Thought on EliteXC: Unfinished Business

Yeah, I'm really late in talking about EliteXC: Unfinished Business, but that doesn't change the fact that the show was embarrassing from top to bottom.

Cyborg vs Baszler started out as a good fight. Baszler had some solid submission attempts in round 1 and controlled the round. Then, Cyborg started hitting Baszler in round 2, and Cyborg completely and totally dominated the stand-up. That's where things turned embarrassing. Cyborg dropped Baszler, Mazigatti (probably, not spelled right) half steps in, Cyborg thinks Mazigatti's stopping the fight because Baszler's fucked, Cyborg starts celebrating, Cyborg jumps on the cage, and Mazigatti instead of stopping the fight channels his best Shang Tsung starts telling Cyborg to finish her.

Guess what happens? Cyborg comes down off the cage and beats the tar out of Baszler who's covering up & not fighting back for about a minute and then finally KO's Baszler. Then, we have the post fight interview with the victorious Cyborg to talk about the strange end of the fight, right? Wrong, the post fight interview is an interview with Gina Carano who EliteXC constantly reminds us is the face/future of women's MMA.

After that, EliteXC trotted out 2 fights that were completely and totally unbalanced. Jack Shields walks through Nick Thompson, and then Thomas Denny shows that even if everything goes his way, he can only make it to the second round against Nick Diaz. Yeah, neither of these fights were remotely competitive. Shields vs Thompson was a legit fight, but what the hell was Thomas "Overwhelmed" Denny doing in the cage against Nick Diaz?

Then, before the main event. EliteXC shows highlights of the heavyweight championship fight that took place before the telecast. EliteXC effectively made its heavyweight championship a preliminary fight. Who decided to make a championship fight that features the highest paid fighter on the card a preliminary fight?

My final beef with the event is the unlistenable commentary. I've no beef with Gus Johnson, but Shamrock and the idiot that is "the voice of EliteXC" are painful to listen to. Here's the play-by-play commentary you get from "the voice of EliteXC," 'DOUBLES UP THE JAB!, TRIPLES IT UP!" All this guy does is yell that over and over and over. He's bad enough that I miss Mike Goldburg.

Other examples of great commentary:

"The women wish this fight was just as long as the men's" [10 seconds later] "Baszler's completely gassed"

"Some people refer to Denny as the Crash Davis because he's a career minor league fighter" So, this fight features a career minor leaguer versus a Diaz, why the hell should I be watching it?

"During the replay, you can really see Gina Carano jumping up and down and getting into it. Can we mention Carano a few more times?"