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A lot of things were learned about Elite XC when they debuted on CBS this past Saturday night, headlined by a heavyweight bout between Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson took on James Thompson. This show had a mix of it all, knockouts, bloody brawls, controversial stoppages, potential future fights and the prove that MMA does exist outside of the UFC.

 

First off, Brett “The Grim” Rogers went from a random heavyweight fighter thrown into the opening televised fight to a future main event fighter. That move didn’t actually occur during the live broadcast of the event, but during the post event press conference. During the aforementioned press conference, Brett Rogers called out Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson with the following statements, "I seen some [expletive] today, I seen some [expletive], some garbage-ass [expletive]. I'm a heavyweight, and I feel I'm a true heavyweight. (James) Thompson? Much respect. But I'm saying it like this. Kimbo Slice, man, that was just garbage, man."

 

That statement lead to a near physical confrontation between Brett Rogers, Kevin Ferguson and the entourage of Kevin Ferguson. The situation between Kevin Ferguson and Brett Rogers, whether it’s a shoot or not, can lead to a major fight that Elite XC and CBS can capitalize on.

 

Joe Villasenor put himself in a very interesting position in the Elite XC Middleweight Division when he decisively knocked out Phil Baroni in the opening round of their fight. Phil Baroni came out looking like a star and Joe Villasenor came out looking ready to fight and in this situation, the fighter left looking like a star after the fight concluded.

 

Joe Villasenor now has to wait for the definitely upcoming rematch between Elite XC Middleweight Champion Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith to conclude before getting his title opportunity, but the big knockout of Phil Baroni made Joe Villasenor the next top contender.

 

The ladies easily stole the show, just like in the first ever Elite XC event, when American Gladiators very own Gina Carano defeated Kaitlin Young. This was a very intriguing fight because Gina Carano stated multiple times that she only trained for the fight for only three weeks, right after her American Gladiators tapings were completed. Gina Carano even came into the fight against Kaitlin Young four pounds over weight at 144 pounds, the agreed upon weight was 140 pounds.

 

Despite all of this, Gina Carano and to a lesser extent, Kaitlin Young, came out of this fight looking like the women’s MMA stars they should be. Gina Carano looks like an fitness model as much as a fighter, something she even addressed in a pre-fight interview, but that combined with her fighting ability makes her appeal to the masses of MMA fans. Gina Carano is an ever improving fighter and if Elite XC decides to make a women’s title and put on an all women’s MMA event, then they already have the poster woman for that portion of the promotion.

 

One of the two biggest controversies of the night took place during the Elite XC Middleweight Title fight between champion Robbie Lawler and challenger Scott Smith. This fight was the Elite XC equivalent of the Forrest Griffin/Stephan Bonnar fight from the UFC Ultimate Fighter Finale. I stress the term “was” for one simple reason, because the potential classic fight was ended early by the New Jersey State Athletic Commission after Scott Smith was accidentally poked in the eye by Robbie Lawler.

 

During the five minute recovery period given by the fight referee, Scott Smith admitted that he couldn’t see out of the poked eye, but still wanted to use the full five minutes to recover. After hearing this and performing a health check on the injured eye, the fight doctor told the referee the fight should not continue and the fight was stopped, despite the protest of Scott Smith. Obviously, the fighters, Elite XC President Gary Shaw and the fight fans were ticked off about what had occurred and chants of “bullsh*t” were echoed throughout the arena.

 

Elite XC President quickly tried to make some sort of amends with all involved by giving both Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith their fight salary and bonuses, but also said post fight that they were already working on the rematch, which is rumored to be taken place at the next Elite XC on CBS event in July. As bad as the fight ended, it could end up being the best thing that could’ve happened for all involved because the interest that could be built up over the next few weeks or months could make the next Elite XC on CBS event could be made bigger than the debut event.

 

When I watched Pardon The Interruption and Around The Horn on ESPN the Friday before Elite XC on CBS, all of the sports writers and panelist discussed about the Elite XC event was Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson. Forget the Elite XC Middleweight Title fight or the women’s fight, all the media hype was about the internet sensation with only two professional fights, Kevin Ferguson. Now I don’t deny that Elite XC and CBS were smart enough to realize who the most popular fighter would be and push him as so, but did it backfire on everyone involved in the end?

 

Kevin Ferguson was billed as a street fighter who could knockout any fighter put in front of him, but that didn’t happen on Saturday night. Instead of getting a street fight type of battle or a fast knockout, we got three rounds of some striking mixed with a lot of ground work. Now I’m not a hater of the ground and pound style of fighting, but when your advertised street fighter couldn’t get passed a weak ground fighter like James Thompson, it shows a chink in the once invincible armor.

 

Then to make matters even worse, there looked to be an phantom tap out by Kevin Ferguson while he was being elbowed in the head by James Thompson. The phantom tap out was pointed out by the previously mentioned Brett Rogers and then the MMA community pounced on it shortly thereafter. The ending of the fight even sparked a controversy on its own after a series of punches by Kevin Ferguson caused the cauliflowered ear of James Thompson to be ripped open and the blood flowed on and the skin started flapping like cheese coming off a slice of pizza. Shortly after the blood started to flow, the referee stopped the fight and in the opinion of some folks, saved the undefeated record of Kevin Ferguson.

 

Either way you look at it, the headlining status of Kevin Ferguson has, at this point in time anyway, has been pulled out from underneath him after his lackluster performance. This could effectively kill the drawing power of Kevin Ferguson in Elite XC, unless they put him in a fight with a top ranked Elite XC heavyweight like Antonio Silva, Brett Rogers, Ken Shamrock (whom was the originally rumored opponent of Kevin Ferguson for the event) or the winner of the Ron Waterman/Dave Herman fight on the next Elite XC card.

 

In their first event on CBS, Elite XC had some positives like the rise of Brett Rogers, Joe Villasenor and women’s MMA with Gina Carano as its face, plus they have a ready main event for the next CBS event in Robbie Lawler versus Scott Smith. The negatives are few but very important, such as the fall of Kevin Ferguson and the actions of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission. Overall, Elite XC had a good night with very solid fights with very few negatives that overshadowed the positives.