PRO: Gus Johnson. Absolutely fantastic job. Not only did he give credibility to the show but he’s an absolute professional and made it twice as good. I’d like Gus Johnson to announce everything on my television from MMA to hosting America’s Funniest Home Videos to talking to the banker on Deal or No Deal. I love you Gus Johnson.

CON: Brett Rogers cursing. Immediately after the Rogers/Murphy fight I saw Gary Shaw talking to Rogers and my first thought was that he was reminding him he’s on CBS and this is the first fight and he needs to make sure to be professional and sound good. And Rogers comes right out and gets us a five second mute. If that isn’t what Gary Shaw was saying to him what the hell was he saying? This was the first fight ever on major network television and that wasn’t the chat you had? Seriously?

PRO: Big Black. Like all civilized human beings, I realize Rob & Big was the greatest show in the history of MTV. While I’m sad that he apparently left the show to do things like stand behind Brett Rogers on television wearing a t-shirt I’m just happy he’s around. Simply seeing him brightened my day.

CON: Whore dancers. Seriously, if there was one thing everyone agreed on it was that EXC needed to lose the strippers dancing on the ramp. Oh yes, dancing to rap music and closeups of ass shorts, exactly what all of us were praying for on the network debut. The whore dancers are the equivalent of K-1’s horrible DJ. Just stop it.

CONFUSING: Phil Baroni has a college degree!?!? Phil Baroni? I was 80% sure he couldn’t read let alone finish a four year degree at a D-1 university. This information has made me question everything I thought I knew.

CON: Stoppage of the Lawler/Smith fight. Doctor Sherry Roken (sp?) apparently felt everyone paid to see her and step in the way of a man’s career and future. What is the point of giving five minutes if you take a man’s comment 30 seconds after something happens as the final word? What is the point of telling a doctor the truth? And to hell with the NJSAC for blaming it on Smith saying he couldn’t see. No, it was your fault, not his. Don’t pass the problem off because you were incompetent. Give him his five minutes and then talk to him. Smith obviously didn’t want to stop and you just robbed us of a great ending to a great fight. You’re not protecting anyone, you’re trying to steal the show. I don’t care how hard you try, you’re never going to be as incompetent as Armando Garcia so stop with the effort.

PRO: Carano/Young. Nothing else to add, well played.

CON: James Thompson’s ear. I got a phone call during the fight asking if there was a new trendy Hollywood plastic surgery that involved inserting pool balls into ears. That’s just not right. That ear made Mark Coleman’s head tumor look like a scratch.

PRO: Kimbo’s scissor sweep. Sure he was seemingly confused in the crucifix but I was really impressed by the sweep. Long way to go but a great sign.

CON: Dan Miragliotta’s stoppage. Just awful. Our own Adam Morgan strongly disagrees but I feel he’ll be in a huge minority. They were looking for a reason for Kimbo to win. And I should note I like Kimbo and have defended him time and time again so this is hardly hatred towards him. Thompson took 5 shots worse than those throughout the course of the fight and it wasn’t stopped. Yes, his disgusting ear exploded and he might have been killed with the next punch but that fight should not have been stopped. Apparently the scorecards are out and Thompson was winning the fight. That certainly doesn’t help the case for EXC and that end was a sham.

OVERALL: I loved the show. The fights were fantastic and despite the two horrible stoppages and the dancing whores I think it went off very well. All things considered over how bad it could have went I think this was as nice as we could have hoped for as mixed martial arts fans on a national stage. Just please stop with the strippers. Please.

Keep refreshing this page for the latest results from EliteXC: “Primetime” on CBS. Also, be sure to step into the 5 Oz. of Pain chatroom to chat with some of the staff as well as see what other fans are talking about. Keep it tuned to 5 Oz. for all your EliteXC on CBS needs!

Main Card:

• Kimbo Slice def. James Thompson via TKO (strikes) at 0:38 of Rd. 3
• Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith ruled a no-contest (doctor stoppage - thumb in the eye) at 3:26 of Rd. 3
• Gina Carano def. Kaitlin Young via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) at 5:00 of Rd. 2
• Joey Villasenor def. Phil Baroni via TKO (strikes) at 1:11 of Rd. 1
• Brett Rogers def. Jon Murphy via KO at 1:01 of Rd. 1

Undercard:

