Jake Shields
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Spoiler alert: Ninja, Gina, Andrei, Jake, and Kimbo (!) are going to win, maybe all within the first round. If you’re curious about how exactly it’ll happen, read on. Hit that “more” link and refresh the page every few minutes to get all the latest updates from the live CBS broadcast, comin’ atcha from the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. Seriously though, this is about to be some lopsided shit. Grab some beers.
Get this: At about 6:20 p.m. ET, MMA Rated passed along the word that Ken Shamrock sustained a cut above his eye in the last 24 hours while training, forcing him to pull out of tonight’s main event against Kimbo Slice. Frank Shamrock — who is handling commentary tonight for CBS — actually volunteered to step in as a last-minute replacement, but he isn’t licensed to fight in Florida, so EliteXC instead had their eyes on KOTC brawler/UFC castoff Seth Petruzelli, who was supposed to face Aaron Rosa on tonight’s undercard. Then, MMA Rated reported that a very shady doctor was found who cleared Shamrock to fight around 7 p.m., saving “Heat” from one of the greatest Epic Fails in MMA history. Well, we hope. MMA Weekly now says that the fight has a 50/50 chance of happening. Other sources say the fight is 100% dunzo.
Update: Ariel Helwani tells Ben Fowlkes (who tells me) that Seth Petruzelli is 100% in as Ken’s replacement. Wow. On the bright side, Kimbo is finally fighting a legitimate heavyweight who isn’t riding an eight-fight losing streak. This should be interesting…
Update #2: “JM” wins the t-shirt. Shoot your address and size to feedback@cagepotato.com, brah.
CagePotato.com’s EliteXC: Heat liveblog is brought to you by Old Speckled Hen and Debbie’s Killer Wings.
Quick poll: Does the replacement of Ken Shamrock with Seth Petruzelli make this event more or less compelling for you?
The broadcast begins with Gina, Kimbo, Andrei, and Jake slow-walking in front of a sunset, a narrator descriving how badass they are. Then we have a highlight montage, which even features Mauro Ranallo in slow-mo. They show Ken shoving Kimbo at the weigh-ins, a total bitch move — real sub-WWE shit. Gus Johnson confirms that Ken is out and Seth is in. We cut to a very disappointed Ken Shamrock. His cut, which required six stitches, does indeed look pretty nasty. But Shamrock expresses that he’d rather fight through it. (”I’ll fight right now…I’ve fought worse than this.”) He apologizes. He says “Kimbo deserves a beating, and I’m gonna give it to him.” Alright, stop talking now so we can get on with it.
Frank Shamrock wonders aloud why Ken is training this hard so early before the fight, “jeopardizing his career and the Shamrock family legacy.”
We see Kimbo walking backstage with his entourage. Icey Mike is definitely in the mothafuckin’ house. And there’s the first Affliction commercial of the night, plugging Fedor Emelianenko and his “signature line.”
Murilo “Ninja” Rua vs. Benji Radach
Fun fact: Radach is a practitioner of “facesmashing fu.”
Round 1: Radach rushes in with punches, then some more, rocking Rua. Rua swings back, but he’s in trouble. Radach nails Rua again, and swarm him against the cage. Rua tries to clinch, but Radach punches out of it. They both connect and we almost get a double KO as both fighters go down! Groggily, Radach crawls over to Rua and tries to get on top but Rua gets up and clinches. Radach is bloody. Radach thinks about a gillotine, but Rua backs him off and lands a flying knee. Radach takes Rua down and takes his back. Rua twists around and tries for an armbar. Radach gets on top and Rua tries for an ankle lock. It’s a close call, but Radach escapes. Rua tries again for the foot lock, Radach escapes again and gets to his feet. They soon go to the ground again and the bell rings as Rua tries for a rear-naked choke. Amazing round.
Round 2: Rua with a hard leg kick, then a nice knee to the body. Radach brushes him back with a left hook. Radach sticks Rua with a punch as Rua comes in for a kick, then lands a big straight right. Rua clinches and goes for the single leg, but Radach shakes out. Rua slips while throwing a flying knee and falls on his back. Radach jumps on top and punches Rua’s lights out. KO, Radach, 2:31 of round 1.
Gina Carano says she’s considering going to 145 from now on. “Conditioning isn’t an issue, but the steam room is.”
Gina Carano vs. Kelly Kobold
Kobold gets some boos. A Team Bison member, her rash guard plugs DoWork.com. (That’s like CareerBuilder, right?)
