Official Elite XC/WEC pick'em picks

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Charles @ Jun 1 2008, 10:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't know squat about MMA, but I've been watching for a little while and find it entertaining. The thing that stood out the most to me was how disgusting Thompson's ear was. The other fight shouldn't have been stopped, though (the eye poking incident).

I don't understand why CBS only showed two fights that lasted a total of two minutes combined in the entire first hour. Why not just put on a fight from the undercard or something?</div>

it was a live event and trust me, none of the undercard was worth putting on TV.

 

Faber vs Pulver was an awesome, awesome fight. I thought Faber had it there in the 2nd or 3rd (I forget) but man Pulver showed some real heart by coming back from that flurry. Whos next for Faber? hasnt he destroyed the 145 division in the WEC already? well I guess he didnt really destroy Pulver so there might be a rematch there.

 

just got caught up on the WEC event, I'll post my thoughts later, gotta get ready for work, just thought I'd post this drama from the Elite XC post-fight conference!

Robbie Lawler and NY Bad ass as the voices of reason LOL

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Oh I forgot... Nick Serra was on the undercard and ofcorse Matt Serra had to corner him. Matt was the loudest person in the arena, go figure. So I started yelling "TOE STOMPS NICKIE, TOE STOMPS!" because Matt suprisingly wasn't.
Nick got his ass beat by leg kicks and couldn't stand up to fight the other guy so the other guy won.

 

So here's my thought on the two events from the weekend.

first Elite XC;

not a bad show for a first network debut, but definitely could have been better.
-Murphy vs Rogers was a banger, as expected a good fight to start the show.
-Phil Barnoi is a dinosaur who really hasn't improved the diversity of his game, especially cardio, and is nothing more than what wrestling would call 'a jobber' He can win some fights with his hands but his best days are behind him and any solid true MMA fighter with some experience will beat him, thus Joey Villasenior beat him rather easily.
-The ladies pretty much stole the show and put on a good fight. Imagine what could have happened had Gina had time to properly train for this fight!?!
-Smith vs Lawler was the fight of the night up until the eye-poke stoppage. It was back and forth, both guys giving and taking some solid shots. Lawler used to be wreckless and balls out and it cost him some wins because he let himself oppen. From the way he layed off of Smith in the 1st, it looks like he doesn't quite have the balance between patient and finishing someone who was in real trouble. I kept thinking back to Smith's fight in the UFC with Pete Sell were he looked rocked but was kinda faking it and dropped Sell with a bomb, I think Lawler was aware of that and was too cautious. Smith recovered well and both guys put on a show. The stoppage was premature as Smith should have been given the full 5 minutes to decide if his eye was alright or not. Not the way to sell the sport to the mainstream audience IMO. This also should have been the headline show. Go ahead and promote Kimbo, but a title fight should have been the last fight.
- Kimbo got a gift. He should have lost the fight and props to an improving James Thompson who showed he has progressed as an MMA fighter. Why he entered the ring with a filled cauliflower ear is beyond me, but perhaps an explanation is coming. Kimbo was in deep trouble in the 2nd and if it had been Herb Dean the fight would have bene over. IMO it was a close call as Thompson's blows didn't appear to be doing that much damage, but fights have been stopped for lesser blows from a dominant position. The stoppage in the 3rd was nothing short of abusrd. Thompson should have been able to absord blows until his hands premanently dropped or he dropped, neither happened and the fight should have continued. Thompson had already taken some big blows earlier in the fight and gotten a hold of a leg and recoverd, so why stop it now? DEFINITELY not the way to end their first televised show.

All in all a good night of fights marred by controversy on the last 2 fights.
Gus Johnson did a good job, Maruo Renallo looked like a huge geek at the beginning of the show and very nervous, as did Frank, but once the fights began both were very good.
The dancers looked like local peelers who practiced dance moves a 1/2 hour before the show. Busta Rhymes coming out.. lame. The entrances felt disorganized and only Baroni did anything of interest, but having two peelers strip him down.. not good for CBS IMO.

the production felt amateurish, especially considering it was CBS it can only go up from here.
I do like that they addressed some of the common terminology for new viewers so they wouldn't be totally lost.

As per usualy, when it's free you have to wait and wait and wait. Since it didn't cost me $45, I won't complain too much but 2 2 min fights in the span of an hour?!?! throw in something guys come on!
I am so glad I taped it and was able to FF through most of the junk... but I do that for most free MMA


As for the WEC card;
good production as always, it doesn't feel as crisp as the UFC but it's solid and not a lot of wasted time so props to the WEC who could give notes to CBS and the UFC on how to keep things moving along

-Razor Rob fought to not lose rather than to win, he effectively handled the take down attempts but stll wouldn't strike aggressively and try to win. Instead he settled in and counter struck and never really forced the action. It was a Tim Sylvia style fight and I abore those types of fights. Ppl who argue for this calling it a technical fight are clinically insane IMO.

- Mark Munoz and Chuck Grisby both looked tenative and neither looked skilled enough to be on the televised bout IMO. I don't think Munoz threw a single punch standing up, it was sad to see such a lack of rounded out MMA game. Grisby looked good early and then lost on the ground, it looked like he gave up.
not a very good fight IMO, it was sloppy and sub-standard.