• Chris Liguori def. Jim Bova via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) at 4:31 of Rd. 2
• Carlton Haselrig def. Carlos Moreno via TKO at 5:00 of Rd. 1
• Matt Makowski def. Nick Serra via TKO at 3:57 of Rd. 2
• Wilson Reis def. Justin Robbins via submission (rear naked choke) at 4:06 of Rd. 1
• James “Binky” Jones def. Calvin Kattar via submission (rear naked choke) at 4:49 of Rd. 1
• Zach Makovsky def. Andre Soares via Unanimous Decision
• Joe Sampieri def. Mike Groves via TKO at 4:58 of Rd. 1

A lot of time you hear hyperbole that rings hollow from fight promotions for fights. However, in the case of Sunday’s main event matchup between Urijah Faber and Jens Pulver, the WEC is right on the money by calling it the biggest fight in the history of the featherweight title.

The show, will air live on Versus starting at 9 p.m. ET, will be held at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, Calif. Built around the local drawing power of Faber, it truly will be the biggest show in the history of the WEC.

But in addition to Faber vs. Pulver, fight fans are also being presented a solid undercard, featuring a bantamweight title match between rising star Miguel Torres taking on Pancrase veteran Yoshiro Maeda. We’ll also get to see the return of “Razor” Rob McCullough and the debut of blue chip middleweight prospect and former NCAA champion, Mark Munoz, in separate bouts.

Below you will find our full preview of the event.

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I’ve read numerous posts on message forums from some people that haver a problem with the underground that has been put together for “EliteXC: Primetime.” And that is understandable, considering that a lot of the names on the card are not yet well known nationally. However, that’s going to change, as fighters such as Matt Makowski, Wilson Reis, Jim Bova, Zach Makovsky, and James “Binky” Jones are all stars in the making. And regular readers of this site will know that they are all fighters that we’ve been talking about for quite some time.

The undercard you will see on Saturday was not put together for a national audience. With 12,000 seats to fill inside Newark’s Prudential Center, this undercard was clearly put together with the idea to sell tickets locally. And as far as regional cards go, this undercard is an All-Star lineup of most of the top fighters available in the New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia regions.

For the casual fan, there might not be a lot that appeals to you. However, if you are a hardcore fan, I strongly recommend you check out this show (starting at 7 p.m. ET on ProElite.com and CBSSports.com) because you are going to see some strong performances from some future stars.

Here’s my preview of the event and what I should you should look for:

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Having already staged pay-per-view shows from England and Ireland, the UFC will be continuing it’s global presence.

We’re going to the Philippines, Germany, and possibly Dubai,” said Dana White.

Historically, the shows that originated from Europe have not done as well in total PPV buys as the shows in the US have. Mainly, that’s due to the unusual start time. Starting a card in the middle of day will never generate as much interest as a show that starts prime time on Saturday night (due to Saturday night having the feeling of “fight night”), and showing the card on tape delay will have less appeal because the results will have already gotten out on the Internet.

The goal of the worldwide expansion for the UFC is to take one step back and two steps forward. By losing money in the short term on PPV buys, the UFC hopes to pick up new fans that will continue to watch the shows for many years going forward. In the long term, the growth can only be good for the sport.

MMA Junkie’s got the scoop:

Former World Wrestling Entertainment performer and decorated amateur wrestler Bobby Lashley is the latest signing for the Kentucky-based American Fight League.

A source close to the 31-year-old told MMAjunkie.com that Lashley will be introduced as an AFL signee — perhaps the organization’s biggest to date — during tonight’s “Bulletproof” show at Phillips Arena in Atlanta.

Good for Lashley. Signing with a smaller organization like the AFL will allow him to get some MMA experience on a mid-level show, become familiar with the fight game, and then hopefully parlay that success into a larger career in MMA. He’s got the amateur wrestling tools and he’s been training with a good camp at American Kickboxing Academy. He also didn’t spend too much time in the WWE so his body hasn’t taken the punishment of oh, say, Brock Lesnar. I look forward to following his career in MMA as I think it will be a good one.

Courtesy of Esther Lin (updated: Esther rules) at Combat Lifestyle, we have some great pics of the weigh-ins for tomorrow’s fight. See the difference between what a professional fighter who takes the fight seriously looks like (Kaitlin Young) and a fighter who is spoiled and can’t even make weight in a weight class that was created specifically for her (Gina Carano).

Weigh-ins for EliteXC’s “Primetime” show took place today at approximately 2pm ET at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The Prudential Center will also play host to the fight card tomorrow night, which is set to air live on CBS. Pro Elite will be streaming preliminary fights live before the CBS broadcast begins.