Round 1: Kobold gets cracked going in for a takedown, and clinches with Carano against the fence. Carano gets a knee in, but she seems to be overpowered. Kobold trying hard for the single-leg but Carano gets out and starts throwing leather. Both women land shots before Carano gets the thai clinch and throws a couple knees. Kobold bulls Carano against the cage, trying again for the takedown. Carano escapes. Kobold is bleeding from the forehead. Carano takes a hard punch as the round ends.
By the way, Cyborg won a decision against Yoko Takahashi earlier in the evening.
Round 2: Carano lands a nice right and throws a flurry, smelling blood. Kobold grabs on to stops the damage. Kobold tries for a guillotine, but Carano escapes and throws punches. Kobold slips in a left hook, Carano answers with her own. Then a right from Carano. Carano is sticking n’ moving very well now, but Kobold doesn’t stop moving forward. Tough broad. Kobold rushes forward pinwheeling her arms then gets a takedown. Kobold throwing down shots from the top as the round ends. A lot closer fight than expected.
Round 3: Kobold bulling forward, clinches with Carano against the cage. Kobold really wants to take it to the ground, but Carano’s defense is solid. Gina looking for a guillotine. A stalemate against the cage and the crowd boos. The ref separates them. Kobold’s punches are wild, but she gets Gina against the cage again. Knee from Carano. Carano sinks in a weird side choke from the top, but Kobold pulls out. Gina lands two punches and two front kicks, and three body kicks as the round ends. She stole the round in the last 15 seconds, and will probably get the decision. Kobold was tenacious, but didn’t do enough damage. Meanwhile, Kelly’s face is bleeding hard. Judges love blood.
Sorry, technical difficulties. Gina wins the unanimous decision.
Roy Nelson vs. Andrei Arlovski
Next to Andrei, Roy just looks like some short fat guy.
Round 1: Arlovski lands two leg kicks and Nelson clinches against the cage. Nelson takes Arlovski down and gets on top, passing quickly to side control. Nelson tries for the straight armlock, but Arlovski gets out. Arlovski pops out from under Nelson, kicking him off, but Nelson dives back on into half-guard. Nelson again works for an armlock from the top. The ref brings them back to their feet. Nelson whiffs on a huge haymaker and clinches again with Arlovski against the cage. Arlovski gets in a nice knee to Nelson’s face, then one to the body. The ref breaks up the stalemate against the cage. Arlovski lands a leg kick and a solid straight punch. Nelson swings and misses. Nelson again pushing Arlovski against the cage and the crowd boos. The round ends.
Tito Ortiz says he’s about a week away from signing with Elite. Ooh! He says he’d like a rematch with Frank Shamrock.
Round 2: Arlovski gets in two punches, but slips and Nelson mobs him against the cage. Arlovski gets out and gets in a right straight then a head kick, wobbling Nelson. Arlovski gets the thai clinch and drives in a knee, then a punch flurry when Nelson wriggles out, and Arlovski finds Nelson’s off button. He hits the mat in a heap. Great knockout punch, 3:14 of round 2.
Oh, hey: The person who predicts the ending of Kimbo/Petruzelli the closest gets a CagePotato “Hall of Fame” t-shirt.
Jake Shields vs. Paul Daley
Shields runs out to the cage with his championship belt over his shoulder. Dude’s psyched.
Round 1: Jake Shields throws some kicks to start, then shoots for a takedown, but Daley sprawls and stuffs it. Good leg kick by Daley. Shields shoots for another takedown and gets it. He passes to side control, then full mount. Daley is jammed up against the cage; a bad spot. Shields throws down some punches from the top. Daley tries to wriggle out, but Shields sticks on him, posturing up and dropping shots. Shields is high on Daley’s chest now, jackhammering punches. Daley’s covering up, but has no answer. Shields tries for an armbar, but can’t get it. He tries again, and Daley rolls on top of Shields, bashing him with elbows. The round ends. Still, it was Shields’s round.
Round 2: Daley’s brushes back Shields with a head kick. Daley rushes forward landing some hard punches. Daley clinches and nails Shields with a knee, and drags him to the mat. Shields gets up. Daley gets in a nice left hook and Shields drops, trying to take it to the ground. Daley wants nothing to do with it. Shields pushes Daley against the cage and takes him down, getting mount again. Shields tries to set up an armbar again and fails. Daley isn’t doing anything on the ground except getting punched. Shields moves to side control, then mount again, and sets up the armbar once again. He gets it this time, and Daley taps, 3:47 of round 2.
