EliteXC > UFC?

Maybe not, but I was impressed by their show this evening on Showtime. All of the fights, while not monumental in any way, were very watchable and entertaining. The talent pool isn’t nearly as deep, but if they can continue to produce solid cards, and maybe snag a few quality fighters here and there, I think they could actually be some competition for the UFC. (Granted, I don’t really know much about the business front of things when it comes to EliteXC, I remember hearing something about it being somewhat affiliated with K-1 is some form, which probably isn’t so great.)

The addition of Stephen Quadros to the commentating line-up is a definite plus also. Even though he has about as much energy and charisma as a bowl of paint chips, he knows his stuff. However, with Bill “I’m not doing anything to improve anyone’s opinion of pro wrestlers” Goldberg still rambling incoherent non-sense most of time, it might not really make much of a difference. God, please make Mike and Bill Goldberg go away. There is no reason we should have to listen to these two chuckleheads babble on when neither really have anything worthwhile to add to commentating.

I thought Ninja/Lawler was a pretty weak effort on Ninja’s part. Ninja seemed to come into the fight like an 8 year old on sugar-coated crack and his strategy was kick Lawler in the leg, get tired as soon as humanly possible, and wait for Lawler to knock most of his teeth out. Lawler just waited for him to gas, then finished it. Why Ninja tried to stand with him is beyond me. Had he spent any of that energy on a few take down attempts and keeping the fight on the ground, be would probably still have a belt.

Diaz/Aina was close, but I think the judges picked the right guy to win(for once). I don’t think Diaz was really in any danger. Aina threw everything he had at him and nothing seemed to rattle him, save for the one punch in the second that knocked Diaz down, but he seemed pretty unfazed by it as he rolled to his back immediately and invited Aina down to the mat. And had the third round been five seconds longer, Aina would have got caught in an armbar. Diaz also seems to not be a huge asshole anymore, which is both surprising and admirable.

Gina Carano can full mount me anytime. Provided of course Mauro Ranallo hasn’t already “touched that with a 25cm pole” first. Something tells me Mauro isn’t quite up to speed on his metric/english conversions, or those male enhancement pills really do work.

*Interesting tidbits I noticed:
UFC pads when the camera was in Lawler’s dressing room at the beginning of the show. The camera zoomed in but they were still in the shot. I bet the director or cameraman(or both) got their ass chewed for that.

Mauro calling the cage an octagon and then saying he hopes he doesn’t get sued. Along with several other “shots” at the UFC.

When Lawler was pounding Ninja at the very end of the fight, you can see one of the ring girl/cheerleaders going nuts in the background, then one of her fellow booty shakers grabs her by the arm and pulls her back into her seat as if to say:“Sit yo crazy skank ho ass down!” with a pissy look on her face.

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
Maybe not, but I was impressed by their show this evening on Showtime. All of the fights, while not monumental in any way, were very watchable and entertaining. The talent pool isn’t nearly as deep, but if they can continue to produce solid cards, and maybe snag a few quality fighters here and there, I think they could actually be some competition for the UFC. (Granted, I don’t really know much about the business front of things when it comes to EliteXC, I remember hearing something about it being somewhat affiliated with K-1 is some form, which probably isn’t so great.)

The addition of Stephen Quadros to the commentating line-up is a definite plus also. Even though he has about as much energy and charisma as a bowl of paint chips, he knows his stuff. However, with Bill “I’m not doing anything to improve anyone’s opinion of pro wrestlers” Goldberg still rambling incoherent non-sense most of time, it might not really make much of a difference. God, please make Mike and Bill Goldberg go away. There is no reason we should have to listen to these two chuckleheads babble on when neither really have anything worthwhile to add to commentating.

I thought Ninja/Lawler was a pretty weak effort on Ninja’s part. Ninja seemed to come into the fight like an 8 year old on sugar-coated crack and his strategy was kick Lawler in the leg, get tired as soon as humanly possible, and wait for Lawler to knock most of his teeth out. Lawler just waited for him to gas, then finished it. Why Ninja tried to stand with him is beyond me. Had he spent any of that energy on a few take down attempts and keeping the fight on the ground, be would probably still have a belt.

Diaz/Aina was close, but I think the judges picked the right guy to win(for once). I don’t think Diaz was really in any danger. Aina threw everything he had at him and nothing seemed to rattle him, save for the one punch in the second that knocked Diaz down, but he seemed pretty unfazed by it as he rolled to his back immediately and invited Aina down to the mat. And had the third round been five seconds longer, Aina would have got caught in an armbar. Diaz also seems to not be a huge asshole anymore, which is both surprising and admirable.

