Thank you EliteXC!

I give Kimbo a pass cause he's new to the sport but JT should be ashamed of himself, his standup is atrocious and he's lost on the ground, wonder what he does each day to train for fights.
 
I give Kimbo a pass cause he's new to the sport but JT should be ashamed of himself, his standup is atrocious and he's lost on the ground, wonder what he does each day to train for fights.

Maybe Kimbo and Bas should sit down and watch the WEC preview that shows how Pulver and Faber train. Even I learned from watching them.:D
 
A disasterous debut for mma on network tv, complete with boxing-style shady-business and reffing, low level technique, and an exploding ear that everyone saw coming (why the hell wasn't that shit drained?!?). The ladies put on a good fight complete with some legitimate standing and ground techniques, the Lawler-Smith fight was an entertaining brawl for a bit, but all in all, it's the worst display of mma I have ever seen on tv. Worse than any IFL or Bodog or HDNET, and miles behind any UFC or WEC or miscellaneous Japanese card.
 
Eh, every time something bad happens in MMA people say it will set the sport 5 years back, and it never seems to. You're overreacting.

Was the televised event good? No, not really. There were 2 fights of the 5 that showed high-level technique and were exciting. One of them ended in an unfortunate stoppage. The main event was a technical abomination on the ground, and ended with controversy. Other 2 televised fights were average.

It was bad, but not that bad.

Oh but I was getting really annoyed when Gus called every sweep a scissors sweep. I didn't see one throughout the whole night.

Yeah I dont really think the sport was set back 5 years, but I was just venting. I agree with you on the rest, and I too was like wtf? when Gus kept saying "he got a scissor sweep" lol. It was funny how Mauro wanted to correct him without making him look like a jackass.
 
Kimbo's ground game wasn't bad or exceptionally good for someone with his level of experience.
To me it seemed obvious that under the pressure and heat of the moment he simply doesn't have the muscle memory down to have all the proper positioning and basics down. Clearly he is thinking about the ground game in his head, but moreso about escaping or subbing rather than letting his opponent gain better positioning.

Ordinarily, and for the most part I agree with you. However, when you try to jump to a guillotine but just fall flat on your ass, when all of your escapes are shitty reversals that wouldnt work on people with ANY kind of ground game, when Colossus is going for takedowns and passing guard but really he doesnt have much better an idea of what to do than kimbo - well it was to be expected, for sure.

However, when this is the MAIN EVENT of the first ever MMA show on prime time NETWORK television (which IS a big deal), thats when I get pissed. And as a side note, I hated how Gary Shaw had all the fighters wearing EliteXC hats. I thought it was a bit tacky to make them wear hats of the event they are fighting in. Do they get more money by being "sponsored" by EliteXC?

All in all I was disappointed. Looking forward to tonights WEC much more, to say the least.
 
let's face it....he's only done grappling for less than 2 years, give the poor guy a break
 
let's face it....he's only done grappling for less than 2 years, give the poor guy a break
 
Every kick is a "cut kick", every reversal is a "scissors sweep" and every every keylock is a "kimura". See MMA is easy.
 
Scott Smith kinda shot himself in the foot by admitting to the doctor that he couldn't see anything.

I found Gus more irritating than Mike Goldberg and that's saying a lot. I would've prefered just Mauro and Frank.

All I can add that hasn't already been said is that if anyone was a first time watcher last night, they're being mislead. A couple of times Gus made reference to JT as an 'Elite MMA fighter' who knew what he was doing on the ground. If some noobs walked away from that main event thinking that was an Elite MMA fighter with ground fighting skills then what a shame.

I knew JT had a suspect chin but he was getting rocked by Kimbo's jab.

My wife was really impressed with the ladies fight. She's used to watching trailer park style, tough women fights with little to no technique so it was a nice treat for her to finally see some skill, and was obviously a treat for me to watch as well....in more ways than one.
 
let's face it....he's only done grappling for less than 2 years, give the poor guy a break

But that's not 2 years like the rest of us with jobs and families and such, that's 2 years where his JOB has been to learn MMA. You're telling me that he couldn't get to be a solid blue or purple in 2 years of 2-4 hours a day/5-6 days a week of private/semi-private classes with a legit instructor? It's not like the guy doesn't have any athleticism like some of the guys you see starting the sport. That's what baffles me.
 
I didn't see the match, but setting it back 5 years? I'm sorry, but I don't remember MMA being so horible 5 years ago. Heck, in some ways I liked it better.
 
That card was sickening. The JT v Kimbo fight was the worst display of ground n pound I've ever seen. Any legit BJJ purple belt would sub Kimbo, or at least positionally dominate him for the entirety of the fight. Props to JT for taking some shots and not going to sleep asap.
 
i found myself yelling for knee on belly a lot in the second round. kimbo's been exposed so badly by this i am wondering what gary shaw's next step will be. bring in someone to destroy kimbo. or in boxing fashion duck and weave verbally then bring another can forward to sacrifice to the great kimbo. i wonder how the mma crowd, and then the new mainstream fans will react?
 
But that's not 2 years like the rest of us with jobs and families and such, that's 2 years where his JOB has been to learn MMA. You're telling me that he couldn't get to be a solid blue or purple in 2 years of 2-4 hours a day/5-6 days a week of private/semi-private classes with a legit instructor? It's not like the guy doesn't have any athleticism like some of the guys you see starting the sport. That's what baffles me.

Thats exactly what I was going to say.

All he was doing was pushing JT off instead of escaping. It was 2 week stuff not 2 year.
 
I didn't see the match, but setting it back 5 years? I'm sorry, but I don't remember MMA being so horible 5 years ago. Heck, in some ways I liked it better.

haha touche.
 
i put the lack of ground game on Bas Rutten... i love the guy as a commentator and a striker, but Kimbo has gotta learn some jiu-jitsu from a legit jiu-jitsu guy...
 
Thompson apparently learned nothing from his time at Xtreme Couture, and Kimbo's bottom game seems to be catch wrestling based. Kimbo's training out of Florida right? It can't be that far a drive to a good BJJ school.

Worst display of grappling one will see in public outside of a NAGA novice tourney. Actually, no, that's an insult to the novices at NAGA.
 
i agree that the ground work was pretty horrible. What annoyed me was the announcer during the other fights calling all leg kicks, "cut kicks". He has no clue wtf "cut kicks" are. I also laughed when they didn't have a clue when the hot chick had the gogo.

anyways. i thought that the kimbo fight was stopped early. But when that califlower ear went "pop"...man..that made me cringe.

I think that Elite stopped every fight pre mature whenever the blood got too much. Probably due to people watching on regular tv. I think that if that habit continues, the high calibur fighters won't enter their cage to fight just to have it stopped due to a bad cut or excessive blood.

what i did like was the "production value". the fighters have a better entrance than UFC. it reminded me of "Pride".

i am pretty sure that was frank shamrock doing the color commentary and calling the kicks to the inside of the leg "cut kicks". didn't hear him saying that about other leg kicks but i may have missed it.
the premature stoppages were pathetic and obvious. this being network tv and all i imagine they placed a lot of emphasis on not offending their core audience of geriatric game show watchers any more than they had to. i could picture the network guys with a mike in the ref's ear screaming "stop the fight, oh my god he is bleeding, stop it now!".
 
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