EliteXC:"Unfinished Business" Results and Review

EliteXC had their second prime time show last Saturday night and the main event was a middleweight title bout between champion "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler against challenger Scott "Hands of Steel" Smith.

The show was held at the Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.

The main event was a rematch between Lawler and Smith as these fighters fought to a no- contest decision a few months ago due to an accidental eye poke by Lawler which affected Smith's eyesight in the third round.

Saturday's show was thusly titled "Unfinished Business" and CBS showed four of the fights on the card.

All four of the fights ended without any controversy as all the winning fighters finished their business.

The winners of the fights shown on CBS were Lawler, Cris Cyborg, Jake Shields, and Nick Diaz.

Lawler, Diaz, and Cyborg defeated their opponents in the second round by TKO, while Shields easily defeated Nick "The Goat" Thompson early in the first round with a guillotine choke to become EliteXC's first welterweight champion.

Lawler showed why he is the EliteXC middleweight champion by delivering a series of knees to Smith's stomach in the second round to win by TKO. The first round was a feeling out process by both fighters but there were fireworks in the second round.

Both fighters were bloodied up in the second round, and Smith looked like he had the advantage until Lawler started to connect with his punches and knees to end the fight.


Although there were a lot of impressive performances on the show, the fighter that opened up the most eyes was Cris Cyborg. Cyborg defeated the heralded Shayna Baszler in the only women's fight of the evening.

Baszler is known for her submissions but Cyborg avoided all her submission attempts in the first round. In the second round, it appeared that Baszler was tired from all her previously unsuccessful submission attempts.

After Cyborg got Baszler in the Muay Thai clinch and landed some knees in the second round, she proceeded to hit Baszler with a flurry of punches which knocked Baszler down.

In the unintentionally funny moment of the night, Cyborg thought the fight was over and jumped onto the top of the cage to celebrate with the fans. She raised her arms in victory while having her back to Baszler and the referee, Steve Mazzagatti. Unbeknownst to her, Mazzagatti had not called off the fight.

This gave Baszler the chance to recover from the damage inflicted by Cyborg's right hand and knees, but Mazzagatti finally had to call a stoppage to the fight about a minute later after another Cyborg right hand knocked down Baszler for the second time in round two.

Cyborg will possibly challenge Gina Carano in the future. If she doesn't fight Carano next, I could see her having a fight with someone like Kaitlin Young.

Carano was in attendance at ringside along with another EliteXC superstar, Kimbo Slice.

Diaz, a Stockton native, received the loudest ovation of the night. He defeated Thomas "Wildman" Denny in a slugfest.

All four fights on CBS were wildly entertaining and exciting. Unlike many of UFC's shows and broadcasts, the fights were action-packed and the announcers were very professional and articulate.

Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo, and Frank Shamrock all did a nice job calling the action, and Karyn Byrant did a good job asking questions while interviewing the fighters.

The only problem I had with the show was that their was a lull after Diaz's fight and leading up to the main event.

MMA fans could not ask for a better night of fights. The winning fighters all won decisively and did not leave their fights to the hands of the judges.

Wilson Reis, Rafael Feijao, and Antonio Silva were all winners in fights that were seen on the cable network, Showtime, right before the CBS show aired.

Reis defeated the very tough Bryan Caraway by unanimous decision after three rounds. Caraway got the better of Reis standing up, but Reis was able to take down Caraway multiple times in the fight.

Caraway did do a very nice job scrambling and getting up from the takedowns.

Caraway reportedly suffered a dislocated kneecap while training for the fight and his knee probably affected him during the fight.

Feijao won by TKO over Canadian Travis Galbraith in the first round. Feijao was very impressive and looks to be a force in the light heavyweight division.

Silva defeated Justin Eilers by TKO in the second round to become the first ever EliteXC heavyweight champion.

Overall, MMA fans have to be pleased with the show.

It was a very successful night for EliteXC and CBS as the show came off very well on television, and the fans got to see hard-hitting action and decisive clear-cut victories without any controversy.

The next CBS broadcast of EliteXC's Saturday Night Fights will be on October 4 and will feature Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano.