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Elite XC 7/26 Stockton, California

By Zach Arnold | July 26, 2008

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Reports: MMA Weekly | MMA Mania | Bloody Elbow | MMA Junkie | Total MMA | Sherdog | Observer

Get on the Cyborg bandwagon already.

Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

26 Responses to “Elite XC 7/26 Stockton, California”

  1. Zack says:

    Watching the Showtime segment live right now. Sucks that the CBS portion is on 3 hour tape delay and won’t be on until 9PM on the West Coast. Kind of kills the momentum of the Showtime broadcast.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    Wow, that sucks for the West Coast fans. No reason for a tape delay.

    The Showtime card was not LIVE on either coast. I saw the result of the first fight online before it happened on TV. Not sure how much of a difference there was, but it wasn’t live.

    The “Bantamweight” fight was horrible. The losing fighter had not takedown defense at all.

    Rafael is solid. i would love to see him in the UFC so he can fight the top guys in the sport.

    Silva beating Eilers was to be expected. Not exactly a good fight. If anything, Antonio Silva’s reputation during his last 2 fights has been greatly reduced. He isn’t that good.

  3. Grape Knee High says:

    What the heck is wrong with Frank Shamrock’s teeth? New grills?

  4. 45 Huddle says:

    That woman fight felt like Amateur Hour. Not sure what was worse. The false finish or Shayna just taking a dive because she didn’t want anything more of Cyborg.

    On a side note, Ranallo is especially horrible today.

  5. MeanMike says:

    Whoever that interviewer with Gina is, she must lay her freaky giant forehead on one big pillow.

  6. Grape Knee High says:

    Poor Shayna. She tries to give up but Mazzagatti makes her get up and take another beating.

  7. Zach Arnold says:

    Shields winning so fast will cause people to equate Thompson to a tomato can (which he is not) and not give Jake enough credit for how great he really is.

    Shayna losing, admittedly, is a shocker, considering who is supporting her and training with her.

  8. PizzaChef says:

    Not a bad event. 45 Huddle is still being super pessimistic about it of course.

    Scott Smith….Christ what the fuck was he doing? That has to be one of the biggest fuck ups in the sport since letting Kalib Starnes fight.

  9. Jeremy says:

    The main event was as good as they could have hoped for.

    The ending made Lawler look like a star.

    Note to Elite: Sign Jason Miller.

    What should Elite do with Shields? They have a champ, but nobody to face him.

    If Jay Heiron is not signed by Zuffa, they could get him, but I think Jay will end up in WEC.

    Sadly, if the pre-card coverage is anything to go by, not as many folks will have seen it.

    Elite needs to look to the future and sign some fighters that can be contenders down the line.

    They have champs, but nobody to face them.

  10. Zack says:

    “Wow, that sucks for the West Coast fans. No reason for a tape delay.”

    In their defense, the UFC does the same thing for their UFNs. It’s a pretty weak practice….the only time they went live was to go against the Affliction card.

  11. The Gaijin says:

    It wouldn’t be a non-UFC event without 45 Huddle saying 50 overblown negative/pessimistic things and throwing in 2 half hearted positive comments so that he can later claim he’s giving an unbiased point of view.

    I thought the show was massively improved from the first one in terms of presentation, pacing and the fights themselves. No screwjobs, non-finishes, questionable reffing and best of all NO BILL GOLDBERG.

    Feijao looked like a total beast, the woman’s fight was pretty crowd pleasing and has given EXC a perfect opponent for pretty girl Gina, Shields completely owned a very good fighter in Thompson, Diaz came off looking like a star in a Griffin/Bonnar-esque exciting brawl (this was not pretty mma, but that’s beside the point) and Lawler-Smith had a definitive finish and was quite good albeit short.

    If I’m EXC I’m pleased as punch because this almost perfectly sets up for their October card and the pieces all seemed to fall into the right place.

  12. Chuck says:

    Good fight card. I had no problems with just about anyything on this card. It was pretty hilarious when Cyborg started celebrating after she just merely dropped Shayna. Shayna did some pretty wicked leg work, but Cyborg is a hell of a fighter. She ALMOST reminds me of a female Wanderlei Silva for the way she fights. Almost. Diaz looked good, and he landed pretty everything he threw and Denny, even though Denny pretty much missed everything he threw at Diaz. Good lord Denny made Josh Haynes look like Oscar De La Hoya for the way he threw his punches.

