I just arrived at the Prudential Center in Newark New Jersey. EliteXC is making mixed martial arts history tonight, broadcasting the first ever mixed martial arts fight on basic cable television. The fight is airing on CBS -check your local listings for information on times.

Check this blog often for updates on the under card and main card

James “Binky” Jones vs Calvin Kattar – Lightweights
Round 1
Jones comes out strong with a leg kick and secures the clinch. After a series of submission attempts, Kattar gets back to his feet. Jones continues to dominate the stand up game with violent knees and leg kicks.

Jones gets another take down and presses Kattar on the cage. He works some ground and pound and secures Kattar’s back. Jones locks in a beautiful rear naked choke, forcing Kattar to tap in the very first round.

Jones looked very well rounded, dominating the stand up, ground and pound, and submission game.
Winner: James “Binky” Jones – Submission: Rear Naked Choke 4:49 – Round 1

Justin Robbins vs. Wilson Reis – Featherweights
Round 1
Robbins looks for the take down early, but his attempts are stuffed. Reis ends up securing his own take down and gets side mount. Reis locks in an arm bar and somehow Robbins escapes, but immediately gets locked into a triangle.

The triangle isn’t tight, and Robbins weathers the storm, but Reis quickly takes his back and locks in a tight rear naked choke. Deja vu.

Wilson Reis – Submission: Rear Naked Choke 4:06 – Round 1

Nick Serra vs. Matt Makowski – Welterweights
Round 1
Former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra’s brother is featured in this bout.

Both fighters get take downs, but scramble to their feet. Serra secures Makowski’s back from the standing position. Makowski escapes and slams Serra to the ground. Makowski opts to stand. Makowski seems to be be getting the better

of the stand up game. Serra repeatedly goes for the take down but is denied over and over. Makowski lands a lot of good punch and kick combos, and Serra looks stunned.

Round 2
Serra gets a bear hug but eats aknee for his effort. He looks fatigues at this point, and his hands are down. Serra eats kick after kick, and now both fighters look exhausted. It seems like only a matter of time before Makowski

finishes this fight. Serra slips and doesn’t get up in time. The ref deducts a point. He falls to his back again and doesn’t get up for the second time. A second point is deducted, and Serra repeatedly ignores the referees

command to stand up. The ref has seen enough and stops the fight.

Winner:Matt Makowski – TKO 3:57 – Round 2

Carlton Haselrig vs. Carlos Moreno – Heavyweights
Round 1

Haselrig gets the take down early, lots of scrambling until Moreno secures a dominant position. He lands some strikes and keeps going for an awkward ankle lock. Moreno slips out. The fans begin to grow restless. Big Dan

stands the fighters up and immediately they go back to the ground. Haselriglocks in a rear naked choke but it’s not locked in that tight. More boos, and the ref stands them up. Haselrig goes for another take down and eats and

uppercut for his efforts. Uneventful first round, but Haselrig takes it with his repeated take downs.

Round 2
Moreno cannot answer the bell. Haselrig wins.

Winner: Carlton Haselrig – TKO 0:00 – Round 2

Chris Liguori vs. Jim Bova – lightweights
Round 1
Boca lands a nice leg kick to Liguori’s head early. After some stand up exchanges, Bova slams Liguori to the canvas. Lots of ground work from both fighters. Bova gets put in an arm bar, but power bombs Liguori and slips out.

Relatively uneventful fist round, the bell sounds with Liguori on his back.

Round 2
Brief stand up exchange and the fighters go to the ground. Bova locks in a darce choke, but Liguori is able to

escape. Liguori now sits in Bova’s guard and rains down some punches. Bova gets to his feet and goes for the single

leg. Liguori escapes, and the ref calls time. Bova is cut and needs to be examined. The doctor stops the fight due

to a cut.

Winner: Chris Liguori TKO Doctor Stoppage 4:31 – Round 2

The telecast goes live in 15 minutes.

