CBS/Elite XC Saturday Night Fights 5/31/08

Elite XC Saturday Night Fights 5/31/08

Gus Johnson is the lead announcer. Good move in my opinion as he will put a “legitimate” face to MMA for the casual fans. They pair him with Mauro Ranallo, the usual voice of Elite XC. Mauro isn’t the most popular guy but I like him. The third member of the announce crew is Frank Shamrock. They name drop Bruce Lee as one of the fore fathers of MMA. They move to street fighter turned MMA fighter Kimbo Slice and briefly touch on his fight tonight versus James Thompson.

Card for tonight is:

Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson
Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith
Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young
Phil Baroni vs. Joe Villasenor
Jon Murphy vs. Brett Rogers

Frank Shamrock does a segment where he goes over some basic MMA styles and talks about striking and grappling. And goes over some terms like “Ground and Pound”, “Guard”, “Half Guard”, “Clinch”, “Arm Bar”, “Rear Naked Choke”, and “Take Down”. Frank goes over some of the do’s and don’ts of MMA. He talks about the 3 ways a fight can end: KO/TKO, Submission/Tap Out, and Judges Decision.

Heavyweight Fight- Jon Murphy (4-2) vs. Brett Rogers (6-0)

Of these guys I’ve only seen Brett Rogers fight and from what I remember he was fairly impressive. Brett Rogers is lead to the ring by a rapping Busta Rhymes. Stuff like this and the dancers that opened the show are what I can do without.

R1- Murphy catches Rogers early and Rogers clinches with him and backs him into the cage and gets in a couple of shots. Rogers hits Murphy with a couple of shots and this one was over. Not the prettiest fight but Rogers showed good power and got the KO very early in the fight. He moves to 7-0 and moves up the Elite XC Heavyweight ladder.

Winner: Brett Rogers KO R1 1:01

Middleweight Fight- Phil Baroni (10-9) vs. Joey Villasenor (25-6)

I’ve seen a couple of Villasenor’s Elite XC fights and he’s unspectacular but really solid and seems really hart to beat. I haven’t seen that much of Baroni but he’s got a big rep so this should be an interesting fight as both guys like to stand up and punch. Baroni guarantees a knockout in the pre-match interviews. Mark Coleman is in Baroni’s corner. Villasenor has won his last two fights, Baroni has lost 3 of his last 4.

R1- Baroni pushes the pace early and gets a take down as he catches Villasenor in a kick. Drilled Baroni with a left hook and now has a guillotine on Baroni. Vallasenor with some shots and Baroni is shaken. Villasenor all over Barnoi and Villasenor gets the win. Mild upset in terms of name status but not in terms of records. Great win for Villasenor.

Winner: Joey Villasenor by TKO (punches) R1 1:11

Two fights and both have been finished very quickly.

Gina Carano (5-0) vs. Kaitlin Young (4-1)

R1- Carano takes young down early but Young gets back to her feet. Carano hit a good right hand and then hit a good left jab. Young hit a good right hand. Young takes down Carano. Carano is just smothering Young and Young can’t do anything despite being on top. The first round was very competitive. Both got in one take down but I think Carano got in more clean shots. Carano 10-9 but very close.

R2- Carano got caught doing a kick and Young got in a couple of knees. Then they exchanged some punches. Lots of action early in round two. Carano is starting to go to town and Young got hit right in the nose but is holding on and fighting back. Carano with a big left. Carano is peppering Young with punches but Young is holding on. Carano kicks Young to the ground and is going for a Rear Naked Choke but is having trouble clamping it on. Young gets saved by the bell in round two. Really exciting fight so far. Young’s face is jacked up. Carano 20-18.

And the fight is stopped in between rounds.

R3- Gina Carano by TKO (ref stoppage) R2

Elite XC Middleweight Title Fight: Robbie Lawler © (15-4) vs. Scott Smith (15-4)

This is the fight that I’ve been looking forward to the most on this show. This is Lawler’s first title defense. Interesting note that these guys have the same exact record of 15 wins and 4 losses.

R1- Smith throwing some big kicks early but coming up empty. Lawler really taking his time and not rushing in. Smith charged at Lawler and got popped. Lawler the aggressor now as he’s hitting some shots. Smith tags Lawler with a kick and then bedlam breaks loose as both guys are just swinging back and forth. Lots of misses and Lawler hits a combo. Both guys really opening up. Lawler hitting with some jabs and Smith countering. Lawler with a big body shot that hurts Smith. Lawler with a body kick. Lawler with some right hooks. Lawler with a great body kick and then ends the round with a right knee and a ton of punches. Smith is saved by the bell. Lawler just looked awesome at the end of this round. This round took a while to get going but once it did it was really fun. Lawler takes this round 10-9.

R2- Lawler is the aggressor at the start of round two. Big side kick by Lawler. Smith fighting back but coming up short on kicks. Smith clinches him and lands some nice knees to the head of Lawler. Smith know peppering Lawler with some punches. Lawler comes back with punches. Lots of dirty boxing. Lawler continuing to hit shots on Smith. Smith continues to throw shots. Really back and forth round. These guys are really throwing at each other. Both guys are bloody. Great round. Really even. Lawler is cut on the top of his head. I think Smith probably takes this round, 19-19 after two.

R3- Lawler jabbing early looking for an opening. Lawler starting to hit some elbows but his head cut has opened back up. Lawler went for a take down but got stuffed and now they stand up again. Smith got a finger in the eye and they stop the fight to allow him to recover. The doctor comes in and stops the fight. What a shame as Scott Smith is begging them to let him continue to fight. The crowd is chanting “bulls**t, bulls**t”. Well, I really enjoyed this fight and will look forward to the re-match.

Decision: No Contest, Lawler retains belt

Heavyweight Fight: Kimbo Slice (2-0) vs. James Thompson (16-8)

R1- Kimbo takes down Thompson but then Thompson gets Kimbo to the ground. Kimbo gets up but gets taken back down. James Thompson gets to side control but Kimbo gets to his feet. Kimbo is caught in a guillotine. Kimbo trying to get out with some knees. Kimbo finally frees himself. Kimbo takes Thompson down. Kimbo tried a slam but slipped and Thompson now has Kimbo in side control. Kimbo flips him over. Kimbo hitting a couple of elbows. First round comes to an end. I think Thompson won the first round 10-9.

R2- Kimbo with some punches and Thompson is in trouble. Thompson locks him up. Kimbo briefly got Thompson in a guillotine but Thompson has side control on Kimbo. The ref stands them up as there was not much movement. Kimbo hitting some shots. Thompson looks to be finished and Kimbo hits some shots but Thompson holds on and drops Kimbo with a double leg take down. Thompson hitting some elbows on Kimbo. Thompson just dominated the second half of this round. Kimbo won the first half but then just got dominated. Both rounds could go either way but I’ve got Thompson up 20-18 so far. Kimbo had a chance to put Thompson away in the middle of this round but couldn’t do it.

R3- Kimbo hits two nice shots and Thompson’s ear popped open and is bleeding like crazy and the ref stops the fight. Thompson is not happy. Thompson ear is just disgusting. Kimbo escaped this fight and this fight really exposed him.

Winner: Kimbo Slice by TKO R3 0:38

This was a good show, would have been better if Lawler/Smith would have had a finish as that was the fight of the night. The woman’s fight was very good. And the show started with two real quick knockouts which I think was a good thing to get the show kicked off. The Main Event was nowhere near as good as Lawler/Smith but it was interesting. Kimbo was definitely exposed and it will be interesting to see where they go with him now. Obviously, he’s still undefeated but he’s gonna have a tough time with any heavyweight who can get him off his feet.

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.