Scott Smith
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(’Oh, the bruises? It’s not her fault. I just make her so mad sometimes. She’s really very sweet. You don’t know the things she says to me when we’re alone’.)
You think the death of Pro Elite was a great day for MMA, Dana White? There are those who would disagree with you. For example, the newly unemployed Scott Smith who puts a very, very sad human face on the whole thing:
“I’ve been in camp for over eight weeks and I’ve been pushing myself hard. It’s one thing if [it happens] two months out from a fight, but two weeks? It’s devastating. Even if I lost, worst case scenario, (including sponsorship money) I would still be out close to $40,000. Until all the paperwork and everything is done I’m not going to be cleared to fight somewhere else before the end of the year. It’s close to the holidays, I got a mortgage to pay, I’ve got two kids, it’s tough.”
Damn, Scott. Now I just feel terrible. There may have been a lot of small failures and a few colossal ones behind EliteXC’s demise, but you sure as hell can’t put any of it on Smith, whose clashes with Robbie Lawler were among the most memorable (for the right reasons) bouts in EliteXC’s brief history.
So if it ain’t Scott Smith’s fault, dammit, whose fault is it? Former Pro Elite VP of Home Entertainment Turi Altavilla doesn’t explicitly say it was Jared Shaw’s fuck-ups that did them in, but he certainly doesn’t absolve $kala from responsibility either. Apparently after Jared’s father, Gary Shaw, left the company under the condition that his son would stay on, things took a turn for the stupid:
“Jared would try and make it very clear that both he and the matchmaking team were calling the shots with the matchmaking,” says Altavilla. “There wasn’t even any pretending that they would try and throw us a bone. There were times when others had different ideas for matches that were clearly better ideas, and he’d make it clear that that wasn’t going to happen.”
[…]
“At the end of it all, you’re talking about guys with years and years of experience that have seen and done this on many levels, and then you’re talking about Jared, who was basically a fan,” says Altavilla. “It often seemed to me like he was a fan who won some reality show and got to be a part of an MMA company.”
[…]
“I think a lot of us were guilty of keeping our mouths shut, because we thought it was a matter of time before Jared was going to get the boot,” says Altavilla. “We thought it would be any week. Obviously, that never happened.”
Altavilla also criticizes the younger Shaw for becoming a part of Kimbo Slice’s entourage, for making their contract dispute with KJ Noons both public and personal, and for being a general jackass who preferred to show up and steal the limelight rather than do the actual work that makes an MMA event happen. Somehow I remain completely unsurprised at these accusations.
As for what ultimately went wrong with EliteXC, Altavilla said they simply “blew it.” Some more than others, it would seem.
Written by admin on October 29th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Scott Smith and General and fight and Jared Shaw and News and Dana White and EliteXC and UFC and Kimbo Slice and MMA.
(Nick Thompson spices up the weigh-in, courtesy of Combat Lifestyle)
It’s another Saturday night of MMA, Potato Nation. We may not have Fedor or Anderson Silva this time around, but we have got Robbie Lawler and a can-do spirit, so we’re going to make the best of it. Like my grandfather used to say, when life gives you Nick Diaz and Thomas Denny, make lemonade. My grandfather may have been completely insane, but he was wise in his own special way.
Anyway, it’s free so we’re going to stop complaining and start writing. We’ll be liveblogging all the Elite XC on CBS action as it unfolds, so jump on board and let’s do this thing. Remember to hit refresh every so often to keep from getting left behind.
As you’ve probably noticed by now, we aren’t covering the Showtime portion of the card because, to be brutally honest with you, the place we’re watching the fights doesn’t get Showtime. So there it is. If you give a damn about those results anyway, here’s how they’re looking:
Drew Montgomery defeats Brandon Tarns via TKO (cut stoppage) at 4:22 of round 3.
Carl Seumanutafa defeats Mike Cook via KO (slam) at 1:22 of round 1.
Wilson Reis defeats Brian Caraway via unanimous decision.
Rafael Feijao defeats Travis Galbraith via TKO at 3:01 of round 1.