Shields says he wouldn’t mind going to 185 and challenging for Robbie Lawler’s belt.
The main event is next, which means the broadcast will only go about 15-20 minutes over, tops. Not bad, guys!
In the highlights from the Cyborg/Yoko fight, we see that Yoko took quite a beating en route to that decision loss. Would you expect anything less?
Kimbo: “I just try to shed blood on the situation.”
Oh, so Seth Petruzelli is a light-heavyweight now? Wonderful.
Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzelli
Round 1: Kimbo comes in and gets cracked with a knee right away, then Seth mobs him with punches until the ref stops it!!! Seth Petruzelli SHOCKS THE WORLD! THE MOST INCREDIBLE VICTORY IN THE HISTORY OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS, ACCORDING TO THE ANNOUNCER!!!
In the replay, I see that it was actually a punch that rocked Kimbo after a front kick. My bad. Kimbo got his lights turned out by a short punch. And so ends the great Kimbo Slice MMA experiment.
EliteXC is so fucked. This is the worst thing that could have possibly happened.
Who had Seth by TKO in 14 seconds? Because you just won a shirt.
Kimbo says it’s all good, and still thanks his sponsors. He shouts out his afterparty and leaves the building. “Kimbo Slice, who knows what’s next for him.”
Mauro says that Kimbo wasn’t in the proper state of mind when he was walking out to the cage, but this is really a “mulligan” for him, considering he wasn’t preparing for Seth. Gus Johnson is basically eulogizing Kimbo now. And that’s the broadcast.
Seriously. 14 seconds. Discuss.
Written by admin on October 4th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Gina Carano and Paul Daley and liveblog and Ninja and Murilo Rua and Andrei Arlovski and EliteXC and Jake Shields and Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock and MMA.
(Nick’s just going to proofread this sucker before sending it out.)
Did Elite XC hold some kind of writing workshop for their fighters’ and their fighters’ camps recently? Maybe one with a special seminar on “Shit-talking statements and rebuttals”? Because suddenly it seems like everyone under the Elite XC banner is putting pen to paper to bash someone else. Not that we’re complaining.
The Gracie camp — home to Nick Diaz — is the latest to get in on the act. KJ Noons’ statement listing his grievances with Elite XC made mention of Diaz several times, and you didn’t think he was going to be able to do that without waking the beast, did you? We’re a little disappointed that this is coming from Diaz’s camp and not Nick himself, who has been known to do some really great work in the ’stream of consciousness’ field of shit-talking, but we’ll take what we can get.
On Noons’ claim that Elite XC failed to promote his boxing career, as promised:
1) Earth to KJ; you don’t have a boxing career. No one in the boxing world knows who you are. 2) Another MMA company would have paid you less and not given you a title shot, especially when you were 1-1. 3) If you will not fight Diaz due to a breach of contract by EliteXC then why would you fight Alvarez for the same terms?
On Noons’ insistence that Elite XC isn’t promoting him, instead asking Diaz to sign baseball cards for the DVD of their fight:
1) Nick Diaz, Jake Shields and Frank Shamrock were flown in to shoot an instructional trailer on grappling for the CBS show. The signings were an after thought. You weren’t flown in because you aren’t a grappler. We are sure they will fly you in if they need an instructional on whining. 2) Your contract was for Showtime. Diaz and Shields both signed longer deals for CBS. Nathan Diaz signed a special long term contract for Spike TV etc…This is a business not Burger King, you can’t have it ‘your way’.
On Elite XC’s treatment of Noons, failing to provide him with extra tickets, and bringing Diaz into the cage to start trouble after his victory:
Diaz got no extra tickets in his home town of Stockton and isn’t complaining. 2) Bringing a fighter into the ring to promote an upcoming fight is standard practice. Your (I could of been a contender) drunk father, started a near riot and should be banned from further events and immediately placed in an Alcoholics Anonymous treatment center for his own self respect.