The results are as follows:

Televised Card
• Kimbo Slice (235.5) vs. James Thompson (257)
• Robbie Lawler (184.5) (c) vs. Scott Smith (184.5)
• Gina Carano (144.5) vs. Kaitlin Young (140.5)
• Jon Murphy (260.5) vs. Brett Rogers (263.5)
• Phil Baroni (185) vs. Joey Villasenor (184.5)

Internet Card

• Carlton Haselrig (263) vs. Carlos Moreno (261)
• Jim Bova (160.5) vs. Chris Liguori (161)
• Matt Makowski (171) vs. Nick Serra (167)
• Wilson Reis (140.5) vs. Justin Robbins (140.5)
• James “Binky” Jones (154.5) vs. Calvin Kattar (155.5)

Preliminary Card

• Zach Makovsky (135) vs. Andre Soares (134)
• Mike Groves (154) vs. Joe Sampieri (155)

As you can probably tell, Gina Carano once again failed to make weight. According to several reports from on-site sources, Carano must give Kaitlin Young 12.5% of her fight purse as a result of the weight issue.

Log into Five Ounces of Pain for more CBS Saturday Night Fights content!

FiveOuncesOfPain.com was informed by IFL President and CEO Jay Larkin earlier this morning that casual talks have taken place between his organization and EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw regarding an inter-promotional fight between IFL heavyweight champion Roy Nelson and Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson.

According to Larkin, formal talks about a Nelson vs. Slice fight have yet to take place but discussions could intensify Monday morning, depending on the outcome of Slice’s heavyweight bout during EliteXC’s debut on CBS this Saturday night.

“If Kimbo wins, we’ll make that match (Nelson vs. Slice) without hesitation,” Larkin said during an exclusive interview with Five Ounces of Pain. “We”ll do in on an IFL card or an Elite card — we don’t care. Promotions working together is the only way for this business to grow.”

Both Larkin and Shaw have worked together for over 20 years and the two were involved with numerous boxing co-promotions while Larkin was the head of SHOWTIME Sports. In fact, both Larkin and Shaw are responsible for the creation one of SHOWTIME’s boxing staples, “ShoBox.”

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We’re here once again with another exciting weekend of mixed martial arts action starting with EliteXC: Primetime on CBS. This will be a historic event for the sport of MMA and we’re more than happy to give you our analysis and predictions of the fights. Let’s do it..

Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson

Paul Balsom: Thompson has won a whopping two of his last eight fights, one of those victories coming against Don Frye. Now I’m no statistician, but that’s not even a good percentage for baseball at-bats. Kimbo will punch Thompson many times in the face. Though Kimbo is no top-tier mixed martial artist, I’m going to go ahead and pick Kimbo to win with a KO in the first round. It’s a little sad that the MMA network debut main event is a fight that requires only this much breaking down.

Michael Huckaby: Thompson is going to “tard charge” and try to get it to the ground immediately. He’ll feel this is a big surprise but it’s fairly obvious that’s what is going to happen. So instead of this fight simply being “Thompson punched in face, Thompson falls” it might actually come down to whether that running takedown works or not. Even if it does Kimbo should be good enough to get up at this point. The only problem with going against Thompson is he seems to win when he’s not supposed to. Still not going to pick him. Winner: Kimbo Slice, TKO, Rd1

Adam Morgan: There’s no two ways about this fight. Thompson is being set up to be Kimbo’s next victory. With Kimbo’s punching power and Thompson’s glass chin and tendency to run straight across the cage at his opponents, this one feels like a no-brainer. However, Thompson has had tough fights and beaten somewhat decent competition so I don’t expect him to be a complete pushover like Cantrell and Abbott were. I expect for Kimbo to actually have a somewhat legitimate test here even if it only lasts a couple minutes into the first round. Ultimately though, Kimbo knocks Thompson out. Kimbo Slice via TKO, round one.

Gary Herman: Thompson has one job on Saturday night - make Kimbo look good. I just hope he doesn’t knock himself out walking to the cage. Kimbo Slice by first round KO.

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I had the pleasure this week of interviewing a man that I consider to be one of the top play-by-play announcers in all of professional and college sports, Gus Johnson. You can now access this interview at CBSSports.com by CLICKING HERE.