  13. The Gaijin says:

    And I’m not saying you have to love or even like everything that is mma or non-Zuffa related, but the constant overblown negativity is a bit much. Give credit where credit is due.

  14. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    This was a very good card when you put together the Showtime and the CBS portions.

    The level of production was significantly improved from their prior CBS effort as well.

  15. The Gaijin says:

    Btw – Cotto vs. Margarito fight is a FOTY in the making right now and that’s saying a great deal for a fight that I’d probably have as 5 rounds to 2 for Cotto at the end of the 7th round.

    This is some exciting and technically sound stuff and an all out war to boot.

  16. The Gaijin says:

    By god – if you didn’t see it, order the replay of Cotto vs. Margarito.

    Amazing fight, what a war and wow what a chin displayed by one of these fighters…I won’t say who because I don’t want to spoil it.

    This and Marquez vs. Vazquez III are leading FOTY candidates imho.

  17. Chuck says:

    “Amazing fight, what a war and wow what a chin displayed by one of these fighters…I won’t say who because I don’t want to spoil it.”

    That’s okay, I’ll spoil it for you. No need to worry, I’ll tell everyone. He is talking about Margarito. He beat Cotto via 11th round TKO. Cotto took two knees and his corner threw in the towel. I didn’t see the fight (watched EliteXC because it was free) but I definitely want to see the replay.

    Oh, and I want to mention something about the Shileds/Thompson fight….what the hell was with that neck beard of Thompson’s? Hell, I think it helped Shields lock that chokehold in, because of the grip (no sweat to lubricate Thompson’s neck).

  18. Ivan Trembow says:

    The EliteXC event was a very good show, but Cotto vs. Maragarito was one of the damndest fights I’ve ever seen. Wow.

  19. Ivan Trembow says:

    When I visit this site, I’ve come to expect that I’m going to read the usual Zuffa PR shilling from 45 Huddle. Tonight was no exception. However, it takes a hell of a lot of nerve to accuse Shayna Baszler of “taking a dive” after the final punch of that fight.

  20. Brandt says:

    Ivan: Exactly. It’s even funnier when it comes from an anonymous commenter on a website too. People need to stop being keyboard warriors. Unless you fight and you can prove it, don’t talk about Baszler taking a dive after getting hit 20 times.

  21. 45 Huddle says:

    I’m sorry, but you don’t need to fight to observe that she had no business being in there. If you are a PROFESSIONAL Fighter (Male or Female), and you have gassed out after 3 minutes, it is time to get a new job. That was a horrible performance.

    As for the rest of the event.

    Jake Shields is for real. I would put him at #5 or #6 in the world. The only problem now is that he really has no challengers in EliteXC. We need to see him against guys like Sanchez, GSP, Alves, and others.

    Not sure what it is, but I’ve never been that impressed with Robbie Lawler. Even when he was in the UFC, I just couldn’t stand him. Perhaps a rematch with Jason Miller is in order now. Perhaps Jorge Santiago or Cung Le if they can do another co-promotion with Strikeforce.

  22. cyph says:

    That was actually a very good EliteXC. I don’t think CBS could have asked for anything more with the talent level they had on hand last night.

    I understand that they want to build stars right now, so I highly doubt that Cyborg will be fighting Gina any time soon.

  23. Brandt says:

    Good point. Its refreshing to see women’s MMA being presented to the masses as well.

    As far as the entire show, it was definitely entertaining. I would have liked to see a longer Thompson/Shields fight, but Nick probably has more on his mind than we can imagine. His bar exam is tomorrow and while fighting is a great source of income when you’re younger, being a lawyer sure is easier on the body. I would watch this every week if they decided to make it a regular CBS program.

  24. Leslie says:

    “I’m sorry, but you don’t need to fight to observe that she had no business being in there. If you are a PROFESSIONAL Fighter (Male or Female), and you have gassed out after 3 minutes, it is time to get a new job.”

    You hear that Shogun, you bum? 45 huddle says you should be flipping pancakes or selling scented candles somewhere.

  25. Ivan Trembow says:

    You have clearly not seen Shayna Baszler fight very many times before. You should stick to re-wording and repeating Zuffa’s talking points, and avoid passing judgment on who did and didn’t “belong in there.”

  26. Michaelthebox says:

    “I understand that they want to build stars right now, so I highly doubt that Cyborg will be fighting Gina any time soon.”

    I dunno that EliteXC can risk not putting their best fights out there. They are still on the edge of failure.

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