Jon Murphy vs. Brett Rogers – Heavyweights
Round 1

This should be a hard hitting bout. Busta Ryhmes raps Brett Rogers ring entrance.

Here we go. The fighters clinch early and exchange knees and punches. Rogers lands a devastating right that drops Jon Murphy. As I predicted, this fight was over fast. When asked if he would fight Kimbo Slice, he says he would fight anyone Elite put in front of him.

Winner: Brett Rogers KO 1:01 Round 1

Phil Baroni vs. Joey Villasenor – Middleweights
Round 1

As expected, Baroni dances his way down to the cage. The NJ fans eat it up. Huge pop when the announcer calls his name.

Villasenor lands a high kick to Baronis head, and gets taken down. The fighters stand up. Villasenor lands a left hook that phases Baroni, then locks in a tight guillotine. Baroni escapes, but eats quite a few punches and eventually succumbs to Villasenor’s strikes. The ref stops the bout, Villasenor tries leaving the cage, but the fans boo and comes back.

Winner: Joey VIllasenor KO 1:11 Round 1

Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young
Round 1

Gina Carano came into this fight 4.5 pounds overweight, and consequently had to forfeit 12.5 percent of her purse to Kaitlin Young.

Great stand up exchange, Carano lands 3 push front kicks. Carano ends up on her back and locks a gogo plata in. Young escapes eventually.

It’s hard to blog this fight, because there is so much action. Very close round, but the judges may score it 10-9 Carano. She landed lots of strikes and had the gogo submission attempt.

Round 2
More stand up. Both fighters landing shots, but Young has no answer for Carano’s push front kick. Carano stuns Young with a cross. Young slips, Carano takes advantage and sinks in rear naked choke. Young is saved by the bell.

The doctor stops this fight, and Carano wins. Young will not answer for round 3.

Winner: Gina Carano TKO Doctor stoppage 3:00 Round 2

Robbie Lawler – Middleweight Champion vs. Scott Smith
Round 1
Smith comes out firing, but both fighters are somewhat tentative. The boos set in. Smith is the aggressor, but Lawler is landing some counter strikes. Lawler and smith now exchange some serious stand up blows. Lawler lands some dirty boxing punches. Lawler lands two solid body kicks. The round ends with Lawler pounding Smith against the cage.

Round 2
Smith switches it up and lands a few leg kicks. His high kicks are repeatedly blocked. Both fighters are slugging it out. Lots of back and forth action. Scott Smith rebounds in round 2 and he may have won the round. Pure slugfest.

Round 3
Lawlers hands are sitting low. Both fighters look somewhat tired, but Smith looks to be the fresher of the two. Lawler goes for a take down but is stuffed. He pokes Smith in the eye, and the fight is paused. The doc stops the fight before the 5 minute allotted time and Scott Smith is visibly upset.

NJAC has to have the most over cautious medical staff in MMA. If you recall, the stopped the Chris Lytle/Thiago Alves fight at UFC 78 for a minor cut, and three doctor stoppages tonight. Ridiculous. The crowd is angry, and a bull*@ chant starts.

Decision: No Contest – 3:26 of the 3rd round

Kimbo Slice vs James Thompson – MAIN EVENT
Round 1

UPDATE 8,033 in attendance

Crowd goes nuts for Kimbo Slice.

Thompson takes Kimbo down and is in Kimbo’s half guard. Time to see what Kimbo’s ground game is like. Kimbo stands up, but the Collossus is overpowering him. Kimbo is in a guillotine choke but escapes. Lots of energy in the arena. Kimbo falls into Thompson’s guard. Kimbo is almost submitted but escaped and rolls over Thompson. Kimbo’s ground game is shaky.

Exciting first round. Welcome to the big leagues, Kimbo.

