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By Wade Keller, Torch editor ELITE XC: DYNAMITE USA
JUNE 2, 2007
LOS ANGELES, CALIF.
LIVE ON SHOWTIME & PPV
SHOWTIME (FIRST TELEVISED HOUR)
Mauro Ranallo introduced the event. They cut to the arena live with a respectable crowd, but barely, and female dancers at ringside. The graphic previewed the two scheduled fights, plus a promise of highlights of a prelim fight. Ranallo was joined by Bill Goldberg and Jay Glazer for analysis. Glazer said Jake Shields trained under Chuck Liddell. He said he's probably a top five welterweight. He said Chuck called him one of the most vicious vegetarians he's ever seen. (As a vegan myself, it's nice to see an MMA fighter prove how one can thrive without a meat-based diet.)
Elite XC Rules: Three judges score fights based equally on (1) striking, (2) grappling, (3) effective aggression, (4) ring control on a 10-point must system. Also, no elbows or forearms to the head, no knees to the head of a downed opponents, and a referee or doctor can stop the fight.
1 -- JONATHAN WIEZOREK (28, 6-3, 265 - 10-1, Springfield, Ill.) vs. TIM PERSEY (28, 6-0, 265 - 10-1, Irvine, Calif.)
ROUND ONE: Jimmy Lennon Jr. handled ring introductions. A familiar UFC face, Herb Dean, was the referee. Persey KO'd his last three opponents. The fighters shook hands and wished each other luck after ref instructions. The opening minute was like a sumo match with both hugging and pushing for leverage. Dean threatened to separate them. At 2:00 he did just that. Embarrassingly bad opening stalemate. They went right back to the hug. The announcers criticized Wiezorek for not having a training team. Dean separated them again at 2:40 after they exchanged knees toward the groin. Persey landed one. Persey quickly dropped Wiezorek with a punch. Persey went into the guard, but Persey landed several powerful punches. Wiezorek went for a kimura and then a straight armlock. Persey looked to be in trouble, but he relaxed, then powered up to his feet. Wiezorek took Persey down and threw some punches to close out the round. Tough to score that round, especially because neither deserved the must-10 points. Sloppy and amateurish looking compared to what UFC viewers are used to.
ROUND TWO: Wiezorek took Persey down and gave up his back. Persey pounded away at him for 15 seconds as the ref warned Persey to show some life. He didn't, so Dean called the fight. The announcers wondered if the groin shot may have still been affecting Persey.
RESULT: Wiezorek via stoppage at 0:51 of the second round.
STAR RATING: (*-) -- We have a one-star-must system here at MMATorch when grading fights, and this didn't earn a full star, so I'm adding a minus. The armbar attempt was decent, but otherwise this would have been booed out of the arena by a savvy UFC crowd. Sloppy and amateurish looking. Bad match-making to put two sloppy fighters out there to start this event on Showtime. They looked physically sloppy and fought sloppy.
-Glazer interviewed Gina Carano at ringside about having pull out of the show due to an illness picked up in Thailand. He then turned to Charles "Crazy Horse" Bennett. He wasn't the type of fighter, given his slurred speech and nonchalant demeanor, to interview if they want to deflect a bad stereotype of fighters. Glazer then interviewed Phil Baroni about his headline match June 22 against Frank Shamrock. He complained about him no-showing the press conference. "You're about to get sent back to the seminar circuit, bitch," he concluded.
RAMIFICATIONS: Neither looked impressive.
-They plugged the Dynamite USA PPV and then the June 22 Elite XC PPV headlined by Shamrock vs. Baroni. They also plugged two upcoming Showtime boxing events. Then they aired a clip of a prelim fight.
2 -- JAKE SHIELDS (28, 5-11, 170, San Francisco - 17-4-1) vs. IDO PARIENTE (29, 5-8, 168, Israel)
ROUND ONE: Referee: Steve Mazzagatti. Ranallo reiterated that Shields is considered by many to be a top ten welterweight in the world. We at MMATorch have him ranked at no. 10 currently (see the Rankings category on the left menu bar. Between Sheilds coming out to The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" and being a vegetarian, he's winning favor with me in two areas here. Sheilds got Pariente down and controlled him in the opening minute. Pariente gave him his back at 1:30. Sheilds applied a rear naked choke. Pariente tapped.
RESULT: Sheilds at 2:06 via tapout.
STAR RATING (*): Not much to it, as Pariente didn't put up much of a fight.
RAMIFICATIONS: Tough to tell how good Sheilds is from this fight because Pariente was debuting for EliteXC and didn't test him at all. But Sheilds did what he should have and did it quickly and well.
-Glazier interviewed Shields who said he wanted to show the world he's no. 1. He said he wants tough competition and a title shot.
-After segment on the EliteXC ring girls contest and plugs for upcoming Showtime events, they went off the air ten minutes before the top of the hour.
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(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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