What a junk card that was. I actually spent most of the night watching the Ultimate Iceman and the replay of Liddell-Silva on Spike.
Carano-Young was a great fight, but aside from that, the other fights were crap.
Now, Smith-Lawler was on its way to being a really good fight, but that stoppage was complete shit. Lawler should’ve put Smith away in the 1st when he had him hurt with those body kicks.
Kimbo was really exposed tonight. That stoppage was a bit early, but I don’t think Thompson was going to do anything after his ear exploded.
Oh, and don’t even get me started on that ref. How the fuck do you stand fighers up when Thompson had just moved INTO SIDE CONTROL!!! Give the guy a chance to do something; he nearly stood them up later when Thompson was landing elbow after elbow. And I thought UFC refs were impatient.
I pretty much agree. When Kimbo was getting hit with elbows and the ref said something about let’s get moving or action or something and I thought he was going to stand them up I was thinking they were going to protect their star fighter and fix it by keeping it stand up. I guess I was wrong though because Kimbo took a lot of punishment when his head was up against the cage.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Fights weren’t great but they were good. They COULD have been great, but fights are random. Weird shit happens.
Not ever UFC card is great, either.
It was a good quality card and professionally done.
I know people who NEVER watched MMA before loving this card.
I don’t get why you guys all want anything non UFC to fail.
[/quote]
The card was tailored for people who have never watched MMA before. It was stacked with fighters that have an allergic reaction to grappling and headlined by a 2-0 YouTube celebrity whose fighting style was listed as “Brawling”.
Baroni is more WWE than MMA.
Carrano beats up little girls from lower weight classes.
“The Man of Faith”. Say wha?
Main event: Internet celeb vs. the guy that Brett Rogers just beat.
I didn’t see that as good quality.
On a side note, I think some gypsies are gonna get smashed next week.
I believe MMA is going the wrong direction, all this smack talk and pirotechnics is making me loose interest. Its starting to look like the “WWF”. Once the UFC starts using fireworks “I’M done”. Support your local clubs and events. My own experiences in MMA have been great and respectful.
I have always liked that after giving a beating or getting one we are still friends when done. The smack talk to me sucks and takes away from the honor of the opponent.
[quote]slimjim wrote:
That was a shit stoppage and the reffing for the majority of the card was shit. Way to protect your cash-cow Gary Shaw.[/quote]
I think the refs. (and doctor) were overly cautious with the stoppages because it was on TV. When watching the Phil Baroni fight, I kept thinking of the beating he took against Shamrock and in ICON for their belt (forget the guys name). I do think Baroni would have lost, but he could have taken a few more shots.
The Smith stoppage was unfortunate, that was a good fight.
[quote]slimjim wrote:
That was a shit stoppage and the reffing for the majority of the card was shit. Way to protect your cash-cow Gary Shaw.[/quote]
The reffing was terrible. I’ve come to expect that from New Jersey. After they straight up fired Larry Hazzard who was one of the greatest commissioners in combat sports ever, that whole gig has been shady as hell.
I thought the fights were all pretty good. It was all B-level talent, but more than worthy of being a UFC Fight Night or something similar. The main event, though, was garbage. If I try really hard to forget the Kimno-Thompson debacle, and the fact that Carano is still fighting people from a weight class below her because she has a pretty face and a rack, I can deal with it.
But no, I am pretty positive that EliteXC will wind up failing. They invested too much in Kimbo, only to have him struggle horribly against a guy he should flat out killed. Not to mention, anyone familiar with boxing has known for a long time that no one has anything good to say about Gary Shaw and the way he does business.
Overall I was impressed with the show. I was happy they didn’t go over the top with the production. The show still needs some work, but I just think of the early UFC fights on Spike. I remember telling a friend, “I’d rather pay for a PPV”.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
… and the fact that Carano is still fighting people from a weight class below her because she has a pretty face and a rack,…
[/quote]
Maybe they adjust her weight to consider cup size!
Had the Smith-Lawler bout been allowed to continue, then I would’ve said this was a pretty good show.
Gary Shaw just rubs me the wrong way. He was in the cage after every fight coaching the winners on what to say in their post-fight interviews.
I thought the production values were good and the commentary (including CBS’s guy, Gus Johnson) was good.
Timmay was right when he said Kimbo didn’t belong in the main event. Now, I know he’s a big draw but based on the way he performed, it’s clear he shouldn’t be pushed as a star attraction yet. If they bring Tito in to fight Kimbo, that would be a big fight in terms of ratings/buy rate, but Tito wouldn’t have much of a problem pounding Slice out.
Be interesting to see what the ratings were for the show.
" Kimbo couldn’t put away Thompson with landing ten or fifteen clean shots. Thompson was able to put him down with some pretty weak shot attempts. Kimbo showed a very limited ground game, made some beginner mistakes and had no idea how to get up off the bottom.
And to top it all off his gas was tested and he didn’t come out looking pretty, needing to be helped from the cage and having trouble giving a post-fight interview.
So other than major questions about his power, wrestling, ground game, and cardio Kimbo looked great.
The bloom may be somewhat gone from the Kimbo-rose."
Wow, I really enjoyed the Lawler fight. Really thought Robbie was schooling his opponent first round and would come out with an early win.
Kimbo’s fight, like every other one that I’ve seen him in, was a shitfest. Thompson looked and fought like so many drunk guys I’ve seen. Luckily Kimbo didn’t seem to be any more talented then a drunk. When on the ground his legs went absolutely flaccid. He didn’t work to reclaim guard or improve his positioning.
There were points when this fight looked very fixed to me. Like Thompson was just trying to give the KO to Kimbo and Kimbo couldn’t deliver. Didn’t Thompson lose something like 5 of his last 6 fights?
The rest of the fights weren’t very good. They were tailored for a TV audience and the ref stoppage was quick for the same reason. Is this what we need? More watered down MMA with flag bearers like Kimbo Slice?
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
Overall I was impressed with the show. I was happy they didn’t go over the top with the production.[/quote]
Are you serious? I felt like it removed the good fighting aspect of most MMA, and replaced it with the pyrotechnics and flamboyant gayness of WWE…net result, a steaming pile of monkey shit. Honestly, the fights weren’t all that bad, but the overall production cleverly hid what could’ve been a decent product.
To me, this was MMA’s chance to show that it is so much better than boxing and wrestling, and they did everything they could to show that they’re the exact same thing. This looked like a combination of WWE and World Combat League.