Round 2

Kimbo looks tired and is throwing wild punches. Thompson easily bobs and weaves out of them. Kimbo gets a guilltoine, but Thompson rolls out into side mount. THe ref stands them up. Kimbo lands some bombs and goes for the guillotine again, but Thompson slips out. Thompson gets a side mount against the cage and rains some punches down on Kimbo. The round ends with Kimbo eating punches from Thompson’s side mount.

Kimbo does not look good.

Round 3
Controversial stoppage. Kimbo wins by TKO. Crowd boos.

Kimbo wins TKO – round 3 1:08

It’s been a little over 6 weeks since I last came across an article written by a disgruntled, misinformed sports writer who chooses to slam MMA instead of praise it. Pun intended.

Welcome to the club, Greg Cote. Your idiocy gives me something to rant about.

Cote says:

Nor does something [mixed martial arts] achieve legitimacy simply because it might entertain the more depraved among us.

That’s why Michael Vick is in prison.

Vick, by the way, staged dogfights not much more vicious, or less civilized, than the type of combat that Kimbo and these other so-called “freestyle fighters” shame themselves to practice. (And that we shame ourselves to watch)

Are you really comparing dogfights to legitimate martial arts competition? I was not aware that Michael Vick had an athletic commission overseeing his dog fighting ring. Give me a break.

Mixed martial arts fights are sanctioned by athletic commissions across the country. Michael Vick hosted dog fighting competitions where a dog was deemed the winner when it killed another dog. I don’t think there are a lot of rules in this sort of engagement.

MMA, on the other hand, has a ton of rules. Study up, Cote. You will need to know these rules if you wish to accurately report about MMA. Or you can choose to ignore them and continue to write the biased garbage featured on the Miami Herald website.

The following acts are universally considered fouls in the mixed martial arts world:

Headbutting.
Eye gouging.
Hair pulling.
Biting.
Fish-hooking.
Attacking the groin.
Strikes to the back of the head, spinal area and kidneys.
Strikes to, or grabs of the trachea.
Small joint manipulation (control of three or more fingers/toes is necessary).
Intentionally throwing your opponent out of the ring/cage.
Running out of the ring/cage.
Purposely holding the ring ropes or cage fence.

It [mma] is only slightly less primal than what you would see from two men at Folsom going at it until the guards show up. It’s sort of an adult version of teenagers beating up a homeless guy. It appeals to our most vile fascination with violence, from the same mind-set that makes the Grand Theft Auto franchise a video-game phenomenon: The notion of doing wrong vicariously.

An adult version of teenagers beating up a homeless guy? have you even watched an MMA fight in your life? Do you even realize the intensity of the training involved?

Legitimate mixed martial artists hold 6-8 week training camps in preparation for a fight. They pay coaches, sparring partners, martial artists of various disciplines, and nutritionists to help them prepare for their bout. The training is intense and expensive, but is necessary if you wish to endure success in this sport.

I was not aware that a teenager would go through so much trouble just to beat up a bum.

“Ultimate fighting” is to boxing sort of like what skateboarding is to Alpine skiing, except that Tony Hawk isn’t trying to knock his opponents unconscious.

There is no such sport as “Ultimate Fighting”. If you are referring to mixed martial arts competition, then call it by its correct name.

MMA is not trying to be like boxing, so your analogy holds no water. Boxing has seen better days. Boxers do not come out to finish fights anymore. More and more we see boxers squeaking out 12 round decisions instead of knocking their opponent out. These fights are not exciting to watch.

MMA fighters train hard to finish fights because the fans do not want to see boring fights; a true warrior does not enter the ring or the cage with the intention of squeaking out a decision. Fans want to see fights finished.

Boxing is only a piece of the puzzle when it comes to MMA. MMA does not want to be boxing, nor has it every tried to be.

Get a clue, Cote. Next time you have the misfortune of having to write about mixed martial arts, do some research about the sport. Mixed Martial Arts is not going away. Live with it.

The first time I wrote a blog about Brock Lesnar, I admitted to being a big pro wrestling fan. I have followed pro wrestling since the age of 5. When I was 14, I discovered a newsletter written by a guy named Mark “CJDark” Roth.

