**Hit F5 during the commercial breaks to get my updated thoughts.**

Ladies and gentlemen, it is 9:00pm on May 31, and you know what that means.  It is time for the network debut of EliteXC.  Tonight, the most heavily-hyped fighter this side of Chuck Liddell will feast on MMA’s version of Glass Joe, and we’ll get to see what should be an exciting middleweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith.  That’s not to mention Gina Carano’s second network debut (under her real name, no less.)  So as the hour begins, let’s see how the coverage goes.

According to the voice-over, these ten fighters will lead MMA “out of the shadows”.  Maybe not really, but they’ll lead it into the mainstream.  As the feed starts from the Prudential arena, I’m highly disappointed that we haven’t gotten rid of the dancing girls.  That just made some viewers think MMA is bushleague. 

Gus Johnson starts us off, which means that mercifully we won’t hear Mauro Renallo say “Yo yo yo and here we go.”  (And by the way, Gus Johnson was an excellent choice to call the show.)  Renallo may actually work pretty well as a second man in the booth, and Frank Shamrock may be pretty decent as a color guy.  And how do you introduce Shamrock without a highlight package?  You don’t, that’s how.  So Frank gets a superstar intro.  Shamrock says that tonight features “deadly martial arts.”  Not sure how I feel about that.  Also not sure how I feel about Kimbo Slice actually being the headliner on MMA’s first network telecast.  But we’ll talk about that later.

We get another shot of the dancing girls, writhing independently of each other, and they shoot off some fireworks to lead us into the first commercial break.  I really can’t tell you how disappointed I am that the dancing girls made the show.  My excitement about EliteXC leading MMA into the mainstream is not currently at a peak.

The dancing girls continue to assault the senses as the commercial break ends, and we get a quick rundown of tonight’s card courtesy of the inimitable Johnson.  We’ll start out the show with Jon Murphy vs. Brett Rogers.

But before that, Frank Shamrock gives us a quick overview of what MMA is.  Excellent segment for beginners.  The way you keep people from being lost during the commentary is to explain the techniques and the terminology.  Shamrock demonstrates some techniques on a dummy, explains some terms, explains the rules, then tells how fights can end. He’s supported by highlights that show each kind of finish.  Absolutely spectacular.  Really well-put together. 

We get a pre-fight vignette from Jon Murphy and Brett Rogers.  Short and sweet, and it leads to a commercial.  I think the ideal length for pre-fight interviews is somewhere between this and what the UFC does.  I like the production so far, though. 

As the commercial ends, we get some more pre-fight hype.  You’ll notice that they haven’t mentioned the fact that Brett Rogers knocked out the other half of tonight’s main event in February.  I’m just sayin. 

As Rogers makes his way to the ring, he’s accompanied by Busta Rhymes.  I cannot express in words how opposed I am to having live rappers accompany fighters to the ring, but this is way better than anything I’ve seen before.  I still don’t like it, but it didn’t make me want to die.  One thing I like as well is that we’ve got an entrance ramp.  I think it’s nice to be able to see the fighter coming to the cage without having to look through the crowd.  It also gives the fighters a little larger-than-life feel.  What I’m seeing is that the fighters comes down the ramp first, then the entourage comes after the fighter reaches the cage.  Cool.

Jon Murphy gets some more pre-fight interview time and talks about how he cut his hair off (it was much longer previously) and donated it to Locks of Love.  Good vignette, and it’s nice to have the fighters humanized a little (in addition to the larger-than-life thing). 

Having seen both of these guys before, I’m going to take Murphy by TKO in round one.  That having been said, Rogers has some power and could end the fight as well.  Should be a good fight.

It’s nice here that we don’t get a commercial between the vignettes and the first round.  Commercials can be real momentum killers with a new product, so it’s important that they manage that well tonight.

ROGERS vs. MURPHY (Heavyweight)

Rogers ends this one midway through the first with a big right hand.  So that got things off to a quick start.  Murphy landed a couple of nice shots, but he got better than he gave. 

I didn’t write during the first fight, because I wanted to experience it, if you will.  I think the commentary was pretty good, but Renallo and Shamrock need to stop stepping on Gus Johnson (or Johnson needs to assert himself.)  I know Renallo is used to being the man in charge in the booth, but Johnson is the guy tonight, and he needs to be the one that people hear. 

Of course, as I say that, I see that Johnson is in the ring for a post-fight interview, so nevermind.  Post-fight interview was fine, but I think Rogers’ entourage was a little too close to the mic.  They were kind of annoying.

More dancing girls as we come back from the break, and I’m more annoyed every time I see them.  Why do we need them?