Antonio Silva defeats Justin Eilers via TKO at 0:19 of round 2.
Apparently the Shayna Baszler-Christiane “Cyborg” Santos bout just ended with a second round TKO by “Cyborg”. This vexes me since I was under the impression that it would be on the live CBS card, which doesn’t begin here for another half-hour. Now I’m just confused. Confused and sad.
Okay, so it’s on an hour later here for some reason. Turns out that living in the Mountain Time Zone has some drawbacks. Being an hour behind on the “live” CBS broadcast is one of them. Damn.
8:00 pm: …and we’re (not) live! CBS gets things going with a recap of Lawler-Smith I, which they say “could have been the fight of the year” if it hadn’t been stopped. I guess we’re just saying things without regard for whether they’re true. Why not? It’s only network TV.
8:04: Talking about Robbie Lawler, Mauro Ranallo uses the phrase “silent but violent”. Bet he’s proud of himself for thinking of that one. I’m simultaneously filled with disdain for Mauro and yet glad he’s around so I can enjoy hating him. Kind of like the way I feel about “The View”.
Shayna Baszler vs. Christiane “Cyborg” Santos
We get things rolling with our first Gina Carano plug of the night. That didn’t take long. Her ‘awww shucks’ smile riles up the Stockton crowd. “Cyborg” looks jacked as we transition into the Burger King “Rules of Combat”.
Cyborg comes right out gets the clinch on Baszler, but rather than succumb to the sheer aggression of the Brazilian Baszler gets her to the mat and looks for a kneebar. Cyborg is out, standing over Baszler and looking to land some big shots. Baszler gets her back to the mat and avoids taking too much damage. Cyborg tries some hammer fists from the guard as the three-minute round comes to an end. Strangely, knowing the outcome doesn’t inhibit by enjoyment of the fight.
Round two starts with Cyborg coming right after Baszler and hurts her with some hard right hands. Cyborg tosses her around like a child in the clinch, really using her strength advantage. Baszler looks a little overwhelmed and very tired. Cyborg drops her with a series of straight shots and Baszler goes down. It’s not over, though Cyborg thinks it is. She jumps atop the cage and initially won’t come back down to continue the fight. This is looking like a bit of a fiasco early on. Way to make MMA look amateurish. Cyborg finally comes back and finishes Baszler off in brutal fashion with a great left-right combo that puts Baszler down for good. And, of course, there’s Gina again.
8:24: Now we’re talking to Gina, wondering what might happen if she had “time to train”. Maybe she’d even make weight! I’m just playing. She’d still come in heavy.
Nick Thompson vs. Jake Shields
But first Frank Shamrock takes us through some MMA 101, throwing a dummy around. Oh, he’s just so smug about it, too. Talking about the cut on Shields’ face, Shamrock said he advised him to put Preparation H on it. “Gotta trust the legend,” says Shamrock. That’s himself he’s referring to as a legend. Classy.
Takedown right away from Shields, then easily into the mount. That’s not a good sign for “The Goat”. He scrambles trying to escape and Shields locks in a guillotine from the top position. Thompson taps. “The fight lasted as long as Brett Favre’s retirement!” shouts Ranallo. Now that’s how you force a current events reference into your broadcast. An angry twitch has started behind my right eye.
Gus Johnson congratulates Shields as the new Elite XC welterweight champ with all the enthusiasm of a man on his way to the dentist.
8:53: Kimbo shows up, naturally, wearing one of those Samuel L. Jackson hats and sunglasses indoors. Clearly, he is a celebrity now. “My life is no longer a secret,” says Kimbo. I don’t really know what that means.
Nick Diaz vs. Thomas Denny
They are loving Nick Diaz in Stockton, which is the whole point, I guess. But still. Diaz will never again enjoy this kind of broad popularity. We get as far as the pre-fight staredown before the sound is cut due to profanity. Nice.
