Elite XC on Showtime 7/26/08

Elite XC on Showtime 7/26/08

This is the Pre-Show for the CBS “Saturday Night Fight” show tonight. The Showtime show will feature a fight for the vacant Heavyweight Title featuring Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante will also be in action and we should see a competitive fight between Brian Caraway and Wilson Reis.

The announcers are Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock. These 3 guys do the CBS broadcast. Normally Stephen Quadros and Bill Goldberg do the Showtime stuff with Mauro but looks like not tonight.

Bantamweight Fight- Wilson Reis (4-0) vs. Brian Caraway (9-2)

Caraway fought and won on the undercard of the Strikeforce “Thomson vs. Melendez” show. Caraway is 9-2 with all wins coming by submission. His discipline is “cowboy karate.” Reis is called “dominating” by Jimmy Lennon Jr during his introduction. This should be a good fight. Reis’s all 4 wins have also come by submission. So my guess is somebody is getting submitted tonight in this fight.R1- Caraway dislocated his knee cap two weeks ago and Gus Johnson points this out as the fight starts. Caraway hits a clean punch to start. The mat has a lot of blood on it- so there must have been a preliminary match that got nasty early. Reis gets an early take down. Reis moves from full guard to side control pretty quickly and effectively. Reis loses side control but postures up and gets some nice punches. Caraway escapes and they are back to their feet. Caraway is landing some shots when they are on their feet. Frank Shamrock does a good job of pointing out what Reis is doing wrong on his feet and why Caraway is able to get the advantage on his feet. Reis goes with his comfort zone and gets another take down of Caraway. Reis gets full mount and lands a nice punch. Caraway gives up his back. Caraway slips out again. Reis gets another take down at the end of the round. This was a good round and definitely the story of two fights- the stand up going to Caraway and Reis dominating on the ground. Reis wins this round 10-9 but it’s still anybody’s fight as Caraway can win if he keeps the fight on their feet.

R2- Reis gets a quick take down as he didn’t want any part of the stand up game. Caraway scrambles to his feet and hits a knee on Reis. Reis is down and Caraway gets some strikes. Reis ties him up and recovers. Reis passes guard and goes to side control. Caraway flips back into the guard. Reis has really good BJJ but Caraway is doing a good job defending it. Fans are booing but to me this is interesting because it’s like a chess match. This is especially funny as they put over the fans in this city as being “educated” fans of MMA. Yeah, right. Caraway scrambles again and gets out of trouble. Reis goes for a take down but Caraway ends up on top. Reis rolls him over and gets on top and lands some punches. Reis hits a nice knee at the end of the round. This was a very tough round to judge. Reis got more take downs and spend more time in control of the fight but Caraway hit that big knee early and was in a position to possibly finish the fight. Reis is probably up 20-18 at this point, but I could see it being 19-19.

R3- Caraway starts off the fight by hitting some strikes on Reis. Reis immediately goes for a take down and gets it. Reis is hitting some elbows but he doesn’t seem to be hitting them very effectively. Reis gets full mount but gets turned over. Caraway going for some strong strikes but doesn’t hit them solidly. They scramble and are back to their feet. Caraway with some strikes but Reis gets another take down and this one will probably win his the fight. Reis went for a strike but overshot and landed on the mat. They are back to their feet and Caraway has 30 seconds to win this fight or lose a decision. Caraway flies at Reis with a knee but Reis takes him down Reis is going to win this fight, probably 30-27.

Good solid opening fight. Not as exciting as the fans wanted but I thought it was a solid fight for the opener. Both guys showed a lot of promise and I’m definitely interested in seeing these guys fight again and in the end that’s what matters. Reis really needs to work on his stand up game. All judges score the fight 30-27 in favor of Reis. Caraway landed more strikes but Reis had 7 take downs in the fight.

Winner: Wilson Reis by Decision (Unanimous)

Gus, Mauro and Frank hype Lawler/Smith II and also Silva/Eilers and Feijao/Galbraith.

Light Heavyweight Fight- Rafael Feijao (6-1) vs. Travis Galbraith (15-5)

Feijao looked awesome in his last fight against Wayne Cole on the undercard of the KJ Noons/Yves Edwards 6/14 fight. Anderson Silva cornered Feijao last time and he is by his side again for this fight. Galbraith is taking this fight on short notice. Galbraith fought on a Pride card in 2006 in the US. Feijao also trains with Noguiera and he is in his corner as well. Galbraith is a Canadian King of the Cage fighter.

R1- Feijao hits a nice leg kick to start. They clinch for a while. Not much happening as Galbraith is trying to keep Feijao tied up. Feijao hits a nice judo throw and lands in half guard but Galbraith gets back to his feet. Feijao gets unclenched and lands a nice right hand and then two knees. Feijao is all over him with more strikes and knees. Galbraith fights back with some strikes showing some heart. Feijao clinches him (a la Anderson Silva) and nails 3 knees and Galbraith crumples. Feijao jumps on top and lands 3 strikes and this fight is over.Once Feijao got separation he was very explosive and looked awesome. Galbraith did a good job tying him up for a while but ultimately Feijao was just too much.

Winner: Rafael Faijao by TKO (strikes) R1 3:00

Karen Bryant interviews Scott Smith back stage.

Heavyweight Title Fight- Antonio Silva (10-1) vs. Justin Eilers (19-6-1)

This fight is for the vacant Elite XC Heavyweight Title. They just picked 2 names out of a hat and we ended up with these two fighters. Eilers has won 10 of his last 11 fights with that loss being to Andrei Arlovski. Eilers is working with a boxing trainer that has trained Evander Holyfield in the past. Silva has a 40 pound weight advantage and a 6” reach advantage. This is the Main Event of the Showtime portion of tonight’s Elite XC show.

R1- They are boxing early. Eilers having a difficult time with Silva’s reach advantage. Silva is connecting on some counter punches. Silva gets a take down on Eilers. Eilers gives up his back, Herb Dean warms him not to hit in the back of the head. Dean takes off a point for hitting the back of the head. Silva opens up with some kicks and then pushes Eilers down and jumps on top but Eilers gets back to his feet. Silva connects on some punches and knees. First round goes to Silva but he got a point deducted so we’ve got a 9-9 first round.

R2- Eilers starts the round with a left hand that Gus Johnson pops huge for and then Silva wakes up and comes after him hitting a counter punch with dislodges Eilers mouthpiece, follows with a big knee and hits some strikes. Eilers is getting destroyed on the cage and Herb Dean stops the fight. Huge explosion in the second round to end this fight only 19 seconds into the round. Silva looked good but not Heavyweight Champion good. I would have much rather seen an 8 or 4 man tournament for the belt. I’m guessing we’ll see Brett Rodgers fighting for the title fairly soon and then Kimbo or Dave Herman after that.

Winner: Antonio Silva by TKO (strikes) R2 0:19