Mark “CJDark” Roth has been covering the world of professional wrestling for a couple decades (give or take a year or two here and there). He began writing for established online wrestling news services in the mid 90’s and worked his way up to developing his own brand in this respect (L.E.W.D. – Legendary Extreme Wrestling Digest) – myspace.com/inlewd if you want to visit the myspace page for the newsletter or e-mail CJDark at ycjdark@yahoo.com and ask for him to subscribe you to the newsletter, if you are interested.

Mark and I have gone back and forth about Bock Lesnar,Dana White, and promotion, so I have asked him to write a guest editorial for my blog. Check it out below:

I admit I don’t follow Mixed Martial Arts as much as the frequent MMA fan does. In fact, as of a few months ago if someone said Kimbo Slice to me I would have thought incorrectly that it was some new pop artist or hip hopster that was making an impact in the music world. Boy would have been wrong. What I have learned about Mr. Slice is that he is pretty much (so far) the rise of the equivalent to the Japananese version of Bob Sapp, when Sapp was a dominant fighter with a great charismatic drawing ability behind him. I believe Kimbo Slice could not only be that greatest MMA fighter of his era, if he doesn’t allow himself to turn in to the hyped equivalent of Mike Tyson, a guy who bought into his hype so much that he stops thinking he has to train to beat cream puffs like “Buster” James Douglas. If Kimbo wanted to sustain a professional fighting career for 10, 15 or 20 years he could always make the smooth transition in to the world of pro wrestling. Former MMA stand outs like Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn have taken that route. See, I am a pro wrestling columnist and have been for a few decades (give or take a year or two). I know what pro wrestling is all about and have studied pro wrestling in its ugliest form and in its coolest form. Some hate the world of pro wrestling based around the premise that it is two grown men rolling around on a mat in spandex trunks and consider it to be quite ‘homo erotic’. But the art of professional wrestling when promoted correctly isn’t much like the reality of Mixed Martial Arts with one huge difference. Pro Wrestling is pre-determined and that gives the promoters, like Vince McMahon Jr., the ability to manipulate their audience and prolong their superstars’ dominant winning patterns 100% of the time.

So if Vince McMahon Jr. doesn’t want one of his most charismatic superstars to lose his next big tv match or ppv match, then the wrestler doesn’t lose and he remains dominant. If done and promoted correctly, pro wrestling can and does appear to be an actual legit fight, brawl or wrestling match. The problem is most pro wrestling promoters, including Vince McMahon Jr., do not promote pro wrestling as an actual legit sport these days and more or less have driven good fight fans away from pro wrestling circles and into the awaiting arms of someone like Dana White, a fight promoter who has an incredible vision which is slightly misguided. Dana White is the Vince McMahon Jr. of the MMA world in every way and the comparisons between Vince McMahon Jr. & Dana White have to be made. Dane White had a vision of taking MMA to grand levels and so far he has proven to each and every MMA fan that his vision was a gamble that was worth taking. White has made millions and millions of dollars by marketing UFC and has created different television platforms based around his UFC Empire. White has even gobbled up other MMA organizations with the intent to gobble up their top talent and increase his profits (something Vince McMahon Jr. has been known to do as well). No doubt Vince McMahon Jr. could learn quite a bit from Dana White, in the sense of promoting his product more like a sport and less like a cartoon or soap opera for men. But Dana White could learn a lot from Vince McMahon Jr. as well.