Diaz looks a little slow to start on the feet, but eventually looks for a kimura on the mat. Denny escapes, but can’t do much with the position advantage. Diaz is looking for a single-leg before abandoning it for the clinch. Diaz is landing some punches on the feet, but they’re all arm punches and his defense is almost non-existent. A right hand on the ear stuns Denny briefly, then a couple of nice left hooks. Diaz is picking up the pace and Denny looks outclassed, though he’s hanging in there. Nevermind, know he’s down and Diaz is rocking him with some right hands as he gets back to his feet. They’re just brawling to end the round, and it is awesome.
Diaz rocks Denny again to start the round and then showboats a little to pump up the crowd. Diaz pouring it on and Denny is down. The camera angle makes it difficult to tell if it’s been stopped. No, it’s still going, with Diaz landing a few unnecessary shots. Looks like we’re no longer stopping fights too soon on CBS. The announcing team plays up Diaz as if he did something other than beat a guy who was a 6-1 underdog.
Diaz turns Gus Johnson’s interview attempt into a rambling shout out, answering zero questions before Johnson wrestles the mic away from him.
After seeing the “highlights” from the Silva-Eilers bout, I have to say it doesn’t seem like I missed a lot there. CBS follows it up with a great deal of backstory on Lawler and Smith.
Hey, there’s Anderson Silva. They’re not shying away from talking about the UFC, either. I have to question how smart that is, at once admitting that Silva is the best middleweight in the world and also having your own middleweight title fight that does not include him. Aren’t you essentially admitting there that your champion is not the best in the world at that weight class?
Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith
Ranallo starts us off with another pop culture reference, this time about Batman. Good leg kicks and combos from Smith early on. Lawler doesn’t look as aggressive as usual here in the early going. Head kick from Smith and Lawler pretends to be dazed. Just having some fun in there. They clinch against the cage and then separate to exchange kicks. The pace is still fairly slow. A few hard punches and a body kick from Lawler and Smith is not liking it one bit. He may have been hurt there, but Lawler doesn’t go after him right away. Smith comes back in the last thirty seconds and Lawler is backpedaling. He may have stole the round with that flurry. Smith seems to have the sense of urgency that Lawler lacks right now.
Smith lands some good elbows and Lawler is cut again, almost in the exact same spot. He comes back and puts Smith’s back against the cage and tees off with some big right hands. Lawler clinches and hurts Smith with some knees. Smith is down, Lawler attempts a couple of awkward kicks to his body before Herb Dean calls it. A bloody Lawler dances in the cage, still the Elite XC champ.
A good night of fights, all things considered. Even if I had to wait an hour longer than the rest of the country to see. Goddamn fascist Mountain Time. I’m out.
Written by admin on July 26th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on fight and Elite XC and CBS and liveblog and Scott Smith and Robbie Lawler and Nick Thompson 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.
EliteXC just announced during the broadcast of EliteXC: Return of the King that Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith will face off in a rematch for the EliteXC middleweight title on CBS on July 26.Smith was on hand to talk to the broadcast team and said that his eye as well as his foot are both [...]
Written by admin on June 14th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on CBS Saturday Night Fights and Scott Smith and Robbie Lawler and EliteXC 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.
After reading our interview with New Jersey Athletic Control Board legal counsel Nick Lembo, Dr. Sherry Wulkan contacted the NJACB with additional comments via e-mail. The NJACB forwarded that e-mail to us with permission to publish it.
I am making that e-mail available here, but I wanted to add that 5 Oz. of Pain contacted both [...]
Written by admin on June 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on New Jersey Athletic Control Board and Kaitlin Young and Scott Smith and MMA.
I might feel better in the morning, but just a few minutes after EliteXC: Primetime ended I can’t help but feel something near and dear to me has been perverted in some way. Much like someone just used my dog to smash my brand new car and then lit the whole thing on fire. It [...]
Written by admin on June 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Kaitlin Young and Scott Smith and CBS Saturday Night Fights and Ram Maramba and EliteXC: Primetime and James Thompson and Gary Shaw and Phil Baroni and Kimbo Slice and Robbie Lawler and Gina Carano and Joey Villasenor and MMA.
