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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Elite XC makes wildly entertaining debut

CBS brought Mixed Martial Arts out of the shadows and into the bright lights of prime time when “Elite XC Saturday Night Fights” made its anticipated debut on the network Saturday in Newark, N.J. The event featured 10 of the sport’s biggest names – Gina Carano, Scott Smith, Robbie Lawler – and the main attraction, Kimbo Slice. Saturday Night Fights was filled with nonstop action as the event was a huge success. I witnessed all of the action from my living room, and I’m convinced that we may be seeing the dawn of a new era in American sports.\nElite XC appears to have taken pages out of the books from World Wrestling Entertainment and boxing. Throughout the night women dancers grooved to loud music as if they were dancing at a basketball halftime show. As fighters walked out to the arena, bright lights flashed, pyrotechnics went off, and loud music blared. Each fighter showed off their own form of swagger as the made their way to the cage. All the glitz and glam appeared to be cliche, but it was all done well to keep viewers entertained in between each fight. \nThe entire event was very well done. SNF featured footage of fighters training, interviews and profiles of each fighter so fans could get to know them and form an opinion. Commentators Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo and MMA legend Frank Shamrock did a great job hyping up the event throughout the night and explaining the rules of MMA. \nOnce the fighting began, you could feel the intensity as each second was filled with action. The first two fights ended abruptly with remarkable technical knockouts in the first round of each fight. The third fight was between two of MMA’s top women fighters in Carano and Kaitlin Young. The two women were just as (if not more) entertaining than the men. The ladies punched, grabbed, kicked and choked each other well into the second round when Gina Carano proved to be too much for Young when she pretty much disfigured Young’s face, causing the doctor to stop the fight. In the fourth battle Scott Smith and Robbie Lawler fought late into the third round before Smith took a thumb in the eye, ending an amazing and evenly matched fight.\nThe main event featured Kimbo Slice against James Thompson. The fight was hyped all week, and it did not disappoint. Though if you were looking for another 30-second knockout by Kimbo, this fight was not for you. Kimbo was put on his back for the first time in his career nearly 20 seconds into the first round. Thompson forced the inexperienced Kimbo to fight down on the mat, where Kimbo did not have the technique, but he did have the strength and guts to overcome a minute-long choke hold. Most fighters would have tapped out long before that time. The fight, scheduled for three rounds, went well into the final round when Thompson was winning. That all changed when an exhausted Kimbo refused to be taken to the mat once again and began firing his fists or “hay-makers” as he calls them. He popped open the “alien life form that is Thompson’s left ear,” as well-put by one of the commentators referring to Thompson’s terrible-looking cauliflower ear. Blood splattered everywhere as Kimbo scored an incredible TKO after punishing Thompson with numerous punches to the head.\nElite XC’s debut on prime time was wild, intense, schocking, fun and, most of all, very entertaining. This sport is definitely not for the soft-hearted. It’s one of the most exciting things I’ve ever watched and I look forward to seeing more, as I’m sure MMA is on its way to being the next mainstream sport.

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