On complaints about money, threats not to fight for Elite XC anymore, etc.:
Promoters will sue when you don’t fulfill the terms of your contract, just ask Randy Couture. By the way, you are not Randy Couture and the fight world is not holding it’s breath waiting to see if you will fight again. 2) $83,000? There are several fighters that are a lot better than you fighting for a lot less. Pay your dues and quit being a little bitch. 3) You are paying your management too high of a percentage and here’s some advice you should consider, “they are completely incompetent”. 4) Chuck Liddell makes 100s of thousands more than Keith Jardine even though he lost to him. Diaz does not complain that Kimbo makes much more. He understands marketability, why can’t you? 5) Divide this and then multiply it several times: KJ = little bitch > KJ = real champion
6) We agree you do need more Vaseline. You are used to it and damn those EliteXC guys for not using it when they bend you over.
On Diaz not being the number one contender since Noons has already defeated him:
1) It is not up to you to decide who the #1 contender is. That is EliteXC’s sole discretion. Patrick Cote will soon be fighting Anderson Silva at the UFC’s sole discretion. Silva is not complaining because he fights whomever they put in front of him. Silva fought Rich Franklin after wrecking him the 1st time. Serra rematched GSP his very next fight after demolishing him. Serra got paid less than GSP even though he was the Champion after the 1st fight. These men are true Champions and fight anyone. This is a concept you cannot seem to grasp. 2) You are scared because Diaz, despite having a terrible showing last time was stopped by cuts. God forbid the doctor that let the fight continue against Gomi had been calling the shots at your fight. In your heart you know what would have happened and you would rather live the lie of being a paper champion. 3) What will EliteXC ever do without you? I guess you will have to watch from your couch. Drink a beer. Prepare to make a ritual of it.
Wow. You see what happens when we start trading statements back and forth? It gets out of hand real fast. Still waiting for Jared Shaw’s half-cocked response. Don’t let us down, $kala.
(Props: Five Ounces of Pain)
Written by admin on August 30th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on General and fight and KJ Noons and Elite XC and News and Nick Diaz and Chuck Liddell and Keith Jardine and Jake Shields and Frank Shamrock and MMA.
(Let the search for an opponent begin.)
Elite XC officially announced its July 26 event in a press release sent out to the media today, noting that the card will feature three title fights: Robbie Lawler-Scott Smith for the middleweight title, Jake Shields-Nick Thompson for the vacant welterweight title, and Antonio Silva-TBA for the newly created Elite XC heavyweight title. Because nothing says ‘this belt isn’t very important‘ like announcing a title fight with only one participant a month out from the fight.
The Silva bout, along with two others, will air live on Showtime. The other two title fights will air live on CBS alongside two other bouts.
Said Pro Elite Executive Chairman Doug DeLuca, “One venue, two networks and seven exciting world class fights adds up to an entertaining and memorable mixed martial arts event in prime time.”
That one venue is the Stockton Arena in Stockton, Calif., home to such sports teams as the Stockton Thunder and the Stockton Lightning.
As you may have guessed, the Nick Diaz-Thomas Denny bout is one that Elite XC is relying on to drive ticket sales, and it is expected to be one of the four bouts featured live on CBS. We had originally hoped that Diaz would face Elite XC 160-pound champ KJ Noons on the card, but after Noons’ father’s negative remarks about the Diaz brothers and the city of Stockton, it’s may be best for that not to happen.
There’s also word that CBS is using its increased financial stake in the company to try and influence matchmaking. CBS apparently felt there weren’t enough stars on this card and MMA Payout claims it has sources attesting to “significant internal pressure” to put a big name like Gina Carano on this event in order to generate more fan interest.
Written by admin on June 25th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on fight and General and KJ Noons and Elite XC and Stockton and Scott Smith and Antonio Silva and Jake Shields and Nick Diaz and News and Robbie Lawler and MMA.
Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that CBS wants to build on the success of the May 31 EliteXC: Primetime show by holding another show on July 26 on the network:
While not finalized, Elite XC promoter Gary Shaw said that CBS is requesting his company’s next two live specials for late July (believed [...]
Written by admin on June 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Antonio Silva and Scott Smith and CBS Saturday Night Fights and Gina Carano and Robbie Lawler and EliteXC and Jake Shields and MMA.
MAY 19th FIGHTER AUTOGRAPH SIGNING @ BEST BUY IN HOLLYWOOD
LOS ANGELES, California –
EliteXC in conjunction with Image Entertainment and Best Buy will be holding an autograph signing with EliteXC superstars on Monday, May 19th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm at the La Brea Best Buy store in West Hollywood, California.
Fighters scheduled to appear include:
Gina Carano
Frank Shamrock
“The [...]