- Cowboy Cerrone on the other hand, looked like an MMA fighter and put on a good fight. Why this fight wasn't scheduled to be televised is beyond me. Good quick fight good show of Jits.

- Torres and Maeda put on a great fight! I enjoyed the Faber vs Pulver fight more, but this was right beside it IMO Torres was a flurry of activity early but to me it looked sloppy, he was kinda throwing everything and the kitchen sink. Once he calmed down his technique looked much better and he picked apart Maeda. Both guys showed great all around skill and a rematch downt he road could only be considered awesome!

- Pulver vs Faber - WOW what a match up. I can't believe how fast Faber looked vs Pulver, he was constantly beating him to the punch. Part of it may have been Pulver's concern with the takedown, but he did a great job stuffing and handling Faber's takedowns. I don't think Faber was ever in trouble, but Pulver took some shots and kept on coming. I wouldn't say Faber's not a hard puncher, just that Pulver is A: really that tough and B: taken shots from bigger guys at bigger weight classes. I am glad that I'm wrong about Pulver, he is NOT a dinosaur who didn't adapt to today's MMA. He's not as great as he once was but he showed a lot of diversity in this fight and I'm still a fan of his.

Faber has run over everyone in North America at 145 save for Jens, so there has to be rematch unless the UFC can somehow get Kid Yamamoto to fight in the WEC or heck move it to a UFC card as a 1 time deal, that would be so sweet.

IMO Elite XC had 1 great fight (Smith vs Lawler) and 4 good fights, just with 2 bad results and WEC had 2 great fights, they threw in a good fight and had 2 mediocre fights.

I enjoyed both cards, but the Elite XC left a sour taste in my mouth.

 

I forgot to ask.. did anyone else have goosebumps just before the bell rang for the first round of the Pulver/Faber match?!?!

wow I was excited for that!

Also I forgot to add.. who the hell gave Faber a 10-8 round?!?!? I for sure thought Faber won every round, but did he absolutely dominate a round where Pulver did nothing?? NO absolutely not.

 

Alright boys and girls here's the official Pick'em results for the weekends events.
Since the Lawler/Smith fight was considered a NC, everyone gets 0 points and it's scratched from the W/L tally. I also didn't give out bonus points for anyone who got the other 4 fights correct so no one earned a bonus for Elite XC's fights and because Jeff Curran layed an egg, no one got bonus points for the WEC fights either.

a big Welcome to Gohti who stepped in the league as a rook and held his own! (here's hoping more ppl sign up and have a go at next weekends UFC 85!)

Best record for the weekend goes to myself as I managed to pull a rabbit out of my hat and go 8-1 and score 27 pts on a tough weekend for earning points.
Big Frame bounced back from a rough UFC 84 to finish second.

EVERYONE and I mean everyone had Kimbo with a 1st round KO thus earning 4 points for their prediction.. guess it won't be so easy to call his fights any more though

onto the results.
Name pts W/L
1. Celtic Fan 27 8-1
2. Big Frame 21 6-3
3. Speeds 20 7-2
4. ZAE 18 5-4
5. Trench 17 4-5
6. Ghoti 14 6-3
7. Celtic King 12 4-5
8. Black Mamba 11 5-4
9. Chocolove 10 5-4

as always double check your results as I can make mistakes.

 

Good job to everyone, and you almost were perfect Celtic Fan. Great job bro.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing @ Jun 2 2008, 11:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Good job to everyone, and you almost were perfect Celtic Fan. Great job bro. </div>
yeah I've been doing well the last few pick'ems.. Speeds raced way ahead of everyone but it's tough to stay there.

we got some good positional battles going on as well.

I may do the league in seasons and as we get more ppl joining we'll start a new season so everyone has a shot to be on top

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>-Smith vs Lawler was the fight of the night up until the eye-poke stoppage. It was back and forth, both guys giving and taking some solid shots. Lawler used to be wreckless and balls out and it cost him some wins because he let himself oppen. From the way he layed off of Smith in the 1st, it looks like he doesn't quite have the balance between patient and finishing someone who was in real trouble. I kept thinking back to Smith's fight in the UFC with Pete Sell were he looked rocked but was kinda faking it and dropped Sell with a bomb, I think Lawler was aware of that and was too cautious. Smith recovered well and both guys put on a show. The stoppage was premature as Smith should have been given the full 5 minutes to decide if his eye was alright or not. Not the way to sell the sport to the mainstream audience IMO. This also should have been the headline show. Go ahead and promote Kimbo, but a title fight should have been the last fight.</div>

If this were a PPV event I would definitely agree, but since there is an obligation to CBS to retain as many viewers as possible, the biggest attraction has to be the final fight.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (speeds @ Jun 2 2008, 02:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Celtic Fan @ Jun 2 2008, 12:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing @ Jun 2 2008, 11:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Good job to everyone, and you almost were perfect Celtic Fan. Great job bro. </div>
yeah I've been doing well the last few pick'ems.. Speeds raced way ahead of everyone but it's tough to stay there.

we got some good positional battles going on as well.

I may do the league in seasons and as we get more ppl joining we'll start a new season so everyone has a shot to be on top
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Saturday night is pretty soon, so enjoy your lead while it lasts!
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BRING IT ON, COME ON!!! <--- said in my best Steve Massigatti voice

 

I liked Big John McCarthy's start the best. It was strange not having him around, but now its fine.