EliteXC recap

June 3, 2008

I spent the weekend in Las Vegas, but managed to catch the last three fights of the first EliteXC show on CBS Saturday night. A night of what seemed to be pretty good fights ended in controversy twice as Kimbo Slice earned a third-round TKO victory over James Thompson after the referee made a questionable stoppage.  The middleweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith ended in a no contest after Smith was poked in the eye and couldn’t continue.

It was a show that didn’t showcase the best MMA fighters in the world, but seemed like an event built to bring in casual fans watching for the first time and did a good job. According to a press release today, the show drew a 3.0 rating and had 4.85 million viewers. The final 20 minutes of the show featuring the end of the Kimbo/Thompson fight had 6.12 million viewers as ratings incresed throughout the night.

Good start to the network era of mixed martial arts. The women’s fight between Gina Carano and Kaitlyn Young made for great TV and anybody that watched the first 2 1/2 rounds of Lawler and Smith won’t miss the rematch which I’m sure will be on the next CBS show. And love him or hate him, but regardless of his abilities, Kimbo Slice is a character that had the casual fans I was with talking. He won’t ever be a top HW fighter, but he’ll be able to bring in as many casual fans as anybody and at the end of the day, that’s what EliteXC is going for.

Posted in Fights