Gina Carano can full mount me anytime. Provided of course Mauro Ranallo hasn’t already “touched that with a 25cm pole” first. Something tells me Mauro isn’t quite up to speed on his metric/english conversions, or those male enhancement pills really do work.

*Interesting tidbits I noticed:
UFC pads when the camera was in Lawler’s dressing room at the beginning of the show. The camera zoomed in but they were still in the shot. I bet the director or cameraman(or both) got their ass chewed for that.

Mauro calling the cage an octagon and then saying he hopes he doesn’t get sued. Along with several other “shots” at the UFC.

When Lawler was pounding Ninja at the very end of the fight, you can see one of the ring girl/cheerleaders going nuts in the background, then one of her fellow booty shakers grabs her by the arm and pulls her back into her seat as if to say:“Sit yo crazy skank ho ass down!” with a pissy look on her face.

[/quote]

I think Elite XC is better than people give it credit for. They bought ICON and Cage Rage and has a partnership with K-1 Heros and Strikeforce. Heros isn’t bad, they have money and a big presence in Japan. Their matchmaking is suspect. Though they have got some talent, Kid Yamamoto, Dida, Manhoef, Kharitonov, Shoalin, JZ, Uno and rumors of Gomi coming. Throw in Overeem and Sakuraba, Akiyama and that is decent.

If ELite XC can some how bring all their parts together they will have talent and they will draw audiences with guys like Frank Shamrock in Strikeforce.

As for Ninja he hasn’t gotten results at MW. As for why he would stand with Lawler well Ninja has stood with Rampage and many people thought he won that fight even though he lost a decision. Ninja stood with Sergei Kharitonov who has some of the best boxing skills at HW. Ninja got knocked out by Sergei which isn’t anything to be ashamed of. So Ninja likes to stand and was a good fighter at LHW for a bit so maybe he thinks he can stand-up with MWs.

[quote]analog_kid wrote:

I thought Ninja/Lawler was a pretty weak effort on Ninja’s part. Ninja seemed to come into the fight like an 8 year old on sugar-coated crack and his strategy was kick Lawler in the leg, get tired as soon as humanly possible, and wait for Lawler to knock most of his teeth out. Lawler just waited for him to gas, then finished it. Why Ninja tried to stand with him is beyond me. Had he spent any of that energy on a few take down attempts and keeping the fight on the ground, be would probably still have a belt. [/quote]

I have no idea why people think Ninja does anything but suck. I have never seen a fight where Ninja looked any better than a drunk brawler on the feet, and his wrestling has always sucked. His ju-jitsu is pretty good though. I think people associate Ninja=Shogun, but it sure as hell doesn’t. He has flashes of a polished fighter filled with long bouts of a guy who should be on TUF.

As for Gina Carano, yes I would certainly give her a deep dicking. But as a professional fighter she is an embarassment. She signs to fight at 135 pounds, can’t make that weight, so they give her a catch weight weight of 140 pounds (without her opponent knowing). Then, when she can’t make 140, they on the spot decide to give her a one pound allowance to 141 pounds (again her opponent is like what the hell?). But she can’t even fucking make that weight and comes in at 141.5 so they say screw it and basically give her a free pass.

Of course, this is nothing new. Four times a in a row she has signed up to fight at 135, and has not made weight, in fact she hasn’t come within 3 pounds of that weight. They keep giving her a free pass because she is hot as hell, so she fights cans she outweighs by 20 pounds while if she fought at her real weight she would get her face ripped off but some real talented females.

Gina is the only known female fighter because every guy wants to bone her, so her opponent is stuck between looking like a coward for not fighting Gina, or getting stomped by her fatass. She is the Anna Kournikova of MMA and I can’t wait to see her exposed.

[quote]Donut62 wrote:
analog_kid wrote:

I thought Ninja/Lawler was a pretty weak effort on Ninja’s part. Ninja seemed to come into the fight like an 8 year old on sugar-coated crack and his strategy was kick Lawler in the leg, get tired as soon as humanly possible, and wait for Lawler to knock most of his teeth out. Lawler just waited for him to gas, then finished it. Why Ninja tried to stand with him is beyond me. Had he spent any of that energy on a few take down attempts and keeping the fight on the ground, be would probably still have a belt.

I have no idea why people think Ninja does anything but suck. I have never seen a fight where Ninja looked any better than a drunk brawler on the feet, and his wrestling has always sucked. His ju-jitsu is pretty good though. I think people associate Ninja=Shogun, but it sure as hell doesn’t. He has flashes of a polished fighter filled with long bouts of a guy who should be on TUF.