It looks like they’re going to follow the same pattern with the second fight of vignette-commercial-vignette-fight.  As long as it’s predictable, it should work.  The only thing I’m wary of at this point is that we’re almost 40 minutes in, and there’s been a little over a minute of fighting.

As Joe Villasenor makes his way to the cage, there’s one thing I don’t like about the entrances:  the lighting doesn’t seem right.  You’ve got the smoke from the pyro, and it also looks like they’re pumping some smoke onto the ramp as well.  Combined with the fact that the lights they’re using are blue, red and green instead of white, it looks a little amateurish.  I don’t like it. 

Baroni dances his way to the ring as always, and I think he may win this fight if he can keep it standing.  I’m not sure if he will, though.  It looks like he grabbed himself a little as the camera backs away from him.  Baroni’s entrance is fun, as he brings a couple of ladies down the ramp with him who then remove his robe and tear off his shirt. 

Mauro Renallo is doing a good job tonight of dropping names.  He’s mentioning guys in the UFC as part of Villasenor’s camp and mentioning Baroni’s history in the promotion.  That’s definitely the way to go about it – don’t shy away from name-dropping, and don’t act like your fighters are the only ones around.

So my pick for the fight…I think it’ll be Villasenor by submission in round 1.

BARONI vs. VILLASENOR (Middleweight)

There was a nice, if subtle, moment on commentary where Renallo and Shamrock were making small-talk about something and Villasenor connected with a big shot.  At that point, Johnson jumped back in with the play-by-play, which is what a commentator needs to do.  Had that been Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg, Rogan would have made the call about the shot, and then Goldberg would have followed up slowly.  So that was good commentary.  Of course, that shot was the beginning of the end for Baroni as Villasenor scores the TKO.  Baroni looks to take down the ref afterwards, validating the stoppage.  Gus Johnson comes in for the post-fight, and he’s doing a really nice job with those.

We get a teaser with Carano and Young shadowboxing the camera before the commercial break.  Good touch before the Carano fight.

More dancing girls again, and that leads into an actual live pre-fight interview.  Gina Carano talks about how she didn’t have as much time as she would have liked to prepare for the fight, perhaps trying to explain why she couldn’t make weight.  Seriously though, she was almost five pounds overweight.  That implies that you’re not even trying.  The interview leads into the short vignette, and they’re staying with the pattern.  If you’re not covering the fights, you know exactly when to channel-surf, which is good.

In the rest of the pre-fight vignette for Kaitlin Young, they’re making her look very tough, which is good because Carano is probably going to beat her.  That having been said, all the attention to Carano is probably making Young pretty angry, so that could mean something.  But my pick is Carano by TKO in round 2.  They don’t dance around Carano’s failure to make weight during her entrance, which is refreshing.  You know, I don’t think it’s asking too much for MMA to be covered like a sport and not a promotion.

CARANO vs. YOUNG (Women’s 140 lb. – otherwise known as Caranoweight)

Round one is tough to call…I’d give it to Carano by just a little.  Nice action, though.  Both fighters were landing some good, stiff shots.  In between rounds, we get a little taste of the telestrator, which is cool. 

Round two was all Carano, as she lit Young up many times and came very close to choking her out at the end of the round.  Carano is tired, and the doctor stops the fight after checking Young’s eye.  I’m not sure I agree with the stoppage, but it is what it is. 

During the post-fight, Johnson asked her straight-up about the failure to make weight, and she admitted that the filming of “American Gladiators” interfered with her training.  She also admitted that she needs to get back in the gym.  We’ll see. 

We go to a live interview with Kimbo Slice, and Slice is refreshingly soft-spoken, belying his “Internet Sensation” image.  I think that helps with his legitimacy if he doesn’t present himself like a thug, which is the image that his Internet fights contribute to.  Robbie Lawler shadowboxes, and that fight is coming up next.

Next segment features dancing girls-vignette-commercial.

This is actually the fight I’ve been looking forward to the most.  I think it’s a pretty clear-cut victory for Lawler (TKO in round 2), but it should be exciting and Smith definitely has knockout power.  I just don’t know if he can weather what Lawler is going to bring.  I’m a fan of Scott Smith though, and he always comes to fight. 

Renallo mentions Smith’s fight against Pete Sell in the UFC, and another good thing about mentioning the UFC is that it drives home that this is the same sport.  That’s still something that a lot of people probably aren’t clear on.  Johnson gives a brief history on Lawler, who really does have an interesting back story.  He started out in the welterweight division, but after some losses he regrouped and came back as a middleweight, taking ICON by storm and now reigning as champ in EliteXC. 

