The Ultimate eXperience 06.16.08: EliteXC Positives, UFC 87 and More

Posted by Ryan Seymour on 06.16.2008

This week I look at the positives coming from EliteXC from ratings to stars etc. Also I look at how good the UFC 87 card is shaping up and more.



Welcome to another addition of The Ultimate eXperience, I'm Ryan Seymour and without further ado, enjoy.

Lightweights Frankie Edgar and Hermes Franca will go toe-to-toe as expected, as well as heavyweights Cheick Kongo and Dan Evensen. In addition, Chris Wilson will tangle with Steve Bruno in a solid welterweight scrap.

The battle between The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 6 170-pound contestants – Ben Saunders and Jared Rollins — has also been scratched from UFC 86 and will now take place at UFC 87.

*This card is looking great. After UFC 85 was one of the worst cards of the year, I like how UFC 86 and 87 are now looking. Hermes Franca will be interesting to see back after his steroid use, he will have a tough opponent in Frankie Edgar. The other three bouts that have been made official will be preliminary bouts but should still be interesting to see who wins. Three bouts that are defiantly going to be on the main card of UFC 87 are Lesnar/Herring, Fitch/GSP and Huerta/Florian. Great card full of all different weight classes and of course the three bouts I just mentioned will really shape up there respective weight classes.

The final episode of TUF 7 will have the most shocking twist in TUF history. The episode is 90 minutes and it airs on Spike TV on Wednesday, June 18 at 10 p.m. ET.

*This most certainly judging by the last episode of TUF, looks like Jesse will be the one who is kicked of the show. The video shows someone knocking the window of a limo out, from the inside! If it is Jesse I think they will have the loser of C.B. Dollaway and Amir Sadollah face of against Tim Credeur. It will defiantly be a must watch episode and I certainly wouldn't be surprised if it is the highest ranked episode of TUF 7.

ELITEXC POSITIVES

On 5/31 EliteXC held an event called EliteXC: Primetime which was broadcasted on CBS in a prime time slot. The event was headlined by Kimbo Slice against James Thompson but also had a middleweight championship bout between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith on the card. Some people judge this event of being lackluster because it had controversial finishes and lackluster fighters, I would have to totally disagree with them. Several things from the show made it a legitimate mainstream MMA promotion.

During the event two fights finished controversially, the fights were Lawler/Smith and Slice/Thompson. Firstly Robbie Lawler against Scott Smith, this fight was a title fight and was an insane fight. The three rounds of this fight we got to see were absolutely incredible to watch and showed a new MMA audience what MMA is all about. The fight had to be stopped in the third round because of an accidental poke to the eye on Scott Smith. Gary Shaw the EliteXC president would of loved when the fight had to be stopped as both fighters will need to have a rematch in the not to distant future and this will allow EliteXC to have a replica of Lawler and Smith's great performance.

Now we go to the main event of the show when ‘The Internet Sensation' Kimbo Slice faced of against former PRIDE fighter James ‘The Colossus' Thompson. There were a few controversial parts to the fight as people are saying Kimbo tapped in the first round when Thompson had him in a guillotine choke. Also people questioned the referee's decision to stop the fight and thought it was stopped prematurely. Gary Shaw wouldn't of minded all the controversy as it makes people watch Kimbo Slice's next fight in EliteXC to see if he will get beaten or ‘the referees will stop it early'.

On 6/14, EliteXC had its follow up to its biggest event ever. This event which was entitled ‘The Return of The King' had less big names then ‘Primetime' but was able to still put on a good performance. Nick Diaz was just able to finish of Corbbrey in three rounds which was a surprise to many as they thought Diaz would be able to defeat Corbbrey in the first round. Dave ‘Pee Wee' Herman was able to make it 12 wins from 12 fights as he defeated veteran Ron Waterman and also Herman is yet to go to the judges in his short MMA career.

UFC 75 was the most watched mixed martial arts event ever in North America, drawing 4.7 million viewers; that was before EliteXC came along. EliteXC: Primetime drew 6.51 million viewers in the last half hour of the show. The most watched MMA event in North America, I think that proves it is at least a legitimate mainstream MMA promotion.

EliteXC has only had 16 events and has been able to get six million viewers at one particular time which the UFC hasn't been able to do with over a hundred events (including TUF Finales, Fight Nights etc)

EliteXC has been able to build its stars from scratch and make them into big names. Kimbo Slice wasn't as well known as he is now, people knew him from you tube but he has been able to grab a big bunch of fans from his fights with EliteXC. KJ Noons is another fighter who was relatively unknown before EliteXC came along, Noons was able to shock the world with a 1st round victory over Nick Diaz. With that victory Noons was given the EliteXC lightweight title. KJ Nooons faced of against Yves Edwards the other night and many (including myself) picked Edwards to take the win here. That was far from the truth as Noons was able to show his dominance once again and defeat Edwards in the first minute of the fight. Even on 5/31 with EliteXC: Primetime, Gina Carano was able to win and she is not just a female fighter which most big organizations don't have but she is the most popular and well known women mixed martial artist in the world. Something insane is that on May 13 Gina Carano was the most searched person on google and the third most searched person on yahoo.

PREDICTIONS

From DREAM.4 I was able to only get five right, not too impressive. The fights I correctly picked were

Shinya Aoki
Alistair Overeem
Ralek Gracie
Hideo Tokoro
Gegard Mousasi