Big weekend for MMA

It was an MMA packed weekend. Saturday we had the EliteXC debut on CBS and Sunday WEC held it's biggest event ever in Sacramento.

EliteXC: Primtime
The whole point of this show for those who want to see MMA succeed and press forward was to put on a good show that the casual fan can relate to. So did CBS and EliteXC pull it off? No.

The fight that mattered was the Kimbo fight. The best thing that could have happened to get the casual fan hooked was a semi-quick KO or TKO by Kimbo. That is far from what actually happened.

In the first round, everyone who watched, saw what appeared to be Kimbo tapping. This was not unbelievable under the circumstances, Thompson had a front standing guillotine locked in relatively tight. I honestly thought he tapped. Luckily, on a second look he does appear to be giving a thumbs up to the official.

Now, regardless of the fact that the fight was not great, it was not a disaster. Kimbo did win and did win by TKO.

The mainstream media, particularly ESPN, have been all over this historic event. It is somewhat painful to listen to uneducated, non-fans thoughts of the event but it is something that is clearly expected.

This is why only Barry Melrose talks about hockey, no one else knows shit about it on ESPN. So unless you are an authority on the subject, preface your comments with a statement explaining that you are nothing of the sort.

WEC 35: Faber vs Pulver
Now for the more hardcore MMA fans this was the event of the weekend. We knew that going in. I thought that this would not go to a decision the same way both fighters did. That ended up not being the case either.

Both Faber and Pulver put on a great 5 round show. Faber clearly came out on top. As a fanof BH Penn and Joe Lauzon I was a bit biased towards Faber since he has been training with them recently. At the same time, Pulver is a great comeback story and it would have been great for him if he could have pulled this one out.

The fight of the night was the other "co-main event" (whatever that means) Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda. The fight ended on a doctor stoppage on the count that Maeda's eye was so swollen that I could not even see the eyeball one bit. This was a war. Not the technical battle that it could have been on the ground if both warriors had wanted to go that route but rather a stand-up slobber knocker that showed the disdain they had for each other. Entertaining to say the least.

Conclusion
The ratings for EliteXC are starting to come in and they look pretty good, especially for the most important 18-34 demo. I've heard the XFL-experiment mentioned in the context of having a big opening weekend and then absolutely falling apart from there. That is an awful comparison because the XFL was not a special event it was a weekly and bi-weekly broadcast. On the other hand, EliteXC will be a quarterly thing with the next event being in the Fall. So, for EliteXC and CBS the wheels have not completely fallen off the carriage just yet.