Kelly Kobald

Elite XC's Jared Shaw takes a little shot at yours truly in this MMA Rated interview, calling me Ben "UFC" Fowlkes, which I suppose is an implication that I'm pro-UFC and anti-Elite XC, although I like to think that my record as an equal opportunity critic speaks for itself. If an organization does dumb things, it's my job to point it out. If one organization does more dumb things than others, they're going to receive more criticism. That's just how it works. If it makes me a hater, I can live with that. But since when do we all have to like everything?

$kala says he just wants some love for his fighters, not himself. Fair enough, Jared. You do have some good fighters in your organization. Guys like Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Wilson Reis, Nick Diaz, and "Ninja" Rua, just to name a few. These are all fighters that I enjoy watching. But your fighters aren't what you've been criticized for, and I think you know it.

Let's take the event you've got this Saturday, for example. On the undercard you've got a few interesting scraps between guys like Paul Daley and Jake Shields, Benji Radach and "Ninja" Rua, and a sweet little co-promotional joint between Affliction fighters Andrei Arlovski and Roy Nelson (nice work scoring that, by the way, whether you had anything to do with it or not).

But your main event features a 3-0 fighter in Kimbo Slice, who has yet to face an opponent coming off a win, taking on a forty-four-year-old legend of the sport who hasn't won a fight or even made it out of the first round in over four years. And that's your main event.

(Different crumpled body, same end result on Saturday night?)

It's Friday, there's an event tomorrow (which we'll be liveblogging, of course), and questions abound as to Elite XC's long term viability and Ken Shamrock's short term punchability, so that means one thing...it's Ben vs. Ben time. In this edition, we talk Kimbo Slice, underdogs, co-promotions, and other stuff. We argue, we call each other names, we reconcile, we hug (just playin', we don't hug...anyone...ever), and in the end we arrive at few, if any, conclusions. But it's about the journey, man. Not the destination. So without further ado...

Assuming we agree that Kimbo Slice will be victorious over Ken Shamrock, how and when will it happen? What’s next for Ferg?

Fowlkes: If this were five years ago I’d take Shamrock over this strange Kimbo character and I wouldn’t think twice about it. But it’s not five years ago, alas, so Shamrock is in for yet another disappointing performance in a career that has seen too many of them lately.

In his more lucid moments, Shamrock knows he needs to get this to the ground in a hurry. He should also know that his forty-four-year-old legs don’t have too many explosive shots left in them, so he has to be smart and make his takedown attempts count. That’s why he’ll try and trap Kimbo against the cage in a clinch and look for a throw or leg sweep – something that won’t sap too much precious energy. Kimbo will circle away from him and tee off. Shamrock will try again with similar results, but eventually a punch will clip him and he’ll go down. Then the ref will step in and Shamrock will be protesting the stoppage before he’s even back on his feet. It won’t get out of the first round or even past the four-minute mark. Thank you, Florida, and good night.

This fight will prove nothing for Kimbo’s credibility. Even Elite XC has to see that. After this they’ll load up for one big pay-per-view with Kimbo vs. Brett Rogers as the main event, figuring it’s time to go all-in. They have no choice. Antonio Silva is dealing with his steroid charges, Justin Eilers is damaged goods, and Sean Gannon wants too much money. Rogers is the only guy people will pay to see Kimbo fight. If Elite XC is smart they’ll realize they can leverage Kimbo’s stardom into a big push for Rogers, who might actually have the skills to justify the hype in the long run.

Goldstein: Dude, Ken hasn't made it to the four-minute mark in a fight since 2002, and he's not about to start now. I'm going to bring your estimate down 90 seconds and say The Miami Pound Machine finishes The World's Most Glassiest Chin within the first 2:30. It'll start with Kimbo knocking Shamrock down after about a minute-and-a-half. (No more than one shot will be attempted by Ken during that time.) The ref won't stop it right away. Kimbo will get on top of Shamrock and punch him out on the ground. People will say "wooooo!" And the broadcast will immediately end because they'll already be over their timeslot by like a half-hour.

MMA Rated's Ariel Helwani is live on the scene of Elite XC: Heat and managed to score interviews with some of the principle players in Saturday night's event. Above, Kimbo Slice explains why he had to turn his phone off so he could fully focus on battering his senior citizen opponent.

Once more Kimbo makes his case as a populist fighter based on shopping at the same stores normal people shop at. Of course, he shops there with the hundreds of thousands of dollars he made for beating up substandard opponents, and he may or may not be wearing shoes with his picture on them. So there is that minor difference.

Ariel also spoke with Kelly Kobald -- who very politely explains her desire to make Gina Carano the "broken, bruised, and bloody face of women's MMA," -- as well as Gina Carano herself, who seems to genuinely like Ariel for some bizarre reason. Just proves she has poor taste in men. First Kit Cope, now Ariel Helwani? Gina, why do you do this to yourself?

Check it out after the jump.

(What, no odds on whether Gina will make weight?)

If betting odds are any indication of how competitive MMA bouts will turn out to be, expect a lot of one-sided blowouts on Elite XC's CBS offering this Saturday night. Not that it's any surprise, really. In fact, with five fights crammed into a two-hour time slot CBS is going to need some quick beatdowns if they don't want to run way over and have to cut into precious local news time. In any event, Best Fight Odds supplies the most gambler-friendly betting lines for 'Elite XC: Heat,' and they break down like this:

Kimbo Slice (-325) vs. Ken Shamrock (+329)
Jake Shields (-550) vs. Paul Daley (+524)
Gina Carano (-550) vs. Kelly Kobald (+525)
Ninja Rua (-196) vs. Benji Radach (+210)
Andrei Arlovski (-428) vs. Roy Nelson (+385)

Some thoughts...

(Lose the huge sunglasses and that's a 1/4 pound, at least.)

Every time Gina Carano fights we always hear the same question: will she make weight? Since the answer she gives is always the same, even when it turns out not to be true, people have turned to asking what she weighs at the present moment. Carano sounds like she's tired of all weight-related queries, and had this to say to AOL Fanhouse:

"I'm going to weigh 140 pounds next Friday. How much I weigh right now I'd rather keep to myself because I don't want to answer any more questions about it. ...I've got really high expectations for this weigh-in."

Two things here:

1) I completely understand why Carano would be sick of that question. I also think she's smart enough to know why she keeps hearing it and how she can make it stop.

2) She's got high expectations? For a weigh-in? That's a phrase you usually hear from NFL coaches before the season or defense attorneys who know their clients are probably guilty. The weigh-in should be a sure thing. It's just getting up on a scale, which you get plenty of chances to do beforehand.

Carano did say she's hired a nutritionist for this bout, so maybe that means there won't be any issues. If there are, I seem to remember doing an interview on MMA Rated radio with Kelly Kobald, who hinted at a contingency plan she had in the event that Carano missed weight. On a related note, Kobald admitted to weighing 160 as of today -- twenty pounds from the goal weight. She's either really confident she can shed that by next Friday, or else, like me, she has a weakness for hot wings.