MMA: Elite XC - Saturday on Showtime

[LEONARD]

ELITE XTREME COMBAT: FEBRUARY 10, 2007 ON SHOWTIME
Southaven, Mississippi
Main card airs live on Showtime from 10 PM to 12 (ET/PT)

Main Card Bouts:
-Frank Shamrock vs. Renzo Gracie
-David Loiseau vs. Joey Villasenor
-Antonio Silva vs. Wes "Cabbage" Correira
-Gina Carano vs. Julie Kedzie
-Charles "Crazy Horse" Bennett vs. K.J. Noons

Preliminary Bouts:
-Javier Vazquez vs. Adriano Periera
-Mike Pyle vs. Ross Ebanez
-John Shackelford vs. Edson Berto
-Bo Cantrell vs. Tim Persey
-Riki Fukuda vs. Seth Kleinbeck

Not too bad for a first card. Finally get to see Shamrock again...he should handle up on Gracie pretty easily.

The Crow is usually entertaining...Villasenor had to be disappointed with his quick KO loss at Pride Real Deal to Robbie Lawler...

Antonio Silva is a MONSTER...

Gina Carano :ihit

and the Crazy Horse is always fun to watch...

I don't have Showtime though, so I'll have to figure something out...live stream, download, or find a friend's house that has it...

[LEONARD]

Frank is going to be on ESPN radio in Austin at 4:40 central time.

http://www.espnaustin.com

Kevin Scott is the host and he and I email about MMA stuff fairly often. He asked me if I had any questions that I'd like him to ask, so I figured why not ask here...

Obviously he can't ask something that's too off the wall, but post up your SERIOUS questions and I'll send them to Kevin before the interview...

[LEONARD]

Gina Carano interviews
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/articlefiles/3408-Carano.jpg
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=3408
http://www.strictlymma.com/ginacarano.htm
http://www.strictlymma.com/ginacarano2.htm


Frank Shamrock interview
http://www.graciemag.com/?c=147&a=6338

Press Conf Notes
http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/news/headlines/default.asp?aID=18609

Mauro Renallo (from Pride FC fame) and Jay Glazier (from Pride on FSN fame) have been added to the broadcast team (good to know that Mario Lopez / AC Slater is just a roaming reporter)
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=3405

[LEONARD]

Cliff notes (rough) from the Shamrock interview on ESPN Radio...

"My motivation is to set the family name straight" "My goal is to be the face of MMA like I used to be, represent it with honor and respect and show people what true martial arts, and the true martial arts lifestyle is all about" "I am hopin to wack Renzo out like I did Cesar" "True mixed martial arts is strength in every area and being well rounded, we will see if Renzo is ready."

In response to why he walked away: "I left because I didn't like the direction of the business, I didn't like the direction of the sport" "I was the Michael Jordan of the Dark Ages, basically I got tired of it. The one guy I wanted to fight was Tito" "I told them to call me when they could find someone who could beat me, and they never called me." <-- These are cliff notes but his words exactly pretty much.

Thoughts on top guys fighting now: "Chuck's a little bit bigger than I am, love his style, love his game he is a really well rounded martial artist" "There are very few guys that are just superior in all areas" "The future is the young guys, the Georges St. Pierre's"

"Nobody under 200 pounds could beat me."

Frank wants re-establish himself as the best pound for pounder in the game again. He said he wants to walk it and talk it too.

Frank sounds open to the thought of fighting in the UFC or PRIDE, wherever he needs to go to prove he is the best. Frank wants a Super Bowl of MMA, he wants to know who the real Champions are and he believes eventually the public's demand for it is what will make it happen.

He says he hasn't received a Christmas card, a Birthday card or anything from his brother Ken. He said Ken and their Father both told him he would never be good enough to be a champion and that he did it to prove them wrong as well as for himself. He also said a fight between him and Ken is very possible and it sounded like they are trying to make it happen.

He's talking about Baroni and now said "He's next".

He also said he was one the most hated fighters in MMA and that the fans wanted him to beat Baroni.

And now he is talking about the UFC belt he says it is 100% true that he put his initials on it.