The Kimbo/Thompson fight was stopped early, in my opinion, but it’s debatable. However, I think the Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith stop was definitely too early, a very bad call on the part of the doctor. First off, the fighter (Scott Smith) was supposed to get 5 minutes to recover, as is usually the case [...]
Written by admin on June 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on James Thompson and Scott Smith and Dan Miragliotta and Gary Shaw and Robbie Lawler and EliteXC and Kimbo Slice and MMA.
Elite XC “Saturday Night Fights†is set to go off live from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., this Saturday, May 31 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. To get us prepared for the historic event, we plan to showcase a daily feature for each main card fight leading up to the historic mixed martial arts debut on network television. These features will include information on the fighters, predictions, as well as training notes and quotes from each fighter.
The co-main event for the Elite XC debut on CBS this Saturday is one that many hardcore MMA fans feel should be the main event. “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler (15-4) will put his Elite XC middleweight title on the line against The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 4 alum Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith (13-4).
Here’s a little background on each fighter:
Robbie Lawler — Lawler is a 26-year-old fighter who has been fighting professional MMA for more than seven years. He has seven career fights inside the UFC Octagon, as well as one under the Pride FC banner.
He’s 5′11″ 185 pounds and is known for his knockout power. His list of victims include Frank Trigg, Ninja Rua, Chris Lytle, Aaron Riley, Joey Villasenor and others. His four losses were at the hands of, Nick Diaz (knockout), Mayhem Miller (triangle), Evan Tanner (triangle) and Pete Spratt (injury).
In 2007, Lawler had a fantastic fight season. On March 31, he become the Icon Sport middleweight champion when he defeated Frank Trigg with a late fourth round knockout in what was one of the early candidates, at least in my eyes, for fight of the year. Then on September 15 Lawler won the Elite XC middleweight belt when he stopped Murilo “Ninja” Rua with strikes at Elite XC: “Uprising.”
Icon Sport later stripped Lawler of his title for inactivity because of injuries. Kala Hose then won that vacant belt in March of this year with a win over Phil Baroni. That is definitely a fight Lawler is going to want, win or lose against Scott Smith, and what a great one that would be.
Lawler was also a coach on season six of TUF.
Scott Smith — Smith is a 29-year-old fighter who, like Lawler, also has seven years of professional MMA experience under his belt.
In the early part of his career he was fighting at heavyweight before being invited to compete in the WEC middleweight championship tournament. He won the tournament and held the title of WEC middleweight champion, defending the belt once successfully against Justin Levins.
After his hot streak with WEC, he decided to try his luck in the UFC. But he lost his first fight against David Terrell. After only one fight in the UFC, Smith still competed on TUF 4 “The Comback.” He lost in the quarter finals to eventual champ Travis Lutter. He fought three more times in the Octagon, going 1-2.
Smith is undefeated in Elite XC (1-0), with a second round knockout of Kyle Noke this past February at Elite XC: “Street Certified.”
Training notes and quotes:
Robbie Lawler — Lawler trained for years out of the prestigious Pat Miletich Fighting System (MFS) camp, but recently left to start up his own gym, HIT Squad, alongside Matt Hughes. HIT is an acronym for Hughes Intensive Training.
Matt Pena is the main boxing coach there, Marc Fiore is the primary wrestling coach and Kyle Watson is the head jiu-jitsu instructor at HIT Squad — all quality coaches to have, but Lawler is the fighter he is today because of his years training with the MFS.
Here’s a quote from Lawler during a conference call leading up to this fight:
“I’m not too worried about ring rust. I do well when I have some layoff. I’ve been training hard. I’m in shape. I’m ready to go. I’m mentally prepared and that’s all that matters. I hadn’t even sparred for the last two years, and I’ve been sparring for the last month and a half. So, I feel pretty good.”
And yesterday at the press conference:
“I don’t have much to say. I’m ready to fight. It is nice to be on CBS. I am going to put on a show.”
A fighter who is all about business … nothing wrong with that.
