Fighters Only

Issue 031

November 2007

September 15^th,

Honolulu, Hawaii

ProElite have been on such a buying streak lately, including co-promoters for this event ICON Sport, it is a wonder they managed to put on a show at all right now, but on September 15^th in Honolulu put on a show they did, and a very good one at that.

The card was put together when ICON were, like K-1 and Strikeforce earlier this year, an independent co-promoter putting on the main body of the show for EliteXC to crown with a pay-per-view segment. The ICON purchase is not only news; it gave insight into the card itself when one realises ProElite’s initial acquisition was Rumble On The Rock (ROTR), a fierce rival to ICON.

In the main event Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua put the EliteXC middleweight belt on the line against ICON champion ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler. Also on this card the much-hyped Gina Carano furthered the women’s revolution in a bout against Tonya Evinger, while the rest of the televised card featured Renato ‘Charuto’ Verissimo, Nick Diaz, Jake Shields and Joey Villasenor. Five fights were televised on Showtime as a pay-per-view event, five more were streamed free on ProElite’s website, and two took place as “dark” matches.

Lawler vs Ninja

Murilo Rua vs. Robbie Lawler was, on paper, the most interesting fight of the night as fights in Pride, but only fought five times at middleweight. Coming from the Chute Boxe team Rua had a reputation as an extremely aggressive fighter. Pat Miletich-trained Lawler moved to middleweight in October 2004. His middleweight career has seen him go 6-1, with his sole loss to Jason Miller, while his wins include Frank Trigg, Falaniko Vitale (twice), and Joey Villasenor. The one shared opponent between Rua and Lawler was Villasenor, who Lawler KO’d in twenty-two seconds of the first round while Rua TKO’d him in 1:05 of the second eight months later.

Throughout the fight Lawler stopped Rua’s takedown attempts and even took Rua down as if in an effort to show the Brazilian the fight was going to stay on the feet. In the first round Rua used leg kicks to keep Lawler out of haymaker range, but in the second Rua seemed content to close the distance. Lawler opened up with a couple of combinations and begun to control the fight in the second round, tagging Ninja with punches. In the third Lawler came out on fire, knocking down Rua and following up with a series of brutal strikes until the referee pulled Lawler off.

Carano can’t make weight

Have no doubt, Gina Carano is for real, but also have no doubt that her true tests are yet to come, mainly due to the lack of fighters in her fighting weight of 145-150lbs (65.8-68 kg). Gina brings a devastating Muay Thai game filled out with recent training at Extreme Couture, but so far all of her opponents (including Tonya Evinger) had come from the 135 pound weight class. Gina had noticeable trouble making 140lbs for this fight and even missed the one pound weight allowance by coming in at 141.1lbs. After some negotiation (and venting on the part of Tonya) the fight was given clearance.

Tonya is an accomplished wrestler with twice the MMA fights of Gina but going up a whole weight class for the opportunity to get a foot in the door with EliteXC had a similar effect as it did for Carano’s previous opponent Julie Kedzie, namely just too much weight difference to control. Tonya wisely scored an immediate takedown into side control where she tried to isolate both of Gina’s arms and pound her in the face. AS Tonya moved off for a guillotine, Gina used her strength to reverse Tonya and took her back, and with only seven seconds left in the round secured the rear naked choke (it should be noted this fight consisted of three 3-minute rounds). Gina went a long way to dispel criticism of her all-around game and showed the recent improvements and confidence on the ground.

Sheilds stuns Charuto, Diaz gets down and dirty

One angle pushed by EliteXC was the team rivalry between Cesar Gracie and BJ Penn, with Nick Diaz and Jake Shields representing Gracie while Renato ‘Charuto’ Verissimo and Mike Aina represented Team Penn. Team Penn have some solid fighters and deserve respect but their first mistake this night was letting Jake and Nick fight at catchweights roughly five pounds above established classes, allowing them to come in stronger than usual. Shields just blew through Verissimo by taking him down, mounting him, and pounding him out against the cage while Diaz and Aina had a slugger’s war which Diaz won by split decision.

The internet broadcast segment showed some promising up-and-comers. EliteXC’s next pay-per-view show is scheduled for November but the companies ProElite have been buying (including Cage Rage, King Of The Cage, and ICON) all plan to put on non-EliteXC shows between now and then. The real winners are the fans who, as Gary Shaw has been saying all along, will see the best fight each other.