Johnson will begin his latest broadcast endeavor as the lead voice of CBS’ coverage of EliteXC this Saturday. It’s a role that Johnson indicated that both he and the network are committed to. When I asked him about how he will juggle his NFL broadcasting duties with possible Fall MMA telecasts, Johnson seemed to state that MMA could represent a higher priority for him:

Q: You’re a big part of CBS’ coverage of the NFL and there are four EliteXC shows scheduled to be broadcast on the network before year’s end. If there are fall EliteXC shows, will you miss them because of your commitment to the network’s NFL telecasts?

G.S.: Actually, you know what? From what I understand, the network is committed to me doing these MMA broadcasts first. So I don’t think that I will be missing any. Hopefully after the shows are over I can get on a plane and get to where I need to be the next day, the next morning. But the plan is for me to call all of these shows.

Johnson also discussed his impressions of his broadcast partners, Mauro Ranallo, Frank Shamrock, and Karyn Bryant; his decision to start taking jiu-jitsu classes in order to prepare for this bout; why he compares MMA to quantum physics; and more!

Just click here in order to read the interview in its entirety.

In order to help get you in the mood for EliteXC’s historic debut on CBS this Saturday at 9 p.m. ET, I wanted to offer my breakdown of the televised portion of the card and give my predictions for the fight. I will have my preview of the Internet fights available here tomorrow.

Overall, this card is filled with standup fighters so I expect a lot of quick and dramatic finishes. Here’s my fight-by-fight look at the card

Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson - Thompson has pulled off big wins over the likes of Dan Severn, Don Frye, and Hidehiko Yoshida in the past. But he’s also lost a lot of fights in spectacular fashion to Fujita, Butterbean, and even Neil Grove.

EliteXC is still a relatively young promotion without a lot of marquee stars at the moment. The promotion has Frank Shamrock and Kimbo as its only two headliners, so a loss by Slice in this spot would be devestating to the promotion. But I just don’t see that happening, as Slice’s hands are world class and Thompson’s chin is infamous.

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The WEC is about to televise the biggest fight in it’s history between featherweight champion Urijah Faber and top contender Jens Pulver. Ticket sales for the fight leading up to the fight have been very strong (ahead of EliteXC’s debut), and the pre-fight hype has been very solid as well.

Faber and Pulver bring something different to the cage than the UFC does - they weigh-in at 145 lbs. The UFC does not offer that. This gives the WEC a special niche. By having Faber and Pulver highlighted in the main event, the WEC does not have to take a backseat to the UFC. They have two of the top fighters in the featherweight weight class squaring off.

Should Zuffa continue to differentiate the product between the WEC and UFC? I think yes. There’s no need to have a WEC light heavyweight title because there are many lighter weight classes than don’t have a major American championship that can be highlighted in that spot. Why have the 20th and 21st best light heayweights fight it out when you could see two top five flyweights?

One of the men fighting in the main event this weekend agrees that this is the direction the WEC should go.

There should be lighter weights in the WEC and heavier weights in the UFC,” Pulver said, “Give the little guys a home. I believe that is what they (Zuffa) are going to do.”

One thing the WEC has done very well is deliver strong, action-packed shows. By continuing to showcase more and more of the lighter weights, the WEC will increase its profile and it’s fanbase.

That’s right… Mark Hughes.  For those of you who remember back to UFC 28, Matt Hughes‘ twin brother Mark fought in a victorious effort against Alex Stiebling.  This was back in November of 2000, and Mark’s most recent fight was at an Extreme Challenge event in the summer of 2003.

MMA Weekly is now running a story that says Mark Hughes is all but signed for a UFC return for what one could guess would be the very near future.

Former UFC welterweight champion, and future UFC hall-of-famer, Matt Hughes had some comments on this topic:

“I do know that Mark is going to sign a contract with the UFC where he won’t compete for anybody else. And that’d be right here coming up. That’s all I can really tell you. That’s all I can really comment on.”

Matt also commented on if the brothers wanted to eventually compete on the same card:

“To be honest, we tried that in the past with the old owners and they just never went for it. But that’s been six, seven years ago probably. So, we’ll just see what comes out of it. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Hopefully if it does, it’ll be in the Midwest there somewhere.”

With rumors of a UFC event in the Midwest coming up, the Hughes brothers could end up fighting not only on the same card, but in front of a hometown crowd.  For now, the active Hughes brother has a more imminent concern in welterweight rising star Thiago Alves.  Hughes and Alves will take main event billing next weekend at the UFC 85: “Bedlam” card in London, England.

USA Today recently posted a Q&A session with Dana White where he trudges out some of the same old tired analogies that he always does and also some new ones. Let’s take a look at this gem of an interview.

