Link Details
| ID: | 8257 |
| Title: | Odds and ends heading into an EliteXC weekend - http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/mma/blog/2008/07/odds_and_ends_heading_into_an.html |
| Description: | A few odds and ends. EliteXC makes its return to CBS this weekend with a main event of Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith in what will be a rematch of the most entertaining fight from the first event in May. There’s no Kimbo Slice here so the viewership should be down for this event. But to me, it’s the most important show. Any MMA promotion would’ve pulled huge numbers if they had the first show on network TV. I’m curious to see how EliteXC does without Kimbo Slice and the fresh factor helping them pull in viewers. It’s actually shaping up to be a very decent card, especially for network TV, and is definitely worth watching. Hopefully, the broadcast will be cleaned up a little and there will be a lot less lag time between fights. Honestly, I can’t see EliteXC lasting too much longer, at least in its current form, but competition is always healthy for the sport. The UFC’s Fight Night 14 broadcast pulled tremendous numbers on Spike last weekend. The peak audience was more than 4.5 million for the main event between Anderson Silva and James Irvin. Very impressive. In other UFC news, three more fights have been confirmed for UFC 88. Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans is the main event for the show in Atlanta, but Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson will be on the card as well. An intriguing fight has been added to UFC 89. A light heavyweight clash between Keith Jardine and Brandon Vera has been added to the card. That should be a great fight and will be important to both fighters. Jardine needs a win after getting destroyed by Wanderlei Silva and Vera needs a convincing win at the light heavyweight level. Affliction’s first event seems to have gone well, as far as PPV buys and gate is concerned. It’s still not clear if the promotion can compete with the UFC, but the first show was a positive start. Yahoo! is reporting Fedor Emelianenko will be back in action in October in a fight against Andre Arlovski. There are a number of fighters I’d like to see go up against Fedor and Arlovski is not one of them. I don’t think he has much of a chance, but he should fare better than Tim Sylvia did. |
| Category: | MMA Sites: MMA Insider |
| Link Owner: | |
| Date Added: | July 25, 2008 01:21:10 AM |
| Number Hits: | 0 |