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?"

July Free MMA

July is a fantastic month for budget mma fans.

The main card for UFC Silva vs Irvin has been finalized. It'll feature 6 fights (including the main event). Its the 2nd best free MMA card ever (UFC 75: Champion vs Champion is the best free MMA card ever. Main Event: Jackson vs Henderson & main card fights included: Alexander vs Sakara and Congo vs Cro Crop).

Here's the UFC Silva vs Irvin main card:
Silva vs Irvin - Anderson Silva's fights are always worth watching. And, James Irvin's pretty good too.
Vera vs Andy - Vera finally fights at light heavyweight.
Franca vs Edgar - 2 top tier lightweights
Velasquez vs O'Brien - A highly touted heavyweight making his UFC main card debut (unfortunatly, O'Brien's an "I won't pay to watch" fighter, but its a free event).
Johnson vs Burns
Taylor vs Dollaway

Thank you Affliction for deciding to put on Affliction: Banned, and thank you UFC for trying to kill Affliction: Banned by putting on a free event.

The week after that, we get EliteXC: Unfinished Business on CBS which will feature a solid 4 fight main card.
Lawler vs Smith - Does this count as a rematch since the first fight ended in a "No contest"?
Shields vs Tompson
Denny vs Diaz
Baszler vs Cyborg
I'll buy that card for $0.

Additionally, the UFC folks are "nice" enough to provide counter programing once again (http://www.cagepotato.com/page/2/). The UFC's counter-programing isn't nearly as good this time around, but its still solid. The UFC will rebroadcast UFC Silva vs Irvin & UFC 84 on Spike that night. If you didn't buy UFC 84, its definitely worth DVR'ing (as long as your DVR allows you to record 2 shows at once so you don't miss the live event.

We get all of this for free in addition to the regular free MMA, IFL & Strikeforce's weekly shows.

Here's to Affliction, EliteXC, UFC, IFL, and Strikeforce for making July arguably the greatest month of free MMA ever.

July Dream Card

What's your dream card based on the guys fighting this week?

Take the fighters competing this month in any of the 4 size able MMA events this month (UFC 86, Affliction: Banned, UFC Silva vs Irvin (aka Fuck Affliction), & Elite XC Unfinished Business), and put together a 5 fight card (1 main event and 4 main card fights). You have to keep the fighters at whatever weight they're fighting at this month.

My card:

Main Event: Quinton Jackson vs Anderson Silva

I was tempted to keep Jackson vs Griffin, but I can't pass on the chance to see Silva fight. For my money, Silva's the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world right now. Also, he's the one and only guy who's PPV's I'll definitely buy. It doesn't matter what the rest of the card is, I'm buying the event if Silva's in it (yes, this is hyperbole because I'm sure the UFC could come up with an event, I'd pass on, but you get the point).

Anyway, best light heavyweight in the world vs best pound-for-pound, oh yeah.

Main Card:

Fedor Emelianenko vs Josh Barnett

I want to see Emelianenko, and Barnett's the 2nd best heavyweight fighting this month (Emelianenko being the best).

Renato Sobral vs Forest Griffin

Is Griffin really as good as his last fight suggests? Also, both guys typical have very entertaining fights.

Brandon Vera vs Ben Rothwell

2 upcoming heavyweights. Both are highly regarded & a win in this one would be huge for their careers. And we get to find out how Rothwell does against better competition & whether or not Vera can get by in the heavyweight division or if he really needs to drop to light heavyweight.

Correction: Vera is finally dropping down to lightweight for his fight this month. While that's probably a good career move, it disqualifies him from fighting Rothwell. I'll change this one to Gabriel Gonzaga vs Ben Rothwell

Joe Stevenson vs Hermes Franca

2 very good lightweights coming off losses in title fights. Did Franca benefit from being a lightweight when the division wasn't very deep & had just been reformed?

Fights that just didn't make it:
Rothwell vs Gonzaga
Any combination of Stevenson, Griffin, Aurelio, Franca, & Edgar
Lytle vs Johnson