UPDATE:  LIVE BLOG TONIGHT!!!  We will be here chatting with you at kwtx.com for the next installment of "EliteXC Saturday Night Fights.  Bookmark http://www.kwtx.com/blogs/tvblog/25647339.html and we'll see you tonight at 8pm CT!

Now being one of those people who only knows a little bit about MMA, I was looking forward to the Elite XC "Saturday Night Fights."  Not sure what I was going to see, but knowing that it was going to be hopefully interesting.  MMA has been all over the news, has its own reality show, and it is a big pay per view draw. 

Plus, it means a sporting event in HD, which is always a good thing.

So I get my snacks, drinks and sit down for a night of fights and my first look at this Kimbo Slice guy.  Again, I don't know much about MMA, but I know that this guy is a big deal for some reason.  Turns out he's known because of his fights that have been shown on the internet.  For some reason, I'm not feeling as confident after hearing that.

So the show starts up and we start with....girls dancing??  Don't get me wrong, I've loved girls dancing since the 80s and The Laker Girls.  Makes most events better and it keeps us guys interested.  But it just isn't the way I wanted to start this FIGHT night.  Then a wide shot of the fighting area shows some blood on the mat already.  Um, I guess there were other fights before the first scheduled TV fight tonight.  Maybe recaps of these fights should have been shown instead of all the talk, previews, and commercials that were shown.  Seems like the first fight didn't start until about a half hour into the show.

We start the night with Brett Rogers and Jon Murphy.  Long introductions, and a special guest introduction/entrance by Busta Rhymes?  Weird considering this was the FIRST fight.  Well Murphy hits Rogers with a right to start the fun.  Rogers gives out a huge right cross that knocks Murphy down.  The ref stepped in and the fight was over.  Rogers wins.

This fight was a total of one minute long.  Maybe I'm spoiled from boxing, but that seems a little short considering all the buildup here.  

After tons of promos, talk, and commercials for Rockstar Energy Drink, we get to the second fight, Joey Villasensor against Phil Baroni.  Note to MMA sporting folks:  Work on the nicknames a little bit.  The ones you have now are just not working.  Baroni seems to be a little bit of a trash talker, but it's not always good to do that when you seem to be a little past your prime.  Villasensor wins the fight in 1:11 of round one.  And Baroni was booed when he tried to go back to the dressing room before the verdict was announed.  Classy. 

Now a question for those who watch MMA...do the fights always end this quick, or are the officials erring on the side of caution since this is an big event on a major network?

I'm officially bored.  Time to step out for a snack.  Wait, a commercial for Street Fighter 4.  WOOHOO!!!  Street Fighter was a fighting game that I spent most of my tuition in during my freshman year in college.  Yes I will be buying this game....never mind, it's on Playstation 3...sigh.

Now the first good fight is of course delivered by the girls.  This being the throwdown between Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young.  Now according to the announcers, Gina (who is "Crush" on the new version of "American Gladiators") didn't make weight and has to give part of her prize money to Young.  Ouch.  Aparently that angered her becuase she put a little bit of a beat down on Young and nearly choked her out at one point.  Fight was stopped by the doctor and Carano won. 

Now I have a problem here.  And I think it's a problem that MMA is going to have.  Girl fights are cool, until you see one of the girls with a black eye the size of Saturn.  Then you don't feel as good.  Or maybe it's just me.  Let's just move on.     

Next fight was an actual championship match.  Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith.  A standup battle that was a times amazing and at time really boring.  But in the third round, I saw something I never want to see again. 

Lawler was looking to back up from Smith, and accidentally poked him in the eye.  Now if you have been poked in the eye, you don't need to hear any more.  If you haven't, trust me when I say it's not any fun.  And this one looked worse than most.

Oh yeah....CBS, I don't need to see that three or four times in slow motion HD.  Once was more than enough.  Thanks.

So Lawler kept the title because the fight was stopped.  Lawler wasn't happy, Smith wasn't happy, and considering what the crowd was shouting, they were not happy.

At this point I realize that it is now after 10pm and the newscast is going to go on late.  As a former director, nothing is worse than going on for a late newscast, especially on the weekend.

So here we go with the big fight.  Kimbo Slice with a record of......TWO AND 0???  Wait what????  This guy has only fought two professional fights?  So basically he's a lot of buzz, but not proven.  And he's six foot two inches.  A little taller than the average man, but nowhere as near as big as I thought he was after seeing all the promotions for the event.  That's marketing for you there! 

His fight this evening is against James Thompson, who is 16-8 and.....wow look at that ear!  What the heck is with that? 

Thompson's left ear has an injury called cauliflower ear.  Had to get on the internet to find out more about it.  Happens to a lot of fighters and the like.  Basically a huge blood clot under the ear that makes it appear out of shape and big and puffy. 

Remember the blood clot part....

Kimbo for the most part tried to use power to beat Thompson, but when Thompson took him to the ground, Kimbo was out of his league.  And it looked like Kimbo "tapped out" at one point.  Outside of some huge punches, Thomspon was winning this fight I thought.  Until the third round.

Kimbo delivered a wild punch that connected with Thompson's ear.  The cauliflower ear.  Just a little blood poured out.  And by a little I mean A LOT.  Again, an interesting experience in high definition.  The ref stopped the fight, and Thompson gave a little punch to the ref, seeming to be more out of instinct instead of anger, even though he wasn't happy that the fight was stopped.  Kimbo wins, even though he looks exhausted and the crowd that was once for him is now against him winning this bout.

Seems like Kimbo Slice had no business being the headliner in a prime time network event.  Just about any well trained MMA fighter could have probably beat him up.  The fans of MMA deserved better than this for the first major fight on prime time television.  And the ones like myself deserved better when you consider that we were trying out the sport and it really didn't seem that interesting. 

There is another planned Elite XC fight on CBS later this year.  Hopefully that one will be better than this.