CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights Photos, Brief Recap And Undercard Results

Posted on | June 1, 2008 | No Comments

Photos By Tom Casino/EliteXC

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Kimbo Slice follows up with an uppercut as a bloodied James Thompson attempts to retaliate.On a history-making evening which featured a lot of exciting, entertaining two-way action and a little bit of everything, including licks, kicks and controversy, unbeaten Kimbo Slice (3-0) of Perrine, Fla., scored a hard-fought third-round TKO over England’s James “Colossus” Thompson (16-9) in the main event of the inaugural “CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights” on the CBS Television Network.

The monumental event, the first-ever mixed martial arts card shown live in primetime on network television, was witnessed by 8,033, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., and millions more on CBS.

It was presented by Los Angeles-based ProElite, Inc.’s live fight division EliteXC.

“The night was electric, every fight was exciting,” EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw said. “I’m sure all the viewers who watched stayed glued to their television sets for the entire show.

“Kelly Kahl (Senior Executive Vice President, CBS Primetime) and everybody at CBS, Ken Hershman (Senior Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports Programming) and everybody at SHOWTIME, the EliteXC fight team, everybody at the Prudential Center, the media and fans, I can’t thank them all enough.”

Said Doug DeLuca, Executive Chairman, ProElite, Inc. “All the athletes did the sport of mixed martial arts proud. The sport has a whole new audience after tonight.”

Robbie Lawler connects with a vicious kick to the body against Scott Smith.In other CBS fights, EliteXC middleweight champion “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler (15-4) of St. Louis, by way of Granite City, Ill., retained his belt when his match with Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith (15-4) of Sacramento, Calif., was declared a no contest. A good action fight with ferocious exchanges was stopped with 1:34 left in the third round after Smith was accidentally poked in the eye. Since a world title fight in New Jersey must go three full rounds to be official, it went into the books as a No Contest.

Gina Carano delivers a perfect leg kick against Kaitlin Young.Gina Carano (6-0) of Las Vegas, Nev., defeated Kaitlin Young (4-2) of Circle Pines, Minn., by TKO at the end of the second round. It was a brutal back and forth battle with both fighters keeping most of the combat on the feet. This was a great fight to highlight the ability of women to throw down in the cage with the best of them. Kaitlin Young performed amazingly well until the punches to her eye became too much to bear. Carano narrowly evaded some phenomenal kick attempts from Young. In the end it was Carano’s never-quit attack that won the day. Using well-placed 1-2 combinations, hooks, and looping roundhouses Carano took complete control in the second round and never let go. Young was not allowed to come out for the 3rd round, and her eye had already become a heavy shade of black and blue as the cageside doctor examined her.

Joey Villasenor lands a smashing right hand as Phil Baroni attempts to cover up.Joey Villasenor (26-6) of Albuquerque, N.M., registered a 1:11, first-round TKO over Phil Baroni (10-10) of Long Island, N.Y., in a battle of 185-pounders. Baroni talked a great deal of smack about what he was going to do to Villasenor, but “Smokin’ Joe” lived up to his namesake and dropped the New York Badass on his ass with a picture perfect left hook. The knockout win came after a brief back and forth slug fest between both fighters. Baroni, thinking Villasenor couldn’t hang in a caged boxing match, kept the fight on the feet and paid the ultimate price. Baroni fell to .500 with 10 wins and 10 losses to his credit. Villasenor continues to impress and raised some eyebrows against Baroni. It won’t be long before he gets a shot at an EliteXC belt.

Brett Rogers lands a short, solid right hand to the face of Jon Murphy.Hard-hitting Brett Rogers (7-0) of St. Paul, Minn., who called out Kimbo at the post-fight press conference, scored a 1:01, first-round TKO over Jon Murphy (4-3) of Minersville, Pa. Murphy got a haircut for the fight after donating his former trademark dreds to the Locks of Love charity. Rogers finished up the makeover by giving Murphy a nose job he didn’t ask for. The affair ended early due to the overpowering slugging of Rogers and Murphy’s inability to land any significant staggering blows of his own. In true heavyweight fashion they put it all on the line and went toe to toe with Rogers standing in the end.

In fights streamed live and for free at ProElite.com: Chris “The Story” Liguori (9-7) of Red Bank, N.J., scored a second-round TKO over Jim Bova (3-1) of New Ringgold, Penn., Carlton Haselrig (2-0), of Johnstown, Penn., won by TKO when Carlos Moreno (5-3), of Elizabeth, N.J., failed to answer the bell for the second round; Matt Makowski (3-0) of Philadelphia, Pa. registered a second-round TKO over Nick “The Mad Monkey” Serra (8-3) of East Meadow, N.Y.; Wilson Reis (4-0) of Philadelphia submitted (rear-naked choke) Justin Robbins (12-4-1) of Granite City, Ill., at 4:06 of the opening round; and James “Binky” Jones (7-5) of Baltimore, Md., triumphed by submission (rear naked choke) over Calvin Kattar (2-1) of Methuen, Mass., at 4:49 of the first.

In preliminary bouts that were not streamed at ProElite.com, Zach Makovsky (4-1) of Philadelphia took a unanimous decision over Brazilian Andre “Gigetto” Soares (5-2) of Pinebrook, N.J., by the scores of 29-26 twice and 29-28; and Joe Sampieri (1-2) of Manhattan, N.Y. knocked out Mike Groves (0-2) of Philadelphia at 4:58 in the first round.

CBS announcer Gus Johnson handled play-by-play Saturday with legendary Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo serving as analysts and Karyn Bryant as cageside reporter.

CBS ELITEXC SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS was produced by SHOWTIME Sports. The executive producer was David Dinkins, Jr. with Bob Dunphy directing.