Written by Jim Murphy
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Saturday, May 31 2008
Kimbo Slice, shown here in training with Bas Rutten, survived a scare from game James Thompson to score a third round TKO and remain undefeated in his short MMA career
It wasn’t the decisive blowout that EliteXC was hoping for to send Kimbo Slice’s stardom into the stratosphere but with some seriously tense moments for the former street fighter against a game James Thompson everyone concerned is likely happy with a victory of any sort. Kimbo at times displayed some surprising skill on the ground, while at other times looked amateurish and lost. Slice clearly had the edge in the standup exchanges, and appeared to have Thompson on the verge of going down for the count several times in the fight. To his credit, the British fighter—who developed a reputation for having one of the weakest chins in the sport during his tenure in PRIDE—took Kimbo’s best shots and had a tactical answer every time he got in trouble by taking the bout to the mat.
This strategy worked well for Thompson until the final round. With both fighters’ faces showing the effects of their opponents’ punches, Kimbo stalked Thompson around the cage looking for a big punch. Though “The Colossus"? kept his feet through several punishing combinations, but the beginning of the end came when a Slice punch nearly sheared his ear off. The bloody, grotesque ear was clearly at risk of being seriously damaged and Kimbo punctuated this with four or five uncontested power punches. Thompson by this point was out on his feet and the ref jumped in to bring the proceedings to a halt giving Kimbo a TKO victory. After the fight an exhausted and relieved Slice flopped onto the mat, clearly relieved to have survived the toughest test he’s faced in his embryonic MMA career.
While Thompson and his corner complained of an early stoppage, given the severity of the ear injury and the four or five uncontested power shots by Kimbo its a tough case to make. Furthermore, it was consistent with the officiating all night which obviously was trying to err on the side of caution in the first MMA event on prime time major network television. The ref was quick to call several of the earlier bouts, and the ringside physician was involved in two more bouts. Clearly, everyone concerned wanted to take no chances and risk an ugly late stoppage or serious injury with a huge broadcast TV audience—many of whom were assumed to be MMA neophytes. The fights on the card that ended by stoppage could have arguably been called a second or two early, but as the old saying goes ‘better a second too early than a second too late’.
Despite the tough test faced by Kimbo Slice and a disappointing no-contest in the semifinal bout between Robbie Lawler and tough Scott Smith, EliteXC overall has to be very happy with how the event came off. The presentation was highly professional all night, and the announcing was superb. There was no question that Gus Johnson and Mauro Ranallo are solid pros, and Frank Shamrock is obviously a well spoken and experienced expert commentator but the three ‘meshed’ together exceptionally well. The emphasis from the start was on selling the sport of MMA, with the promotion taking a secondary role. This was done via nicely produced and informative instructional videos, which would be helpful to a first time MMA viewer but didn’t come off as sophomoric to the seasoned aficionado. Given the often unpredictable nature of the sport, EliteXC has to be pleased with how everything came off and the results of the fights on the card.
In the semifinal, Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith were on their way to a ‘fight of the year’ candidate when an inadvertent poke to Smith’s eye resulted in a doctor stoppage and a ‘no contest’ decision. To the observer outside of the cage, it appeared that Smith wasn’t badly hurt and that he’d have been able to continue following his allotted five minute recovery period. According to the attending physician, however, Smith indicated twice that he couldn’t see from the injured eye. Smith countered that he’d said that he couldn’t see at the moment but to ‘give (him) five minutes’. The inconclusive decision was unpopular not only with the principals, but the fans as well. EliteXC President Gary Shaw immediately indicated that a rematch would be forthcoming and that both Lawler and Smith would receive the ‘winner’s bonus’ due to the heart and toughness they demonstrated.
Until the premature stoppage, the middleweight title bout was unfolding to be a classic slugfest. Both fighters scored effectively with combinations, with Lawler’s southpaw stance and solid boxing background holding a slight edge. Smith countered with some nice combinations of power punches, aided by an impressive array of kicks. With the two fighters very likely splitting the two rounds that were completed, there’s no doubt whatsoever that a rematch is appropriate and will be a must see for fight fans.
In the evening’s other events, part time ‘American Gladiator’ Gina Carano looked off of her game somewhat but used her superior power to overwhelm Kaitlin Young. Carano failed to make weight for the bout, though Young agreed to fight anyway and receive a ‘bonus’ of 12.5% of Carano’s purse. Obviously the strength that Carano had put on for her role on ‘Gladiators’ was a deciding factor as she was able to take Young down with ease and overwhelm her in the clinch. Young was able to hang tough for two rounds until an apparently broken nose resulted in the ringside physician stopping the fight before the start of round 3. With Carano second only to Slice in media attention among EliteXC fighters, this was also a result that the promotion has to be happy with.
The two opening bouts of the telecast were short, action packed slugfests. A superior boxing game enabled Joe Villasenor to knock out Phil Baroni early in the first round, and in the curtain jerker a newly shorn Jon Murphy was on the receiving end of a Chuck Liddell-esque looping right hand from Bret Rogers that left him on the wrong end of a TKO loss.
Overall, it was a professionally produced and entertaining night of action. With the exception of the disappointing ‘no contest’ in the semifinal and the less than decisive victory by Kimbo in the main event, it couldn’t have gone better for EliteXC had it been scripted. The end result is that both of their ‘marquee names’ among the general public—Slice and Carano—remained undefeated. The Lawler/Smith rematch will be a highly anticipated contest, Joe Villasenor has more upside for the promotion at this point in his career than Baroni and the powerful but raw Rogers is a made-to-order future opponent for Kimbo Slice.
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