LAWLER vs. SMITH (Middleweight Title Fight)

Round one is all Lawler at the end as he destroys Smith’s body with multiple kicks that are spot-on.  Lawler would kick to the body and then attack the head; he may have broken Smith’s nose.  Smith got some offense in, but not enough.  He won’t last long in round two once Lawler pounces.

Round 2 ends, and boy was I wrong.  Lawler probably took that round, but not by much at all.  In fact, it may go to Smith by a hair.  But Smith showed a tremendous chin in that round and was able to attack very effectively from within the clinch.  Great round.  I can’t help but think that Lawler would have an advantage on the ground, though.

Lawler pulls a Chuck Liddell toward the end of round three and puts an accidental finger in the eye of Smith.  The similarity ends there, though, when Lawler backs off and Smith is allowed to recover. 

In a shocker, they’re going to stop the fight.  I’ve never seen a fight stopped because of a finger to the eye.  Smith is livid, and I can’t understand what would cause them to stop a fight if Smith says he’s okay.  Terrible speed bump for this show.  This was by far the fight of the night, and to have it stopped like this, amid chants of “Bullsh*t” by the crowd, is borderline tragic for the promotion.  On the other hand, if there’s a rematch on the next show, this is a way to build intrigue for those who watched this one.  Hopefully they’ll turn what could be a huge negative into a positive.  The nice thing here is that the result won’t be ignored, and we’re going to see why they called the fight (I assume.)

When we get back, Gus Johnson interviews a commission official as well as Gary Shaw and both fighters.  Smith says he did tell the doctor that he couldn’t see, but he knew he had five minutes and could have come back.  They called the fight because he said he couldn’t see.  I don’t really understand that, because if the fight was already in a timeout, and you can have five minutes to recover, what do they think you’re recovering from?  Of course you can’t see if you get a finger in the eye.  So I’m a bit confused by that, but that’s okay.  Shaw says that both fighters will be paid their win bonus, and that there will be a rematch.  Only fitting.  On an unrelated note, I’ve got to say I’m not sure why they did this event in Newark.  This crowd is awful.  They booed multiple times during that fight, and they could barely muster a lackluster ovation for the fighters after the fight was over.

We get the Kimbo Slice vignette, including YouTube clips.  I realize that they’re playing up the image, but I have a problem with promoting MMA using street fights.  Not that Gary Shaw cares what I have a problem with.  Also, Slice says, “Your mind and your heart and your balls have to be on one accord.”  I can think of no response.

We come back from the break, where James Thompson gets to say exactly one sentence in his pre-fight vignette.  That is what you call promoting one fighter over another. 

Renallo says that Thompson “maybe has a suspect chin.”  And maybe Gary Shaw a little overweight.  Okay, that was a low blow.  Sorry.  Thompson has perhaps the grossest cauliflower ear I’ve ever seen.  A question:  isn’t it time that we get rid of the “style” category in the tale of the tape?  These guys are mixed martial artists.  The category is especially useless when one fighter’s style is “Brawling”, and the other is “Freestyle.”  Oh – and another thing that has to go?  These “Kick Ass Kimbo” signs.  They’re stupid.  Kevin Ferguson makes his way to the ring (that’s Kimbo), and Bas Rutten is present, continuing to lend regular cred to the cred of the street variety that Kimbo possesses.  And to complete the trifecta of things that bother me, the extreme close-ups that EliteXC always does (which makes the ref especially uncomfortable) are annoying.

KEVIN “KIMBO SLICE” FERGUSON vs. JAMES “THE COLOSSUS” THOMPSON (Heavyweight)

In a surprising first round, Thompson came in with an outstanding gameplan of going for a takedown immediately.  Slice acquitted himself quite nicely with a sweep and a couple of submission attempts, and that round is tough to score.  I’d give it to Slice by a little.

Round two is about as close to even as they come.  In another shocker, Thompson was stunned and out on his feet, but Slice couldn’t finish him.  Thompson then may have stolen the round by pinning Slice against the cage and dropping elbows.  Not damaging, but clean shots for two minutes.  I’d call it even at this point.

Round three starts with Thompson being stunned again, and the ref stops the fight in what Gus Johnson rightly called a terrible stoppage.  Thompson was in no different condition than he was in the second round when he recovered and took Slice down.  That fight should in no way have been stopped.  Unfortunately, Johnson left the booth for the post-fight shortly thereafter, and the yes-men took over on commentary.

That’s about it from me tonight, folks.  Keep it here for some further commentary (both text and audio) on this event and coverage of the big WEC show tomorrow night.