EliteXC will hold their first co-promotion event with newly acquired ICON Sport this Saturday night in Honolulu, Hawaii. The main event features another one of these “unification” bouts between ICON middleweight champion Robbie Lawler and EliteXC middleweight champion Murilo Rua.
This card also features the return of Nick Diaz after a six-month suspension due to a failed drug test in California. Top ten welterweight Jake Shields will fight UFC veteran “Charuto” Verissimo in what could prove to be a fairly exciting matchup. While this card doesn’t have quite the attraction that the prior EliteXC-Showtime card featuring Baroni vs. Shamrock did, it still is a fight card worth checking out. EliteXC is looking to be a contender in the MMA scene having recently purchased King of the Cage and Cage Rage and partnerships with K-1, Strikeforce and ICON; if anyone is truly going to challenge the UFC’s supremecy (which I don’t think they will), EliteXC looks to be that challenger.
Murilo Rua vs. Robbie Lawler - Murilo “Ninja” Rua, a Chute Boxe member, won the EliteXC middleweight title this past June when he defeated Joey Villasenor in the second round on the Strikeforce-EliteXC: Shamrock vs Baroni card. Rua has had a somewhat up-and-down career spent mostly in PrideFC. Rua was just good enough to stay afloat in the division but was never able to “clear the hurdle” and defeat any top level fighters as he has losses to Dan Henderson, Ricardo Arona, Kevin Randleman, Quinton Jackson, Paulo Filho and Dennis Kang.
Robbie Lawler is the reigning ICON Sport Middleweight champion and has had somewhat of a resurgance in his career since leaving the UFC in 2004. Lawler was a rising star in the UFC known for his brutal KO power. However, Lawler met his match when he was defeated at his own game by Nick Diaz at UFC 47 and then lost to Evan Tanner at UFC 50. Lawler then left the UFC and moved up to middleweight and looks much more comfortable gaining victories over Falaniko Vitale, Joey Villasenor and Frank Trigg in ICON Sport.
This fight should be exciting and fast paced. Look for Rua to try and take the fight to the ground early and often to try and stay away from Lawler’s power. I think Lawler will be able to stuff Rua’s takedown attempts and work his much improved standup game early on. If Lawler is in good shape and doesn’t gas out, I think this is Robbie’s fight to lose. Winner: Robbie Lawler
Nick Diaz vs. Mike Aina - Nick Diaz is back from his suspension and Mike Aina should be very worried. Whether you love him or hate him, no one can deny the fact that Diaz is a top-level MMA talent and he proved that by dismantiling PrideFC champion Takanori Gomi last February. Look for Diaz to come out with a fury and a larger chip on his shoulder than normal and lay a serious beating on Aina. For what its worth, Mike Aina is a BJ Penn student from Hawaii and has a good BJJ game but sports a rather unimpressive 8-5-1 MMA record almost exculsively in the Rumble on the Rock promotion. Winner: Nick Diaz
Renato Verissimo vs. Jake Shields - Jake Shields is a top 10 welterweight no matter what any of the “rankings” sites say, and at this stage in his career, Verissimo will not be able to keep up with Sheilds. Charuto trains in BJ Penn’s camp in Hawaii while Shields is a Cesar Gracie student, so we could see some excellent BJJ in this fight. Winner: Jake Shields
Gina Carano vs. Tonya Evinger - Winner: Gina Carano
Joey Villasenor vs. Riki Fukuda - Winner: Joey Villasenor
Chad Klingensmith vs. Brandon Wolf - Winner: Chad Klingensmith
Kala Kohole Hose vs. Jeff Fox - Winner: Kala Kohole Hose
Tyson Nam vs. Albert Manners - Winner: Tyson Nam
Justin Bucholz vs. Kolo Koka - Winner: Justin Bucholz
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[...] MMA HQ: Elite XC - Uprising event preview [...]
ya.. this is one of those download fight cards.. a couple interesting fights, but i wont be buying it..
Dr.J put it well to say its Lawlers fight to lose, but i dunno, i have this feeling that ninja will pull this one out. For no apparant reason hehe just a hunch.
Diaz is definately a big favorite here.. nuff said..
This post made me think… why does the UFC releases good fighters?? They lose a few consecutive fights and theyre gone, most of the time the losses come from really tough guys!
Lawler and Diaz are both good exaples of this, also Riggs on the last post, and Yves Edwards in my opinion.. Jus recently the UFC signed a bunch of old UFC veteran fighters now that theyre world renownd superstars.. (the pride guys who fought in UFC way back)
So my question is this, do you guys think Nick Diaz will be back in the UFC anytime soon? or will he have to become some kind of dominant champ for them to even consider him again 10 years later?
because the UFC goes through a lot of fighters, basically chewing them up and spitting them out. They dont keep a big stock of fighters in their stable, i mean, adding talent is great, but why do you have to trim off the other guys?
[quote comment="9612"]So my question is this, do you guys think Nick Diaz will be back in the UFC anytime soon? or will he have to become some kind of dominant champ for them to even consider him again 10 years later?[/quote]
i really hope they bring Diaz back very soon! he is an awesome fighter, and with his FTW attitude he is a very marketable entertainer. i just listened to an interview with Nick the other day and i was laughing my balls off the whole time. he was just going off about all the things that piss him off about the world and the two guys the were interviewing him couldnt get a word in for like ten min. or so lol.
the best nick interview was wright after his fight with gomi i was dying ,hes a cool dude but the ufc does make stupid decisions sometimes ie BUENTELLO
[quote comment="9617"]the best nick interview was wright after his fight with gomi i was dying ,hes a cool dude but the ufc does make stupid decisions sometimes ie BUENTELLO[/quote]
do you mean he makes stupid decisions by smoking weed knowing its banned and he could get cough? if so he said that he didnt know they were testing for marijuana.
no where hes talking about the fight and hes saying” i dont know what the hell kind of boxing was that ” or he sees gomi walking and says there goes that little fu*cker wright there
oh i know what your talking about Richard.. where Diaz was saying it was some kind of Karate punch about Gomi hehe ye that was a good one. Theres a bunch of videos on youtube with Nick and Nate together, this one i saw had them fighting with Sai in a hotel room lol.