As for Gina Carano, yes I would certainly give her a deep dicking. But as a professional fighter she is an embarassment. She signs to fight at 135 pounds, can’t make that weight, so they give her a catch weight weight of 140 pounds (without her opponent knowing). Then, when she can’t make 140, they on the spot decide to give her a one pound allowance to 141 pounds (again her opponent is like what the hell?). But she can’t even fucking make that weight and comes in at 141.5 so they say screw it and basically give her a free pass.

Of course, this is nothing new. Four times a in a row she has signed up to fight at 135, and has not made weight, in fact she hasn’t come within 3 pounds of that weight. They keep giving her a free pass because she is hot as hell, so she fights cans she outweighs by 20 pounds while if she fought at her real weight she would get her face ripped off but some real talented females.

Gina is the only known female fighter because every guy wants to bone her, so her opponent is stuck between looking like a coward for not fighting Gina, or getting stomped by her fatass. She is the Anna Kournikova of MMA and I can’t wait to see her exposed.[/quote]

Donut, you’re absolutely right on Carano. I think her being in MMA is good for the sport as it will (likley) increase exposure.

But, to consistently struggle to make weight and then have the rules changed at the 24th hour to accomodate her is not right. I know refusing to fight looks “weak” but I wouldn’t have blamed any of her opponents for not stepping into the ring/cage with her when Carano failed to make weight and they did. I’m sure there’d be no pass given if the roles were reversed – we’d probably see that person docked some of their purse.

[quote]Donut62 wrote:
analog_kid wrote:

I thought Ninja/Lawler was a pretty weak effort on Ninja’s part. Ninja seemed to come into the fight like an 8 year old on sugar-coated crack and his strategy was kick Lawler in the leg, get tired as soon as humanly possible, and wait for Lawler to knock most of his teeth out. Lawler just waited for him to gas, then finished it. Why Ninja tried to stand with him is beyond me. Had he spent any of that energy on a few take down attempts and keeping the fight on the ground, be would probably still have a belt.

I have no idea why people think Ninja does anything but suck. I have never seen a fight where Ninja looked any better than a drunk brawler on the feet, and his wrestling has always sucked. His ju-jitsu is pretty good though. I think people associate Ninja=Shogun, but it sure as hell doesn’t. He has flashes of a polished fighter filled with long bouts of a guy who should be on TUF. [/quote]

I kinda have to agree with you on that one. For coming out of Chute Boxe, the guy doesn’t have much as far as striking ability. I’d probably give him that win over Rampage, but Quinton was hardly in top form that night. He definitely rides in wake of Silva and Shogun.

Double standard? Even in MMA? Noooo! I guess I didn’t know this was a habit for Gina. I knew she had trouble making weight for this fight, and then when she weighed in at 140.5, wtf mate? Maybe she told them it was her period? Always worked for girls in gym class.

I can’t wait to see her exposed either Donut, you know something I don’t?

Did Jon Murphy fight? He lives near me, infact I use to lift at the same gym/same time as him. Very stong and fast heavyweight.

[quote]analog_kid wrote:

I can’t wait to see her exposed either Donut, you know something I don’t?

[/quote]

She won’t be, as long as she is fighting for Gary Shaw. That’s what aggravate me the most. Gary sits there on camera and talks about how it’s “all about the fighters, whether they are male or female”, then goes on about how he is the guy who brought respect to female MMA, yadda yadda yadda. But he really hasn’t, all he has done is bring sex appeal to female MMA by ruthlessly hyping up a pretty face.

There are girls out there like Tara LaRosa who would rip Gina’s face off and feed it to her, but Gina’s got the T&A so nobody cares. They might as well put her in a bikini and have her walk around he ring with a “Round 3” card.

That’s not really her fault though, but not making weight is. She knows she can get away with it and eat that cheesecake while her opponents are killing themselves year round in the gym. Very unprofessional.

Lutter didn’t make weight once in his life, and every MMA fan was ready to burn him at the stake, they docked his purse, and Dana almost threw him out of the UFC. But because everybody has wood for Carano she just smiles, jiggles her boobs, and all is forgiven. And she’s done it four times in a row.

[quote]Donut62 wrote:
analog_kid wrote:
He has flashes of a polished fighter filled with long bouts of a guy who should be on TUF.
[/quote]

Too true. Ninja seems to look good on his feet until he eats a few punches. After that he starts swinging, gasses and generally looks like shit and this fight was no exception. His takedown attempts were so awful they gave me cancer.

As to the original purpose of this thread, the EliteFC event was pretty good but the commentary team is abominable.

[quote]gotaknife wrote:

As to the original purpose of this thread, the EliteFC event was pretty good but the commentary team is abominable. [/quote]

I’d take Mauro and Quadros over Goldberg and Rogan.

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
gotaknife wrote:

As to the original purpose of this thread, the EliteFC event was pretty good but the commentary team is abominable.