On the PRIDE deal:

Realistically, the only company that I considered as big as the UFC, and it was over in Japan, not in the United States, was Pride. What I wanted to come away from Pride acquisition obviously was talent and that library. I wanted that library.

Oh really? The library you never use? Sure, you can see the fights on UFC On Demand if you really want but why pay for them when you can find them online in all kinds of different places? And when was the last time the PRIDE library was even used to great effect? Never has it been used to really hype a fight to the extent that a casual fan would want to buy a pay per view because a PRIDE guy is fighting. As for the talent, we all know what happened regarding the talent. It didn’t come with the deal and whose fault is that ultimately? If the UFC had done its due diligence in regards to buying PRIDE maybe we wouldn’t have to hear these questions anymore.

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Over the past several days we have received requests about weigh-in information for Saturday’s “EliteXC: Primetime” event. The weigh-ins for the event are scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) at 2 p.m. ET in Newark, N.J. at the Prudential Center. The weigh-ins are open to the public and will be held outside in front of the venue’s giant LED screen.

EliteXC officials announced at their press conference today that there will not be a CBS show on July 26 as was previously speculated. The next CBS show could be late summer or early fall. EliteXC and CBS need to work out the venue for the next show as well as CBS’ primetime schedule but they could possibly announce the date for the second EliteXC show on CBS at Saturday’s event.

Gary Shaw also estimated that “roughly” 7,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday’s EliteXC: Primetime event on CBS. He also said that he believes 96% of CBS affiliates will be showing the card.

Stay tuned to FiveOuncesOfPain.com for more information on EliteXC on CBS as it becomes available.

During last night’s episode of “The Ultimate Fighter 7,” Matt Brown became one of the latest fighters to be eliminated from the middleweight tournament after losing via triangle choke submission at the hands of Amir Sadollah.

Courtesy of Spike TV, FiveOuncesOfPain.com was able to speak with Brown a day after the loss was shown on television. We not only were able to get Matt’s thoughts on the fight itself, but also on the supposed “overtraining” of Team Forrest, his fight with Jeremy May, and much more.

Adam Morgan: If you and Amir fought again do you think there’s anything that you’d do differently?

Matt Brown: Actually there’s nothing I would do different. I fought him well and things just didn’t turn out my way that day. I wouldn’t fight him any different. Not take anything at all away from Amir but I think I’d win if we fought again so I’d fight him exactly the same but just be a little bit better next time.

Adam Morgan: It looked like you might have been a bit gassed at the end of the fight and there are some fighters talking about Team Forrest being overtrained as a whole. Do you agree that Forrest was a little aggressive in his training?

Matt Brown: Yeah, Forrest was definitely aggressive in his training but I’ve got a few things to say about that. First off Forrest told us the first day we were out there, he said “It’s up to you guys to take days off when you need to take days off” and he said he will run us into the ground. The way I see it is we’re fucking professional athletes and at this level, if you don’t know when to take days off then you don’t need to be at this level. Like you need to go back to the fucking amateur ranks and learn how to train yourself. A lot of them guys, they’d just never trained like that too. They’re talking about “overtrain this, overtrain that,” and the fact is that they had just never trained balls to the wall like that before.

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FiveOuncesofPain.com has just been given word from Robbie Lawler’s team that his new and improved website has launched earlier this week.  Just in time for his network television debut, Lawler’s new site features a personal blog, news, pictures, and a forum, among other things.

The EliteXC middleweight champion will defend his belt against TUF-veteran Scott Smith on “EliteXC: Primetime” this Saturday night live on CBS at 9pm ET/PT. Be sure to visit www.Robbie-Lawler.com today and throughout this huge MMA weekend!

Check back with Five Oz. for tons more EliteXC: “Primetime” coverage!

FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned that the undercard bouts for EliteXC: Primetime will be shown on CBSSports.com at 7 p.m. ET with the main card starting on CBS at 9 p.m. ET.

Originally the bouts were only scheduled to appear on ProElite.com but now it appears that both ProElite.com and CBSSports.com will be streaming the fights live at 7 p.m. ET.

The undercard bouts are as follows, starting at 7 p.m. ET on CBSSports.com and ProElite.com:

• Chris Liguori vs. Jim Bova
• Carlton Haselrig vs. Carlos Moreno
• Nick Serra vs. Matt Makowski
• Wilson Reis vs. Justin Robbins
• James “Binky” Jones vs. Calvin Kattar