Take Brock Lesnar’s UFC career, for instance. Lesnar was a great amateur wrestler and anyone that knows anything about Brock knows that he can WRESTLE with the best of them and pretty much dominate anyone within the wrestling world. If Lesnar was to continue with his professional wrestling career with any organization in the world and, for whatever reason, decided he wasn’t going to “lay down” (lose the match as scheduled) then he could pretty much “shoot” (fight for real) and win the match with his legit amateur wrestling abilities. Lesnar is also an amazingly strong human being and has the ability to over power most anyone he is in the ring with. Couple his strength with his amazing wrestling skills and he is a very scary individual to face in a legit fighting competition. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Lesnar can go from pro wrestling circles in to the MMA world and instantly become a dominant fighter. Lesnar has to put in the hard hours of training to learn new techniques and methods to defend himself against the different fighting styles that exist around the globe. But what Brock brought to the UFC table from day one was marketability. Marketability based around his marquee pro wrestling name value and the intrigue of him attempting to start a new fighting career. Brock brought a buzz to the UFC product that had seemingly begun to vanish over night and provided Dana White with a direction he could have taken UFC in that would have (dear I say) revolutionized the MMA world.

Dana White has been hell bent on not bringing in PRO WRESTLERS to UFC because he has said numerous times that WWE & TNA & all wrestling organizations are “fake fighting” and UFC and MMA is “real fighting”. With that in mind and Brock Lesnar being from the wrestling world the natural thing for White to do is to allow his own agenda and ego to over ride good business sense and create a roadblock for Lesnar to do anything worthwhile during his MMA career. White pretty much, in my opinion, doesn’t want Lesnar to win and doesn’t want Lesnar to have a snowballs chance in hell of becoming a marquee-fighting machine with UFC. If Lesnar was to do that then by virtue of perceptions he may prove Dana White’s concepts incorrect. Now all wrestling fans know the same has been true with Vince McMahon Jr. Vince McMahon Jr. has had the ability to acquire top talent from all walks of fighting competitions and generally speaking Vince never allows another fighting competition to look better or superior then his WWE product. I’m authoring this column to paint the picture that the reality of doing business in this fashion is insane, especially if you have a once in a lifetime talent like Brock Lesnar that comes along. I have no hatred for Brock but do not see eye to eye with the way he has handled his fighting career and think he has made quite a few mistakes during his fighting career and frankly think he handled himself wrong when he gave notice (quit) the WWE. But he is what he is and what he is and happens to be one of the most dynamic characters in the fighting world. Lesnar can be the greatest of all time if he trains long enough and he could make Dana White a billionaire along the way. I know Brock Lesnar could be to UFC what Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) was to Vince McMahon’s vision of UFC.

Brock Lesnar, if promoted correctly and protected until he was cultivated in to a UFC fighting machine, could dominate UFC like no one else ever has. But the problem is Dana White has seemingly dropped the ball with Lesnar’s UFC career as he has ‘thrown him to the wolves’ immediately. I have been told that Lesnar is calling out BIG NAME UFC fighters and White is only giving him what he wants, I disagree. White owns Lesnar. White calls the shots. White should be putting Lesnar in fights that he knows Lesnar can win, so that when he eventually becomes a dominant fighter like “Iron” Mike Tyson initially was then he will have a strong track record to be marketed as one of the best UFC attractions of all time. Now don’t think I am off base by saying White ought to manipulate his company to give Lesnar easy wins because like it or not the fact is pro boxing has historically done this to cultivate fighting legends, i.e. Tyson. Tyson was fed talent not as good as he was but that had name value with the boxing world and it allowed him to dominate and dominate like no one ever has dominated. What that was, in my opinion, was pro boxing promoters becoming like traditional pro wrestling promoters. If I was in control of Lesnar’s fighting career ,like White is, the natural thing to do is run a very traditional pro wrestling angle. Lesnar should have made his UFC debut by doing a standard pro wrestling promo in front of the UFC audience (even if he was a heel in that debut). Lesnar should have told White and all of UFC that they were on notice and he was coming to prove that pro wrestlers are superior fighters to MMA fighters and he should have called out the biggest UFC name of them all, maybe even got in that persons face and shoved them (Tyson shoving Steve Austin on RAW kicked started a financial windfall for Vince McMahon one year by the way).