I’d take Mauro and Quadros over Goldberg and Rogan.[/quote]

yeah MUCH better that the UFC. Mauro has some decent one liners and understands the game better than Goldeberg. I also think Quadros calls the technical side better than Rogan.

Don’t like big Goldberg though.

They need to add some talent/depth to the MW division because right now it’s B-level at best.

i.e., Frank Shamrock

[quote]gotaknife wrote:
Donut62 wrote:
analog_kid wrote:
He has flashes of a polished fighter filled with long bouts of a guy who should be on TUF.

Too true. Ninja seems to look good on his feet until he eats a few punches. After that he starts swinging, gasses and generally looks like shit and this fight was no exception. His takedown attempts were so awful they gave me cancer.

As to the original purpose of this thread, the EliteFC event was pretty good but the commentary team is abominable. [/quote]

It’s funny because cardio and pacing should be the biggest strength from somebody out of chute box. I really though Ninja was just going to overwhelm him from the get go. Pretty bad strategy on Ninja’s part.

Lawler looked pretty good though. It’s too bad Miller is with the WEC now because I’d like to see them fight again. Lawler vs Shamrock? Lawler vs Cung le?

[quote]RickyBobby wrote:
They need to add some talent/depth to the MW division because right now it’s B-level at best.

i.e., Frank Shamrock[/quote]

I think you can say that about every single division they have. If anything MW is their strongest.

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
gotaknife wrote:

As to the original purpose of this thread, the EliteFC event was pretty good but the commentary team is abominable.

I’d take Mauro and Quadros over Goldberg and Rogan.[/quote]

Without Bas no commentary team is good. Mauro and Quadros were fine but a bit boring, it was the giant dumb-ass that was irritating. Who was that guy?

Heros got Dennis Kang. I don’t know how the Heros and elite XC/Strikeforce partnership works, I would like to see them unify their divisions. Too bad K-1 can’t just buy out Elite XC, Strikeforce. Then it would be alright. You would have, Shamrock, Cung Le, Manhoef, Kang, Sak, Zelg, Yoon. There would be some intriguing match-ups there.

[quote]Donut62 wrote:

Gina is the only known female fighter because every guy wants to bone her, so her opponent is stuck between looking like a coward for not fighting Gina, or getting stomped by her fatass. She is the Anna Kournikova of MMA and I can’t wait to see her exposed.[/quote]

Here is the weigh-in video if you fast forward about 2 minutes, you will see Gina try to stand on the scale with one foot…odd.

http://excuprising.proelite.com/52500

Bill Goldberg gets a lot of complaints from core MMA fans.

I’m excited to see another organization picking up. It reminds me of the early Pride. Entrances and all. Everyone thought of it as B-Level fighters and such and then it exploded.

I think Bill Goldeberg is them making fun of how terrible Mike Goldberg is.

I see it only getting better.

[quote]EmperialChina wrote:
Donut62 wrote:

Gina is the only known female fighter because every guy wants to bone her, so her opponent is stuck between looking like a coward for not fighting Gina, or getting stomped by her fatass. She is the Anna Kournikova of MMA and I can’t wait to see her exposed.

Here is the weigh-in video if you fast forward about 2 minutes, you will see Gina try to stand on the scale with one foot…odd.

http://excuprising.proelite.com/52500

Bill Goldberg gets a lot of complaints from core MMA fans.[/quote]

Maybe she thought she would weigh less if she only had one foot on the scale?

Why does Bill Goldberg still have a job?

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
EmperialChina wrote:
Donut62 wrote:

Gina is the only known female fighter because every guy wants to bone her, so her opponent is stuck between looking like a coward for not fighting Gina, or getting stomped by her fatass. She is the Anna Kournikova of MMA and I can’t wait to see her exposed.

Here is the weigh-in video if you fast forward about 2 minutes, you will see Gina try to stand on the scale with one foot…odd.

http://excuprising.proelite.com/52500

Bill Goldberg gets a lot of complaints from core MMA fans.

Maybe she thought she would weigh less if she only had one foot on the scale?

Why does Bill Goldberg still have a job?

[/quote]

Yeah I figured that lol, but I found it odd as it is pointless to do something like that in a room full of people, on top of that it just looks like poor sportsmanship.

The Goldberg Youtube video is funny but understandable, though I believe Baroni and Goldberg are friends, but I think it was a bit melodramatic to say the least. I think as a commentator there will always be those that like you and that don’t, but Goldberg’s slip ups and his persona seems to annoy quite a few core MMA fans.

It’s an old boxing trick to stand on one leg on the scale, and sometimes the uneven pressure can throw them off a bit. Pretty lame.