EliteXC’s second CBS show featured a lot of excitement and really delivered the honest to goodness MMA goods despite a lack of big names and strong promotion. But after last weekend’s Ultimate Fight Night/Affliction double feature EXC still felt a little flat. There was a definite minor league feeling to things and the crowd hurt the feel of the show badly at times with booing of exciting fights.
Sure, EXC crowned champions but after last weekend are names like Jake Shields, Antonio Silva and Robbie Lawler carrying the same kind of weight of an Anderson Silva or Fedor? There was so much of an inescapable feeling of “this is not the best that mixed martial arts has to offer” to the show that despite its successes the show couldn’t boost the promotion.
And now to top it off Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito put on an absolute boxing classic. The fight was so good that I will not talk about who won in hopes that you’ll make sure you see it. It was stand up and yell at your TV good.
So once again EliteXC is overshadowed in the fight world. It now sits as the fourth best combat sports event of the past 7 days. We’ll see where the ratings come in, but at this point the only thing that could really make them feel good are better than expected numbers for a show that they never seemed to put their promotional muscle behind.
I guess now it’s just “Go get ’em in October boys.” But they’re going to need a hell of a show in such a loaded month to gain any traction in a landscape that got a whole lot rougher with the emergence of Affliction.