CBS Saturday Night Fights Lineup Announced
April 16, 2008 by Adam Morgan
EliteXC and CBS officially announced the lineup for the premiere of CBS Saturday Night Fights on May 31st from the Prudential Center in New Jersey.
The televised card is as follows:
MAIN EVENT
- Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson
UNDERCARD
- Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith (EliteXC MW Title Fight)
- Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young
- Phil Baroni vs. Murilo Rua
- Brett Rogers vs. Jon Murphy
Check out more CBS Saturday Night Fights content on FiveOuncesOfPain.com!
Is that “soul glo” in his beard?
wow good card, i wonder how much tickets cost
Good card. Kimbo will be worth watching. On top of that I’m excited to see Ninja kick the shit out of the New York Badass
They are pretty transparent in their assumption that people don’t care about ground work.
Pre-sale tickets went on sale today on Ticketmaster. Start at $18 up to $1000. General sale on Friday.
Got my 2 tickets this morning.
nice card..
i’m not so anxious about how the Kimbo bout is going to turn out, but rather, how Thompson’s going to look when he’s falling to the canvas..
What are you people talking about? Do you work for elite XC? Kimbo is a freak show, Thompson is getting paid to get knocked out. The card is mediocre at best. Lawler/Smith or even Baroni/Rua should be the main fight.
Fight Network is reporting that EliteXC just signed Cyril Diabate. I think that adds some exciting match-ups in the LHW, a division that is weak for EliteXC. I think a match-up with The Sanke and Shane Del Rosario (dropping to LHW)would be a stand-up war. Either would also match up well with Suganuma.
Wonder if anybody will really pay $1,000 for a tx for this. Who knows what will happen with Kimbo’s fight, but Lawler/Smith is a legit bout, and Baroni/Rua could be entertaining. Wouldn’t put a $1,000 value on it, though.
If Kimbo weren’t at the top of the card, then what? Niether Smith and nor Baroni are headline caliber. They might be good match-ups, but they don’t really rectify the skill void left by the main card. This isn’t an MMA card. It’s “Saturday Night StandnBang.” Scott Farrell would round out the evening nicely with some “pound and dance” intros.
Worst main event ever….and for the first network show no less??
Real good to show the general public, first time viewers or sports fans who aren’t MMA fans yet a guy who fights hand picked cans and flashes gang signs and says he will murder people and was involved in porn. Already have the commercials that personally my friends started laughing at “the internet sensation” “the future champion” “MMA hero’s” all show Kimbo after the voiceover says those quotes…
People are going to think its a joke, a title fight then after that you get a porn involved, you tube whatever and gang sign flashing guy against a guy who’s lost 6 of his last 8, 3 of his last 4 by KO and 2 of those in under 40 seconds…
So 2-0 who’s fought no one and is marketed terrible for the sport verse a guy who’s 2-6 in his last 8 fights…That SCREAMS main event to me, haha, what a joke…
At least the Lawler-Smith fight will be awesome, still EliteXC acts like their belt means something, its between a guy who lost his last 2 fights in the UFC against a guy who lost 3 of his last 4 UFC fights and really hasn’t earned a title shot in any promotion…(that said I’m a huge Scott Smith fan, but still, from an unbiased view)…
Whoever wins you know Gary “I was one of three men to ruin boxing and I’m coming after MMA” Shaw will be spouting off about how his MW champ should be rated #1 in the world and is better that Spider Silva….
Gina on the card I can’t complain with, always like more of her, but its basically a freakshow fight for woman…
Ninja-Baroni, I like the fight but its just an above average fight…
the rest is garbage…
anyone who think this is anything above an average card has never watched MMA before, of any kind obviously…
evan: a+
5oz crew: still no word on the broadcast crew for this? i remember whats-his-nuts dropping hints that it would be “surprising”, a month or so ago.
also, i didn’t realize until today that these shows were only 2 hours. that seems like the right amount for network viewers. i’m actually looking forward to seeing all these matchups, especially since it’s free (have a hard time nitpicking). will be my first chance to watch elitexc live, since i dont have showtime.
any idea if there’s a swing bout on the untelevised card that may get aired?
I hope the Rogers/Murphy bout is televised - good luck, Jon!
kimbo is ‘marketed terrible’?
whoever is looking after kimbos marketing is doing a fucking awesome job.
#14: Agree. Amazing how some chump who kicked the ass of a few losers can then be marketed as some MMA badass. Don’t forget he got his ass kicked on YouTube by the Sean Gannon guy too. He was the only guy who had anything and Kimbo got his face kicked in by him.
Ya, if you want MMA to be set back 10 years or be viewed again as human cockfighting promoting him as a streetfighting legend and everything that is right with MMA and everything MMA is about then yes the promotion has been brilliant…
if you want MMA to build off what they’ve done so far without a major setback then promoting him and introducing him every single time as the internet streetfighting legend is terrible for the sport…
but with so many Kimbo fanboys people can’t see whats good for the overall health of the sport…
Smith-Lawler and Baroni-Rua are good fights and very attractive for a mainstream audience. I usually don’t care for women’s MMA but having a cute fighter like Carano on the card will also help ratings. Kimbo might be a freak show but he’s also marketeable and that should count if you want to make a splash on your first broadcast.
I still think, however, that they should have secured a better fight than Rogers-Murphy to round-up the televised portion of the event. If they do that, get rid of the cheesy dancing strippers that make the show look cheap and limit Goldberg’s role to the taped training segments, they should have a solid event on their hands.
Is there going to be an untelevised undercard for this show?
“Don’t forget he got his ass kicked on YouTube by the Sean Gannon guy too. He was the only guy who had anything and Kimbo got his face kicked in by him.”
ya.. when i heard Kimbo was transitioning into MMA i was wondering how that would turn out.. because the first guy he fought with some EXP. in fighting [gannon] KTFO’d him.. like.. 7 different times in one fight.. he kept falling and they would give him like a 30 count [going wayyyy past the 10 count] and then he would stand up and drop again..
idk.. it makes you think that the first MUAY THAI beast that Kimbo runs into.. is going to dominate him with the clinch or something.. untill then.. why not feed him guys that are over-the-hill or that have glass chins, eh??
i’m not one to diss Kimbo because i feel he has amazing potential.. and i think that when THAT FIGHT COMES [the one everybody is waiting for, you know.. when he has to fight a wrestler...a good wrestler] i think he’ll do good.. and win.. i mean, the guy’s training with the likes of Bas Rutten and Mayhem Miller.. at least he’s not training with his old pals from Miami that probably strictly lift weights..if that..
I think Kimbo got some Gerry juice, went old school greays on everyone.
I’m excited to see Kimbo smash Thompson. It’ll be funny, but then again, I’m down for freakshow fights. I just hate that Gary Shaw jackass. he touts his fighters as all the best the world has to offer, but he doesn’t even have any of the top free agent in the market, and all his champs are unproven or washed up, but he still tries the hype of ignoring reality. If he gets arlovski, or tito, things may get interesting, for those guys’ trophy case. Given time, and more obstinacy from Dana, EliteXC might one day have a good roster, might put on good cards. MIGHT. But I see that about as good for MMA as the fracturing of boxing titles was for boxing. bleh. Go away shaw….Don King too, just for good measure.