This past Saturday brought the birth of Live MMA on Network TV in a prime time slot. Was the endeavour a success or did the show flop and give the sport a black eye?
Elite XC aired the first ever live event on NBC this past Saturday. The internet has been alive with comments since and is showing no love for what should be heralded as an amazing step forward for the sport.
The night was filled with questionable early stoppages and poor officiating but the main event with Kimbo Slice vs James Thompson was the icing on the cake. Both the Brett Rogers-Jon Murphy heavyweight bout and the middleweight fight between Joey Villasenor and Phil Baroni were waved off as soon as Murphy and Baroni were dropped to the mat. Kimbo vs Thompson however was a different story, Kimbo weathered several elbows and punches to the face while on his back for 40 seconds near the end of round 2. Then in round 3, Kimbo pops a fluid filled ear on Thompson, lands a few more solid shots and the ref stops the fight with both fighters still on their feet.
Even the Gina Carano-Kaitlin Young fight which in my opinion was the fight of the night could have been argued to have an early stoppage. Then there was the Smith vs Lawler fight stoppage by the doctor, not even giving Smith the allotted time to recover after a accidental finger to the eye.
To say the biggest step forward in making MMA seem legit and break into prime time was a failure would be an understatement in my opinion. While the show did draw record numbers of viewers and the viewership grew as the event broadcast played out, the quality of the show was severely lacking.
The only way to salvage what took place would be to learn a great deal from the first event and make changes to be sure it does not happen in the second event. If Elite XC can not step it up then what was perceived to be a huge step forward for the sport could end up being one of its biggest failures. Only time will tell but as all fans I have to hope for the best.