Written by admin on May 16th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Elite XC is rolling out the red carpet for some of its biggest stars Monday, May 19, for the release of the promotion’s first two exclusive DVDs.
Gina Carano, Nick Diaz, Jake Shields, Frank Shamrock and Phil Baroni are all expected to be in attendance signing autographs at the release party at the Best Buy in West Hollywood, Calif., from 6 to 8 p.m. PT.
The first of the two DVDs is a two-disc set titled “Destiny” that will feature Frank Shamrock, Renzo Gracie and Gina Carano among others. The second DVD is called “Renegade” and showcases Tank Abbott, Kimbo Slice, Nick Diaz, KJ Noons and more.
To purchase the DVDs remember that we now have a store set up that sells them right here.
For those who can attend the event, free Elite XC posters (limited supply) will be given out with the purchase of a DVD.
Written by admin on May 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(Our thoughts exactly.)
I would take this as a clear sign that EliteXC’s welterweight belt is cursed by poltergeists and refuses to be possessed by mortals.
The championship fight between top 170-pound contender Jake Shields and challenger Drew Fickett for EliteXC’s vacant welterweight title has been postponed for a second time, as it was announced today that Fickett has injured his knee and will not be able to compete at EliteXC’s June 14th event in Honolulu, Hawaii. The two fighters were originally supposed to meet at “Shamrock vs. Le” on March 29th, but Shields pulled a muscle in his back days before the event, and Fickett took on Jae Suk Lim instead, winning by guillotine choke in the first round. Luckily, Shields doesn’t seem to be too disappointed by Fickett’s injury, as his back may not be 100% recovered yet anyway. As he told MMAWeekly:
“I think I could be okay to fight by (June 14), but I think opting for July would probably be the smartest thing. It would give me more time to rehab before jumping into sparring, and I think there would be a little more exposure with it being on CBS (in July).â€
The June 14th card still features K.J. Noons defending his lightweight title against Yves Edwards, as well as fights between Nick Diaz and Muhsin Corbbrey, Murilo “Ninja†Rua vs. Tony Bonello, Rafael Feijao vs. Wayne Cole, and Ron Waterman vs. Dave Herman.
Speaking of Diaz, the pot-abusing lightweight has joined the lineup of DREAM.3 (May 11th; Saitama, Japan), where he’ll take on Katsuya Inoue, a two-time welterweight King of Pancrase with a career record of 16-5-3. Reportedly, the winner of that fight will face Hayato Sakurai for DREAM’s welterweight title in July or September. (I guess not all the belts will be awarded via chaotic grand prix.) With this addition, DREAM.3’s mighty, mighty lineup is looking like this:
Lightweight GP Round 2
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis Buscape
Joachim Hansen vs. Eddie Alvarez
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Caol Uno
Katsuhiko Nagata vs. [whoever fills in for Shinya Aoki]
Middleweight GP Round 1 Fight
Jason Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Middleweight GP Reserve Fight
Melvin Manhoef vs. Kim Dae Won
Nick Diaz vs. Katsuya Inoue (welterweights)
Jung Bukyung vs. Daisuke Nakamura (lightweights)
Takeshi Yamazaki vs. TBA (featherweights)
Written by admin on May 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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There has been another setback involving the Jake Shields and Drew Fickett Elite XC welterweight title fight because of an injury. This time it is “The Master” who has the issue, sustaining an injury to his knee that will force the fight for the vacant welterweight tile to be scratched from the June 14 show in Hawaii, according to MMAWeekly.com.
Originally the two were set to meet at the Strikeforce/Elite XC co-promoted event in San Jose in March, which was headlined by Frank Shamrock and Cung Le. However, Shields hurt his back and had to withdraw less than a week out from the fight.
Fickett still went on to compete that night against Jae Suk Lim. He dominated with a first round submission and had an interesting in cage interview afterwards with Shields standing by.
In fact, Fickett predicted the fight on June 14 would end by death from rear naked choke.
Fickett looked great in that fight and a little psychotic afterwards, which was great because at that moment I was finally starting to believe he had a legit shot at being the first Elite XC welterweight champ.
At first this fight had its skeptics. Some felt Shields was superior in talent and confidence to Fickett and would just roll right through him, but now this fight has hype, and this fight is for real. The only thing … is it ever going to happen?
Here’s a snip from Gary Shaw, Elite XC live events president, on moving the fight again:
“Obviously the back injury happened (to Shields) and the easiest thing to do was move him to Hawaii to fight Drew. Unfortunately since then Drew Fickett has hurt his knee and he’s not going to be able to take that fight on June 14 and that will be rescheduled again.”
