Once again, I bring you some of my thoughts after the weekend of everyone rambling on about “fixes” and “dives”. Let’s look at the show as a whole, and see what some writers thought about it as well.

• Production: I don’t really need an opposing viewpoint here. The production was absolutely garbage in comparison to the UFC or WEC. It amazes me that CBS allowed EliteXC to keep the trashy dancers and horrible association with the hip-hop scene in the show. It’s been criticized time and time again, yet EliteXC continues to integrate it into the sport. Enough is enough.

• Commentary: Gus Johnson was phenomenal and with Mauro Ranallo by his side, the commentary team for the event was above average across the board. This was probably the only aspect of the evening that was done right. I hope Gus will continue to commentate for the sport because he was flawless in his deliveries. Frank Shamrock didn’t do a bad job either.

• Quick stoppages: First and foremost, Kaitlin Young’s stoppage was not bullshit like some fans believe. Here’s one view from a BloodyElbow reader:

The women's fight was even worse. Young made it through a rear naked choke to survive the round. She looked beat up, but the mouse below her left eye was...below her left eye and did not appear to obstruct her vision.

Young was, in fact, overhyped by everyone. While I don’t want to toot my own horn, I’m going to because I did the research. Most people haven’t seen Kaitlin Young fight, but I did get the feedback from her fight with Sarah Schneider. Schneider was mostly fighting amateur fights before her battle with Young, but she exposed Young’s ground game through slipping Young’s easily seen kicks. Carano’s strikes were much more powerful and quicker than the smaller Young, and I think the assumption that Young must be powerful and quick came from her impressive record of KO’s and video showing her training. It’s interesting to see how heavily people were relying on Young to upset Carano even though Carano had a significant size difference with actual striking credentials.

Smith vs. Lawler was a great fight for three rounds. Smith’s chin was tested and Lawler’s brawling seemed to be getting the best of Smith for most of the fight. When the eye poke occurred, we should have seen Smith given a recovery period of five minutes. When it was explained that Smith said he could not see, I immediately came to the assumption that Smith said the wrong thing at the wrong time. It was an early stoppage by the doctor, but you don’t tell someone you cannot see twice when they are questioning whether you can continue. You cannot do that and expect things to go your way.

Thompson was slowly being beaten to a pulp by the third round of his fight with Kimbo Slice, but I do in fact think it was an early stoppage considering Thompson looks like he’s KO’d before he even enters the cage. Nonetheless, I think Kimbo was going to win the third round if it had continued, although Thompson may have been ahead on the scorecards had it gone to decision.

Lawler vs. Smith could have been an epic showstopper for the promotion, the Griffin vs. Bonnar for EliteXC. It’s too bad it was stopped early. Carano lived up to the hype and could potentially be the driving force for EliteXC in the future. Kimbo was exposed, and Rogers will probably work him hard if they fight on the next card.

• Villasenor vs. Baroni was an early stoppage?

Sam Caplan thinks so: The Joey Villasenor vs. Phil Baroni stoppage was early, as was the main event. But maybe he’s not entirely to blame. NJAC always has had a strong track record of acting in the best interests of a fighter.

While I think Kimbo vs. Thompson was slightly stopped early, Villasenor vs. Baroni was a done fight. It still baffles me that people were hard up for Baroni destroying Villasenor even though Joey has had some hard fought wars in his past. His chin issues haven’t shown up lately, and Baroni has absolute garbage striking for someone with so much power.

Nonetheless, now I have to put up with opinions revolving around that fight being an early stoppage. Baroni got hurt from a blow, backed into the fence, and was pummeled with a couple more shots. It was over, plain and simple.

• Ratings and another show?

Sam Caplan is on point here: People can say all they want about the ratings, but the bottom line is that CBS is happy with the results, which means that we will see a second EliteXC show on network primetime television. The question is, are other networks happy with the ratings? If so, then the UFC will have improved leverage when it goes to the bargaining table to negotiate deals with networks that are looking to get into the MMA game.

CBS will likely do another show, and hopefully EliteXC won’t have the problems they did at this most recent show. The fact is that as horrible as hardcore fans and analysts might think it is, people still watch it.

Ratings hit some highs during the event. MMAPayout reported this breakdown:

9:00-9:30PM - 2.4 / 5
9:30-10:00PM - 2.5 / 5
10:00-10:30PM - 3.2 / 6
10:30-11:00PM - 3.7 / 7
11:00 - 11:30PM - 4.0 / 8
11:30 - 11:45PM - 4.7 / 10

I’ve read some reports around that CBS may have almost hit 5 million viewers toward the end of the evening when Kimbo Slice fought. It’s obvious that his Internet fame was tapped into for this fight, and I’m sure EliteXC will be more than happy to do so again to produce some higher draws.

Overall thoughts

EliteXC on CBS wasn’t what I wanted to see. The production was incredibly similar to that of their Showtime shows, and I thought for sure that we would see less trashy hookers dancing and more professionalism. I was wrong.

The broadcast team was solid, and I’m glad to see it clicking so well for once. If this could translate over to Showtime, it would at least improve that aspect of EliteXC’s woes.

Quick stoppages ruined the Smith vs. Lawler fight, and I think Thompson may have potentially been able to squeak out a win against Kimbo had he been given a chance. Exploding ears aren’t that serious, but the notion that it was going to hurt his chances was overblown in my eyes. Carano crushed Young, and her orbital is probably broken. Justified stoppage.

The ratings did well enough to garner another show happening on CBS. Will other networks see the success and bring the UFC into the mix to make this sport get the deserving production and professionalism it needs on network television? It could happen if sponsors begin knocking on the doors at CBS and other networks see that.