On what was supposed to be a historic night of celebration, because of the recent marriage of MMA with mainstream network American culture, the EliteXC results instead reminded everyone as to why MMA is becoming the choice over boxing. On what ended up being a night of protecting fighters by early referee stoppages, none was more controversial as the “main event” of the night. After an absolutely terrific EXC middleweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith, which ended up in a disappointing “No Contest”, the anticipation and the excitement overflowed the airwaves of the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.
Seconds after stepping on the ramp and making his way towards the cage, the street fighting legend, turned MMA fighter, was warmly greeted by a shower of adoring fans. However, before Kimbo even walked out of the cage late Saturday night, Kimbo was booed so loudly, it could be heard in New York City. Kimbo Slice was a -600 betting odds favorite against +400 James Thompson.
Kimbo Slice surely stepped into a situation he was nowhere near ready for. On what was supposed to be a short appearance for the new MMA star, Saturday night it became his worse nightmare. MMA experts, all over, had predicted an early round 1 KO by Slice. Instead, Kimbo was exposed, beaten down, and later bailed out by the referee in the third round (he had lost the first 2 rounds, by laying on his back).
After two rounds, Kimbo was doing anything but controlling the tempo of the fight. He did land some powerful blows, but the Englishman was just eating the shots, and slamming him down to the canvas. Thompson, controlled the tempo of the fight, as he overpowered the heavy favorite, and even had a few opportunities to submit Kimbo with a triangle. Kimbo Slice was exposed tonight like he never thought he would ever be, not only did he loose the fight by showcase how sorry his ground game is, he showed future opponents where he is most vulnerable.
Tonight’s fight is one of the main reasons why making MMA a mainstream sport will only ruin its integrity. This fight was obviously thrown, as the referee should have never stepped in. Their tactic tonight was simply to pretend CBS did not want a violent fight (with all the early stoppages), and of course they masked the fact that they couldn’t afford to have their “show pony” loose against a nobody.
Kimbo was a heavy favorite to win tonight and with all the hoopla surrounding this match, the ref couldnt allow him to loose, so he stepped in… if anything the ref. should have stopped the fight when Kimbo was not defending himself intelligently when Thompson had him flat on his back, and with his ground and pound delivered non-stop elbows to Kimbo's mug.
Here are other betting odds EliteXC results brought to you by BodogLife.com:
-340 Gina Carano defeated +260 Kaitlin Young
-125 Joey Villasenor def. -105 Baroni