Once that angle was done. Lesnar would be treated like an outsider. He wouldn’t be with UFC but would be a rebel that was trying to get a fight with UFC. After a few media appearances, which would have been part of the deal through Lesnar doing promotional stops with traditional MMA fighting shows that report on the industry (if any exist?). He would continually call out White, but here’s the kicker. White would simply go on about his business as usual and ignore Lesnar existed. Then at the right moment when someone asks a subtle question to White about Lesnar, White finally goes “off” on Lesnar and pro wrestlers. White then gives Lesnar a contract to fight in UFC. He is still positioned as an outsider and the beauty of this is that even if Lesnar wants big stars to fight he fights lessor known stars to start off (that he can beat easily). This would be manipulated on purpose with the premise being that a strong Brock Lesnar remains a strong drawing card down the road. Lesnar would (in my opinion) eventually win over the MMA audience when he continually wins fights and kicks ass. Think of how Bill Goldberg went from fighting preliminary guys in WCW to eventually beating a bigger star each week when WCW was fabricating his winning streak to promote him as the most dominant pro wrestler of his era (and some think of all time). The same could be done with MMA – and it would not have to be a pre determined fight to get it done. If you don’t think pro fights are manipulated by promoters in all walks of pro fighting competitions then you are crazy.

(Note: Again I am not a MMA fan and am not an MMA guru and know limited information about MMA. What I know is pro wrestling and how marketing pro wrestlers works and how it can be used in other walks of life)

Here we go…

To check out “WEC’s Torres best fighter you’ve never heard of” from David Avila’s MMA notebook for MSNBC.com, click here.

To check out “EliteXC: Primetime Preview” from Jared Barnes’ Brawl Sports blog for the Houston Chronicle, click here.

To check out “Jens Pulver interview w/audio” from Barnes’ Brawl Sports blog, click here.

To check out “Toe-to-toe with ‘The California Kid’ (with audio)” from Carlos Arias’ Keep Punching blog for the O.C. Register, click here.

To check out “Amir Sadollah’s Ultimate Fighter Blog (Episode 9)” for the O.C. Register, click here.

To check out “Dana White Q&A” from Sergio Non’s Strikes and Submissions blog for USA Today, click here.

To check out “YouTube fight videos conflict with Mixed Martial Arts values” from FightTicker.com, click here.

To check out “War this weekend” from Tom Kim’s Ultimate Fan: Mixed Martial Arts blog for the Seattle Post Intelligencer, click here.

To check out “EliteXC Saturday Night Fights pre-fight analysis and predictions” from Larry Vollmer Jr.’s Inside the Octagon blog for The Journal News, click here.

EliteXC will make mixed martial arts history Saturday night when they air the first installment of “Saturday Night Fights” on CBS. This is the first mixed martial arts card offered on basic cable television. The card is pretty stacked from head to toe and whoever makes the match ups in for EliteXC did a stellar job putting this card together.

I wish they would have featured more submission fighters on the main card, but I understand that EliteXC is trying to expose the sport to a wider audience of people, and knockouts tend to draw more interest then submissions. I am a fan of the submission game, but it’s not for everyone. I love a slick arm bar or triangle choke as much as I love a left hook to the jaw that makes a fighter’s knees buckle.

For what it’s worth, here are my predictions for the first installment of CBS/EliteXC Saturday Night Fights.

Heavyweights
-Brett Rogers vs. Jon Murphy
Brett Rogers is coming off of the biggest win of his career after knocking out James Thompson ; he is also riding a 6 fight win streak. Rogers has stopped all of his opponents in all 6 of his fights, winning 5 by KO/TKO and one my submission. Oddly enough, the one submission victory he has is due to strikes. Brett Rogers hits hard, and Jon Murphy is going to have his hands full. Murphy is 4-2 in his pro career, and 3 of his wins are by TKO, so we know he can bang, but I think he will be overwhelmed with the power of Brett Rogers and will succumb to the heavy hands of this up and coming heavyweight.

