Baroni to fight on CBS; HFC on Maui this weekend
March 25, 2008
In an interesting twist, I was able to confirm that Phil Baroni, who just lost to Kala Kolohe Hose at Icon Sport: To Hell and Back, will fight on the CBS EliteXC event May 31st against Murilo “Ninja” Rua. Rua hasn’t fought since being knocked out by Robbie Lawler at EliteXC: Uprising last September at the Blaisdell Arena.
What’s interesting to note about the Baroni fight is that Hose, who is also under contract to EliteXC, beat Baroni rather convincingly, but won’t be fighting on the card. For those of you that caught Monday’s Fighters Club Radio Show, Patrick Freitas and I discussed the question is MMA mainstream yet? What you have with the Baroni fight is that even though he sports a career 10-9 record, he has fought in all the big shows, is a name most fans know, and has entertainment value with his ability to talk trash prior to fights.
However, if MMA is really going to become a respected, understood, legit sport in the mainstream world, shouldn’t guys like Kala Kolohe Hose be rewarded for beating a guy like Phil Baroni? Yeah, he might not be the most outspoken fighter out there, but when you take Baroni’s best shot in the first round and then beat the guy up for the next 15+ minutes, shouldn’t you be the one getting rewarded?
It’s clear EliteXC is going with the more known and marketable fighter on a national scale, but what are you thinking if you’re Hose? You just beat a guy who is 10-9. You’re 6-1. Yet, the 10-9 guy gets the bigger fight on the first card on national television in front of an audience MMA hasn’t reached yet? Maybe as the sport finds its place on the national scene, it’ll change, but sooner or later, guys that get the big fights are going to have to be the ones that earn it in the cage, not the ones that are more marketable outside of it.
>> Big card on Maui this weekend as promoter Mike Malone puts on a Hawaii Fighting Championship event at War Memorial Stadium Saturday night. Kaleo Kwan fights in Tyson Coloma-Nahooikaika in the main event. Other good fights include Kiana Hyatt against Tony Bergamo and Albert Manners against William Armstrong. Manners, who trains with BJ Penn in Hilo, has been followed around by the Tapout crew in preparation for the fight. For those that don’t know, the Tapout has its own reality show on the Versus network where three guys go around the world to find the best fighters as they get ready for upcoming fights. The Tapout crew has been filming Manners leading up to Saturday night and will be at the event along with Penn and Icon Fitness trainer Chris Leben of the UFC. Looks like a good event for those of you on Maui to check out.
>> UPDATE: Thanks to an email, I did some research and the EliteXC PPV Saturday night is on Showtime as well as Showtime PPV. Those people that already pay for Showtime won’t have to fork out the $24.95 it costs to order the PPV. In addition to Jake Shields having to withdraw from his fight, Nick Diaz also won’t be competing on the card. For those that are interested in watching, obviously the Frank Shamrock/Cung Le main event will be huge, but I’m excited to see Gilbert Melendez back fighting in the states. Melendez, 13-1, is coming off the first lost of his career in Japan and holds a win over local boys Harris Sarmiento and Stephen Palling. The Palling fight happened in Hawaii in 2004.
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