[quote comment="9619"]no where hes talking about the fight and hes saying” i dont know what the hell kind of boxing was that ” or he sees gomi walking and says there goes that little fu*cker wright there[/quote]
ah i see what your saying. that is kinda the reason i like Diaz, no sugar coat no bull he just says how he feels. like when he fought Diego Sanchez befor the fight he said “im not impressed by this guy and he doesnt deserve the props he gets” and after Sanchez beat him Joe Rogan asked how he felt now and he still said the same thing. i know he comes off like a d*ckhead with the things he says but i gotta respect his honesty.
im not sure if you guys know or not but if you have the Fight Network they will be showing this card live tomorrow night. i will be tuning in FOR SURE!!! and by the way Doc in the Gina Carano vs. Tonya Evinger fight you got Carano to win i was just wondering what made you pick her? im thinking this will be the big upset on the card. i think Tonya Evinger has a good enough ground game to win this fight via sub OR judges call.
the EliteXC: Uprising weigh-ins went just fine and everyone made weight with one exception Gina Carano weighed in 1/10th of a pound over but they are going ahead with the fight. normally i would never say Gina looks bad because even when she looks bad she still looks good. but in this case she didnt look well, when she walked up to the scale she was doing the Travis Lutter shuffle and right after her weight was taken she plopped her asss in a chair and started pounding back the Pedialite and didnt look into it during the pre-fight stare down. hopefully she has it together by tomorrow night. other then that im pretty pumped about tomorrow nights event there should be some very good fights from some very good fighters.
Allright Ladies… Lets hear some predictions before this card starts.. that is, if ANYONE is around…
Lets not complicate things.. just one question.. Ninja? or Lawler?
Im personally going with Ninja..
Lawler by TKO in round 3
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i guess i can post results now most of you wont read this till tomorrow anyways. first up was Jake Shields vs. Renato Verissimo, this fight went the way i figured it would. a few punches, a few takedowns, some ground and pound and at four min. in the 1st round Jake Shields forces the ref to stop the shower of punches for the TKO. next up we got Joey Villasenor vs Riki Fukuda, while not the greatest fight i ever seen it was a good fight and it went back and forth for the full three rounds. i cant really say who i would have given the fight to (i am going to have to watch the fight a few more times) but i can say Fukuda did impress me, i was sure Villasenor was got to run over Fukuda. Villasenor takes the split decision win. on to our ladies of mma Gina Carano vs. Tonya Evinger. this one surprised me big time all week i was telling people Tonya was going to take Gina down and make her tap, and just as i though it was going to happen Gina ends up on Tonya’s back and finished with the rear naked choke at 2:53 of round 1. next up was the return of one of my favorites Nick Diaz. Nick Diaz vs. Mike Aina was a very good fight and again it was a very close fight that was hard to say who won, the fight went to the judges and two out of three gave the win to Diaz and i agree. for every 2 power shot Aina landed Diaz landed 5 or 6 clean but lighter punches and Diaz ended round 2 on Aina’s back and close to finishing it and ended round 3 very close to finishing with an armbar. you need to see this fight for yourself to decide who won. and the main event Robbie Lawler vs. Murilo Rua all im gonna say is you have to see this fight for yourself it was a good one. and Doc your the man i bow to you.
[quote comment="9640"]Lawler by TKO in round 3[/quote]
sorry this post was so long but i had to fill you all in on what you might have missed. i really like EliteXC and im sure it wont get enough coverage and i would like to see this org take off. im going to try and get these fights on the internet somewhere for people to see so let me know if you wanna see these fights and i will try to get them to you.
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Yup Dr.J is the man hehehe.. It kind of surprised me the way the fight turned out, i mean, Lawler literally gave up the first 2 rounds. Ninja punched himself out in round 2, that is such a rookie move, i cant believe he did that! wow! It was obviously Lawlers strategy to play possum until round 3, he even ate all those leg kicks with no problem. He was always a dangerous fighter, but now hes putting some brains behind the brawn.. id like to see Robbie back in the UFC, that performance was a work of art, Ali couldnt have done it better hehe..
[quote comment="9649"]
Yup Dr.J is the man hehehe.. It kind of surprised me the way the fight turned out, i mean, Lawler literally gave up the first 2 rounds. Ninja punched himself out in round 2, that is such a rookie move, i cant believe he did that! wow! It was obviously Lawlers strategy to play possum until round 3, he even ate all those leg kicks with no problem. He was always a dangerous fighter, but now hes putting some brains behind the brawn.. id like to see Robbie back in the UFC, that performance was a work of art, Ali couldnt have done it better hehe..[/quote]
no doubt man that fight awesome!!! the end of round two Lawler was just standing in front of him taking shots and smiling the whole time. every punch that was thrown i was just waiting for someone to fall. and at the end of round 2 i knew Lawler had the fight in the bag because Ninja couldnt hurt and Lawler was just waiting for his opening. i really did wanna see Ninja take this one but i had an idea that Lawler was going to be to much for him to handle. what did you think of the Diaz fight, a bit more lackluster then i expected from his return.
man,
I really nailed those predictions. That ESP device I bought is really paying off…