Prediction: Brett Rogers – KO/TKO round 1

Middleweights
-Phil Baroni vs. Joey Villasenor
This is a pretty intriguing match up. Both guys have a good stand up game. Baroni is a powerhouse with knockout power. Villasenor is a well-rounded fighter who has pretty good conditioning. Baroni always has a problem with his conditioning, and has lost 4 of his last 6 fights. Baroni always starts out his fights throwing bomb and after bomb and usually gasses himself out early on. I suspect he will gas in round 2, and Villasenor will take advantage of the fatigue in round 3 and pound Baroni out.

Prediction: Villasenor TKO/KO round 3

Female fights
-Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young
This is going to be a pretty good fight. Both fighters have strong muay thai backgrounds and like to stand up and knock opponents out. It will be interesting to see how Gina Carano comes into this fight. She has spent much of the year playing the role of “Crush” on American Gladiators, so we don’t know how much time she spent training for fights this year. Kaitlin Young has only fought one time this year, so she doesn’t really have the upper hand in the activity factor either, but Kaitlin Young did fight three times in one night last November, destroying all three opponents in under a minute each time. She hits hard and fast and has a really strong clinch.

I’m not 100% confident in this prediction, but I have to stick with Gina on this fight. I’m a big fan of hers, and I’d marry her if I had the opportunity, so I have to stick with Gina. I hope she comes into this fight in shape, and if she does she can win.

Prediction: Gina Carano – KO/TKO Round 1

Middleweight Championship
-Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith
Another slugfest, except this slugfest is for the middleweight championship. If any middleweight is going to take Robbie Lawler’s title, it could be Scott Smith. The guy likes to stand and bang and can absorb some punches. Both Lawler and Smith are hard to knock out, but someone will go down in this fight. I’ll have to go with Lawler, since he has the experience factor and has been in fights with some of the best mixed martial artists in the middlweight division.

Prediction:Robbie Lawler – KO/TKO Round 2

Main Event
-Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson vs. James Thompson
Without a doubt, this is Kimbo Slice’s toughest opponent yet. James Thompson is a big, strong guy who comes out hard and fast in each fight. The problem is that Thompson has a jaw made of glass, and this approach does not work for him all the time. He has lost 9 professional fights and 7 of those losses have come by way of KO/TKO.. Despite what many think about the MMA skills of Kimbo, he has some pretty good hands and throws vicious punch combinations. Bas Rutten has done him a world of good and he looks better in each fight. I think Kimbo will land a hook square on the jaw of James Thompson and drop him early in round 1.

Prediction: Kimbo Slice – KO/TKO Round 1

In a story from UFC.com, Micheal DiSanto says:

Sherk, who could double for the Energizer Bunny any day, certainly hopes Penn shows up in less than stellar shape, because his game plan will be to take down Penn early, start taxing Penn’s cardio with a conservative ground and pound attack and wait for the tank to read “EMPTY.” That is a good game plan in a three-round fight. It is an exceptionally effective game plan in a five-round fight, unless Penn shows up in tremendous cardiovascular shape.

I just watched the pre-weight in videos from UFC.com and grabbed these screen shots of BJ Penn:

BJ Penn looks like he is in great shape. Sean Sherk is going to have his hands full.

Revolutionary Mixed Martial Arts Program A Smash Hit With 18-34 Year Old Audience

San Jose, CA. – The fifth episode of “Strikeforce on NBC”, the first-ever weekly mixed martial arts cage fight program on one of the four major national television networks in the U.S, topped the average ratings of both ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and CBS’s “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” both of which air several hours earlier during weeknights, in the 18-34 year old male category of viewers during the week of May 5, 2008.

The .5 rating drawn by “Strikeforce on NBC” in the 18-34 year old male category beat the ratings of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on four of the five weeknights that the ABC show airs, and tied Kimmel’s ratings on the fifth night. The Strikeforce program bested the ratings of “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson” on all five weeknights and tied the Thursday and Friday night ratings of CBS’s “The Late Show With David Letterman” that week, in the same demographic group.

