Elite XC Uprising Results

"Ruthless" Robbie Lawler continues to never even grin though he won the Elite XC Middleweight Championship, while Gina Carano and Nick Diaz find smiles after impressive wins at this weekends "Uprising" card on Showtime.

Robbie Lawler won the Middleweight Title from Ninja Rua via ground and pound TKO in the 3rd round. Though Robbie got a nice slam in the 1st, Rua would outpace the Team Hughes fighter with brutal leg kicks and stiff jabs to take the opening round. More of the same in the 2nd as Rua is outpointing his challenger but seems very gassed at the end of the round. In what would be the final round, Ninja has little energy left and Robbie sensing his plight, unloads dropping Rua to the canvas with a left and right. From there he pounced and reigned down blows until the ref stepped in and halted the action.
Ninja, I thought we had this whole cardio issue behind us. Ninja just plain ran out of steam and Lawler absorbed all his shots until he knew he could safely invoke his powerful stand up, similar to what he did in his last outing with Frank Trigg. Robbie takes his 2nd belt (he is also the ICON Sport Middleweight Champion) and the fans are left wondering why Ninja Rua wasn't in proper shape for his title defense.

Nick Diaz had his hands full with Mike Aina who really brought the fight. In the 1st round, Mike brought a stand up war while Nick really looked rusty from his 6 month layoff. Diaz takes the shots on his iron chin and shrugs it off going into the 2nd. Now Diaz finds his range and is landing at will with punches, elbows, and nicely placed knees. Aina storms back knocking down Nick with a nice punch, but Diaz quickly recovers and turns on the action. Nick is everywhere and besides a flurry of punches here and there, Diaz owns the round, though it was close because of the knockdown, Diablo easily won the boxing war and secured a tight armbar though time would run out. In the final round its all Diaz who now has his rhythm and is just abusing Mike who seems to be trying to hold on for a decision. Diaz takes the Hawaiian to the floor, gets in the hooks, and establishes control though he could not secure the choke.
The judges give a split decision to Nick Diaz as the crowd boo's at the loss for the hometown boy. I scored the fight 29-28 for Diaz, and the only close round was the 2nd when Nick was knocked down by a nice punch. However, a flash knockdown followed by no offense, and getting hammered for 4 minutes doesn't win you a round just like getting a takedown and doing nothing with it doesn't earn you points for a decision. Good fight, and me thinks me sees a new title in the future at 160 lbs. with Nick Diaz being one of the challengers (you heard it here 1st).

Gina Carano didn't leave her fight up to the judges as she gained her 1st submission win with a rear naked choke over Tonya Evinger. Though before the fight Tonya said, "I'd rather make out with Gina than fight her." she quickly overwhelmed Carano on the feet and took the fight to the floor where she employed her superior wrestling. Evinger sinks in a tight guillotine but a patient Carano pops her hips to the side, pulls her head out, and takes the back of her opponent. Tonya seemed confused by the sudden reversal of fortunes and Gina sinks in the choke causing the tapout. Impressive recovery for "Miss Conviction" as she remains undefeated in her MMA career.

For people who still don't know Jake Shields (training partner of the brothers Diaz) you are missing a star. Jake was taken down early by the game "Charuto" Verissimo, but quickly got back up and took the BJ Penn fighter to the floor. From there it was over as Jake unloaded upon Charuto with punches and elbows from full mount. The ref waits far too long as Verissimo takes an unnecessary amount of punishment as Shields impressively wins his 8th fight in a row. This guy is on an absolute tear and the Welterweights of the world should be concerned.

Joey Villasenor also scored a split-decision win (though it should have been unanimous) and the rest of the card,.......crickets..........crickets...., well, nobody cared. Matt Hughes who was cornering his fighter Robbie Lawler, inexplicably stormed into the cage after his man's win screaming at official Mario Yamasaki, for some unknown reason. At least he made an ass of himself yet again to help promote his new Team Hughes group. Matt Hughes, and Robbie Lawler did not have a falling out with Pat Miletich, their now former coach. “I don’t blame him. He’s been training up here 8-9 years. It’s not easy being away from your family all the time, so I don’t blame him. I wish him good luck and hope it goes well for him. We had a lot of good years. I’m sad to see him go.” said Pat Miletich.

Elite XC's main card was very good, and here's hoping they continue to put together bigger and better shows now that they have purchased Cage Rage and King Of The Cage to develop more talent.