This isn’t quite bare-knuckle fighting, though it is the closest we’ll get in a legal venue.
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Showtime Networks and ProElite, Inc. formed Elite Extreme Combat (or EliteXC for short) in 2006. Fights from the eighth event, filmed in Corpus Christi, Texas, on November, 2007, are presented on "EliteXC: Renegade." A total of five mixed martial arts (MMA) matches are accounted for, along with another five "bonus fights"-really the undercard for the event. Despite the Lightweight Championship Fight being housed here (Nick Diaz vs. K. J. Noons), the real attraction, at least for fight buffs, is the debut of former street fighter Kimbo Slice.
A couple notes on the presentation before we delve into the fights themselves. First, there is a play all option on the main menu. It´s a nice inclusion. Second, each individual match is segregated from the others without the benefit of opening or closing titles. Only the title fight at the end contains closing credits. And there is no proper opening to speak of. Lastly, no bout goes the distance (3-5 minute rounds until the title fight, which is increased to 5-5 minute rounds). It should go without saying, then, that each installment is padded…somewhat extravagantly. One match-up lasts for a grand total of :19, yet the segment runs a bit over 15 minutes.
Before we get to Slice vs. Bo Cantrell (fight number four on the first disc), we have to get through the first three match ups. Antonio "Big Foot" Silva and Jonathan Wiezorek is up first. It´s a rather pedestrian fight in every way, especially by MMA standards. Either combatant draws blood and neither is a magnetic personality. At least, though, there is no manufactured storyline as there is in professional wrestling. The participants wail on each other, really without mercy.
Next, we get a fight notable for showcasing the first blood and the first time the cage doctor has to step in. Doctor Seth Kleinbeck and Aussie Kyle Noke go after each other in the only fight to last more than one round on the main card. (Only one on the undercard would go more than a single round, too.) What impresses here isn´t so much the technique on display, but the pummeling the body can take before the skin breaks open. So when a cut on Kleinbeck´s brow is open and the doctor can stick an entire large Q Tip into it, that image tends to hurt more than all the Rear Naked Chokes or Muay Thai kicks.
Jakes Shields and Mike "Quicksand" Pyle is another relatively benign fight ending with one of the most barbaric techniques imaginable: the rear naked choke. Essentially, with one fighter flat on his back on the mat and the other one in the same position on top of him, the forearm is brought into the throat of the man on top until he, quite obviously, gives up. He gets out of the hold by tapping his opponents arm, thereby submitting. And to think this move is perhaps the kindest we see any fighter use.
Then comes the much ballyhooed Sice and Cantrell match. In the end, without giving too much away, this is two big guys punching the crap out of each other. Well, let me backtrack. It´s one big guy wailing on another one, to the tune of a Total Knock Out in a very, very short amount of time. Kimbo Slice will undoubtedly be a big draw in the future, based on both the promotion he receives, the internet fan base he appears to have and the style in which he fights.
All that being said, the marquee event is Diaz vs. Noons. Coming in at just short of half an hour, we somehow expect more from this fight than what we end up getting. I compare what happens here-sorry, no spoilers, if such a thing exists in sports-to a hyped Super Bowl (say, the New England Patriots and New York Giants) which doesn´t live up to the promotion. And to preserve some sense of mystery, that´s where I´ll keep it.
I admit to turning the TV off anytime I pass by cage fighting on any cable channel. It´s simply not my thing. But watching each of these fights, learning some of the vocabulary and beginning to know what to look for, I also admit what we´re presented with isn´t as bad as I dreamed it would be. Chief among the reasons is the lack of a storyline, as I alluded to earlier. "EliteXC: Renegade" is two guys, in a cage, hitting each other until the round ends. Or one can´t continue. One of the major turnoffs of professional wrestling for me is the incessant need to turn the event in a soap opera (not to mention the fake fighting). What makes this and other MMA productions refreshing to see is the brutal nature of each contest.
It´s controlled violence, trained violence, not designed to hurt the other person, but to make them submit. The referee is involved to ensure a clean fight. A cage doctor is on hand to tend to the injuries. I don´t think there´s anything quite like MMA in any other sport. Football comes closest, but even the most manly of American sports pales in comparison. Shoulder pads, cleats, helmets…none of these fighters have anything of the sort. There´s a primal, base animal emotion to what we´re watching.
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