Scott Smith — Smith bounces around a lot with different camps for different fights. He sticks with the Fairtex Muay Thai coaches in San Fransisco, Calif., for his Muay Thai, but other than that, he mixes his training partners and coaches up frequently.
For this fight Scott enlisted the help of former UFC light heavyweight champion, Tito Ortiz, and his training fortress in Big Bear, Calif., to hone his wrestling skills and cardio.
Here are a few quotes from a conference call leading up to this fight:
“This would be huge. This would put me right where I want to be. I’ve been knocking on the door to the Top 10 so many times, and then I lose a big fight. Winning a big fight like this would put me right back there. If you gave me a list of the top-20 185 pounders in the world, I would hand-pick Lawler. So, this is a huge opportunity for me.”
On what would happen if the fight went to the ground:
“If Lawler gets in trouble, he will take the fight to the ground. Not enough people give me credit for my wrestling background. I took fourth in state in junior college in California, which is a pretty good accomplishment. I’ve been doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu a lot longer than Muay Thai. I haven’t been able to show that in my fights as much. If this fight does go to the ground, which I believe (because) I will get him stunned, get him rocked. I see him trying to take the fight to the ground.”
And when asked to make a prediction for the fight:
“I will win by knockout. I have no secrets about my game. Not only would I be willing to give my opponents my fight film, but they can come in and film me practice. There are no secrets about my game.”
A fighter who is extremely confident … nothing wrong with that.
How the fight will go:
It’s a no-brainer that this is going to be a stand up fight. Both guys like to hit and both guys have serious power. That means there’s two ways this thing can play out. Either we’re going to see a quick knockout, which isn’t likely because both have solid chins, or we’re going to see a back and forth stand up crowd pleasing war.
I’m going with the latter.
We’ve also seen from both guys in the past the ability to get stunned in a fight and still come back to win. That could be a big factor in this fight. Both guys are going to be crazy amped up and looking for the highlight reel knockout for the network television viewers.
This is a title fight though so we’re not going to see two guys just going out there swinging for the fences. These guys are talented fighters with very good technique to go with their God-given power.
Here’s what I see happening:
A title fight means five rounds, but I can’t see this fight going past the third frame. Both guys are big strong powerful strikers. They’re pretty equal all across the board, which means who’s going to execute better, and who’s more man.
I see both fighters getting rocked at some point in this fight. The winner is going to be the one who can persevere through that and still execute their gameplan.
These guys are going to be swinging and hitting hard. And that takes a lot of energy out of a fighter. We’ve seen Lawler look way past tired in a few fights, the Trigg fight comes to mind, and still fight through and execute. We’ve also seen Smith in the Pete Sell fight get hurt bad, but still have the little bit extra to throw one last knockout punch to win the fight.
I give credit to both fighters in that category, but I give the edge to Lawler. He just seems like he can take more punishment and keep coming, and for that reason I’m calling Robbie Lawler to retain his middleweight title with a third round knockout.
Final prediction:
“Ruthless” Robbie Lawler via knockout in round three
Make sure and check back later on today as we take an in-depth look at the main event of the evening, Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson vs. James “The Colossus” Thompson.
Written by admin on May 31st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Saturday Night Fights and Scott Smith and Robbie Lawler and EliteXC and MMA.
The EliteXC and CBS have dropped more details about their debut show slated for May 31st in Jersey. We already know Kimbo will be headlining, but now we’ve learned that Middleweight Champ “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler will be defending his title against “TUF 4″ cast member Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith. Both fighters love to throw bombs and are sure to swing for the fences. On that, check out Scott Smith’s battle with Pete Sell at the “TUF 4″ finale. Between hi-fivin’ and huggin’, both guys stood in the pocket and bloodied each other during the first round, with Smith mixing power punches and leg kicks. But the best is the KO punch from Smith in the 2nd round as Sell moves in for the kill. Just sick.
Written by admin on March 20th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on video and TUF 4 and Scott Smith and Pete Sell and UFC and Videos and MMA.
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