Fight Night

I have had February 10th circled on my calender for a month in anticipation for the fights on Saturday night. It was a double header with HBO championship boxing presenting a card featuring "sugar" Shane Mosley while showtime debuted their new mixed martial arts promotion elite extreme combat.

I flipped on HBO at seven just in time to catch the start of the preliminary bout featuring Vivian Harris and Jose Lazcano.

In the first two rounds this bout looked like a mismatch as Harris used his reach and superior quickness to make Lazcano look like and amature. For Some reason in third round Harris decided to fight in close quarters with Lazcano. This was a tactical mistake as Lazcano was by far the better inside fighter as he did a good job of going to the body and working is way up to the head with effective combinations. The weird thing about this fight is that Harris seemed to be the one who decided where the fight too place. You would think he would keep the fight at a distance where he had the advantage . Yet, in several rounds he would choose to get in close with Lazcano and in effect give away the round. In the end Harris did enough boxing to win a close decision, but the fight really left me scratching my head. Why was this guy with a huge advantage in reach and quickness continually not playing to his strength. We never really got the answer to that during the telecast. At least Harris's strategic blundering made the bout entertaining.

Mosley VS Collazo:

Shane Mosley was the favorite going into this fight, but may hard core fans were picking Collazo. Mosley is thirty five(which further endears his to me because i am thirty five) Collazo is twenty five and an up and coming contender. Many thought the young Collazo would be to much for the aging veteran Mosley. This was not the case.

Shane Mosley fought a beautiful fight displaying tremendous hand speed and stamina as he out classed and out worked the younger Collazo in route to a convincing 12 round decision.

Shane Mosley is a rarity in boxing today in that he fights above his natural wait class and takes on all comers. Theirs a lot not to like about boxing these days but Shane Mosley is definitely one of the bright lights in a sport that definitely needs positive stories.

I enjoyed tonights broadcast of HBO boxing. I am not a huge fan of their broadcast team, but tonight that were not nearly as annoying as they usually are. And I got to see one of the best in the sport display his greatness. All in all a good night.

10:00 Elite Extreme Combat.

Elite Extreme Combat is Showtimes attempt to capitalize on the success of the ultimate fighting Championship and the growing acceptance of the sport of mixed martial arts.

Charles "Crazy horse " Bennett vs KJ Noons.
This fight is short as Bennett lands a crushing right hand that end the bout three minutes in.
Bennett portrays himself as a "street fighter" after the bout he did two back flips of the top of the cage and did an interview that sounded very pro wrestlingish as he he came across as a bad guy.

Gina Carano vs Julie Kedzie

This is the first time a bout between two women boxers or Mixed martial artists has appeared on Showtime.This bout stole the show. Gina Carano was recently profiled an MSNBC warior nation series.
Ms. Carano is a very talented fighter who happens to look like the cute girl next door (much like Danica Patrick in auto racing). Going in to this card their has been a buzz surrounding Carano because of her looks and talent as well as the fact that her recent fights have been show steelers. This night was no different as Carano and kedzie showed tremedous skill and heart in a fast paste fight that drew a standing ovation from the crowd. Carano Displayed beautiful Muay Thai kickboxing and Kedzie showed that she had a hard head as she took several hard blows and never stopped moving forward and actually managed to win the third and final round. These two ladies put on an awesome show and also did a wonderful job portraying women fighters as the two also displayed wonderfull sportsmanship to go along with their tremendous talent.

David Loiseau vs Jose Villasenor
This was a bout between an overachiever Villasenor and an underacheiver loiseau. For three round the hard working Villasenor imposed his will on Loiseau. Mr. Loiseau either needs to retire or find a good sports psychologist.

Antonio Silva vs Wesley Correria
Silva is a scary guy at 6'4 296 pounds the guy has virtually no body fat and moves like a cat.
Silva squashed Mr. Corriera is short order finishing him off with a jumping muay thai knee.

Frank Shamrock Vs Renzo Gacie
This bout was a tremendous disappointment as shamrock was dq'd in the second round due to an illegal knee to the back of Gracies head.
Leading to an unfortunate ending to an otherwise good debut for showtimes new promotion..

Going into the evening I was going to try and pick a winner between the two shows. I would have to call it a draw as both shows provided excellent cards leaving me the winner.