1- Noons comes out and hits an immediate kick and then they are going back and forth. Yves hits a good knee but then gets tagged and Noons is all over Edwards and is Ground and Pounding him and this one is over in 47 seconds. Wow, I thought Yves was going to take this one but KJ looked really strong in this one as he just exploded on Yves after Yves was knocked to the mat. On the replay Yves got caught with a punch right to the jaw and then Noons just jumped on him and went to town hitting a barrage of punches.

Winner: KJ Noons by TKO (strikes) R1 and still Elite XC Lightweight Champion

Post-Match they interview KJ and Yves. Yves says he got his ass whooped. Then they bring in Nick Diaz and we are about to go all Pro Wres in this bad boy! Diaz says let’s go and KJ lunges at Diaz and we get a pull apart as the Diaz boys rain on KJ’s parade. KJ’s dad almost getting into it with Nick. At least they are starting to sell their next big fights as they hyped Smith/Lawler II during this show and now we have Noons/Diaz II which looks promising.

Overall, this was a good solid show. A couple of quick fights with very good showings by Herman and Feijao. Ninja looked dominate in his fight. Diaz had a good fight and looked really good and KJ Noons dominated Yves Edwards.