Shaw went on to say there was still a possibility Shields could fight a replacement fighter in Hawaii, like Fickett did in San Jose, but that was unlikely because he was still recovering from the original back injury.
Here’s Jake Shields on that:
“I think I could be okay to fight by (June 14), but I think opting for July would probably be the smartest thing. It would give me more time to rehab before jumping into sparring, and I think there would be a little more exposure with it being on CBS (in July).”
I have to agree with Jake on that one. I’m more interested in seeing him fight Fickett later than some has been or never will be replacement now. I was curious as to the reason this title fight wouldn’t be on a CBS broadcast anyway … it only makes sense to me to put this fight in front of as many viewers as possible.
Plus, with the KJ Noons and Yves Edwards title fight still a go for June 14 in Hawaii, I think that card will be just fine. Remember, Nick Diaz vs. Muhsin Corbbrey is also scheduled for that night, and there are other rumors involving Ninja Rua for Hawaii as well.
We’ll have more on the June 14 show in a bit.
Written by admin on May 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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“St. Pierre looks awesome. He’s one of the fights that I’d really love to have right now. I need to make sure I look really good against my opponents; I want go out and dominate people so I can build some momentum for that fight…. He doesn’t have a lot of weaknesses. He’s going to be a tough guy to beat, because it’s not like you can pick out one thing. To beat a guy like St. Pierre you have to be in phenomenal shape and keep the pressure on him. You’ve got to stay in his face, and if he takes you down, you better be ready to get back up and not just stay in guard and get manhandled like he’s doing to people.”
– Jake Shields — Elite XC welterweight and among the top 170-pound fighters in the world — tells MMAWeekly.com about how he would approach a fight with UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre. Shields is set to battle Drew Fickett for the vacant Elite XC welterweight strap some time soon. In fact, the bout was scratched last month when Shields sustained a back injury during training, rescheduled for June 14 and now pushed back again, it appears, to July 26 — the second show for the promotion on CBS “Saturday Night Fights.”
Written by admin on April 29th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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(Kimbo and “Crush”: And then what? Slice photo courtesy of Esther Lin.)
CBS recently announced that they’ve set July 26th as the date for the second installment of EliteXC’s Saturday Night Fights. Coming less than two months after SNF’s debut broadcast on May 31st, the scheduling feels premature for a couple of reasons:
1) What if, God forbid, the first show is a ratings disaster? I don’t know if CBS has the power to immediately end their agreement with EliteXC if that happened, but they’d certainly be wise to postpone the next event for a couple more months, reassess what went wrong, and spend more time publicizing their new product.
2) When you stack a card with your two biggest stars (Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano), and fill it out with a few more of your most popular fighters (Robbie Lawler, Phil Baroni, Scott Smith, James Thompson), who’s left to fight eight weeks later? Even if Kimbo and Gina are physically capable of competing again so soon, would casual viewers be interested in seeing another event with the same headliners? Could exciting new opponents be found for them in such a short time-frame? Who’s going to carry card #2?
If you answered Nick Diaz, Jake Shields, KJ Noons, and Yves Edwards — well, you’re wrong. It turns out that all four of those mid-level stars have been booked for EliteXC’s June 14th show in Honolulu. Diaz will face Muhsin Corbbrey, Shields will take on Drew Fickett in EliteXC’s first welterweight title fight, and Noons and Edwards will meet in a lightweight championship bout. Sounds like a killer card, right? It seems like Pro Elite’s best move would be to cancel the Hawaii show and move all the fights to July 26th. Sure, Diaz might be a risk with his medical marijuana routine, and Noons is reportedly staying off the CBS cards due to mismanagement, but it’s hard to think of many other names that EliteXC has in its roster, other than the aforementioned, that could carry a big show, especially when it’s all but guaranteed that no title fights will be included on the July 26th card. Unless, of course, they set up Kimbo to face someone like Antonio Silva for an ill-advised heavyweight championship match. Was Gary Shaw even thinking this far into the future?
Semi-related: Murilo “Ninja” Rua has been dropped from the May 31st CBS card for undisclosed reasons. His opponent, Phil Baroni, will now be facing Joey Villasenor, who knocked out Ryan Jensen three weeks ago at “Shamrock vs. Le.” The rest of the main card is still as-is.
Written by admin on April 17th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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