The overall viewership of “Strikeforce on NBC,” which airs immediately following “Poker After Dark” every Saturday night (check your local listings for show time), has increased by an astronomical 197%, from 319,000 to 949,000, including a 58% jump between the two most recently reported weeks (949,000 from 602,000).

“We’re pleased to see our product gaining momentum on network TV,” said Strikeforce CEO, Scott Coker. “The series has proven to be a highly effective way of creating new Strikeforce fans throughout the country and we’re looking forward to delivering more action-packed programming to NBC viewers throughout the year.”

Co-hosted by mixed martial arts legend, Ken Shamrock, and award-winning ESPN announcer, Lon McEachern, “Strikeforce on NBC” is a 52 week series. Each episode runs 30 minutes and is comprised of fighter profiles as well as Strikeforce MMA fights and highlights.

About Strikeforce
Strikeforce is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, Strikeforce has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” Since then, it has co-produced the first SHOWTIME PPV mixed martial arts event in history with its world championship “Shamrock vs. Baroni” card on June 22, 2007.

The lines are in for UFC 84: Ill will. Underdogs are italicized below:

Wanderlei Silva -200
Keith Jardine +160

Lyoto Machida -200
Tito Ortiz +160

BJ Penn -250
Sean Sherk +200

Jon Koppenhaver +140
Yoshiyuki Yoshida -170

Shane Carwin -200
Christian Wellisch +160

Jason Tan +250
Dong Hyun Kim-325

Ivan Salaverry -150
Rousimar Palhares +120

Rameau Sokoudjou -265
Kazuhiro Nakamura +205

Rich Clementi -260
Terry Etim +200

Wilson Gouveia -140
Goran Reljic +110

Thiago Silva -800
Antonio Mendes +500

Even though I predicted that Wanderlei Silva and BJ Penn would win, it might not be a bad idea to throw a few dollars on Keith Jardine and Sean Sherk. If I had to choose one underdog to bet on, it would be Keith Jardine. For every ten bucks you bet on Jardine, you will win sixteen. Sherk is a 2-1 underdog, so you will win two dollars for every one dollar you bet, but he is not as safe of a bet as Jardine.

I got these odds from Bodoglife.com. It is a pretty good sports gambling site, if you are into sports gambling.

This week’s Hits from the MMA blogosphere:

To check out “Toe-to-toe with female MMA sensation Gina Carano (with audio)” from Arias’ Keep Punching blog, click here.

To check out “UFC 84 guest panel predictions” from Pramit Mohapatra’s FightTicker.com, click here.

To check out “UFC 84: Ill Will pre-fight analysis and predictions” from Larry Vollmer Jr.’s Indise the Octagon blog, click here.

To check out “Sokoudjou searches for redemption” from David Avila’s MMA Notebook for MSNBC.com, click here.

To check out “UFC 84 Preview: Wanderlei Silva vs. Keith Jardine” from Jared Barnes’ Brawl Sports blog, click here.

To check out “Same old roid song (with audio)” from Carlos Arias’ Keep Punching blog, click here.

To check out “Amir Sadollah’s Ultimate Fighter Blog (Episode 8)” from Arias’ Keep Punching blog, click here.

To check out “American Gladiator Gina Carano a mixed martial arts pioneer” from Barnes’ Brawl Sports blog, click here.

To check out “Lil’ Evil looking to do a lot of good” from Tom Kim’s Ultimate Fan: Mixed Martial Arts Blog, click here.

EliteXC recently had a press day and autograph signing for the media and MMA fans. Here are some photos from the press day:

Nick Diaz throws a round kick

Gina Carano throws a hook punch

Gina Carano throws a left round kick

Kimbo Slice poses for the cameras

Kimbo throws a right uppercut

The fighters answer questions from the media

Left: Middleweight champion Robbie Lawler, Gina Carano, Scott Smith
Front: Kimbo Slice