DQED SHAMROCK TOOK FIRST ROUND OF ELITE XC GRACIE BOUT

By Loretta Hunt

Middleweight Frank Shamrock was ahead on two of the three judges’ first round score cards for Saturday’s bout against Renzo Gracie, confirmed Mississippi Athletic Commissioner John Lewis this morning, adding another twist to the controversial bout that anchored Elite XC’s debut on SHOWTIME this past weekend.

Attendance numbers for the event are not yet available, though a Pro Elite press release announced the gate at 7,200 spectators.

Local judges Bill Clancy and Gary Ritter had given the outspoken former UFC Champion the nod with 10-9 scores for his first five minutes with the Brazilian jiu-jitsu standout. A third official, Keith Hughes, had granted Gracie the round with a 10-9 score.

The round saw Shamrock connect with punches and Gracie score two takedowns to establish cage control from side position.

Shaw confirmed both Shamrock and Gracie approached him for a rematch and that Pro Elite will honor their requests.

“I would probably look to do that fight somewhere in the fall,” said Shaw, citing their recently announced alliance with the Strikeforce promotion ensures Shamrock face New York brawler Phil Baroni first.

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"LINE UP... GRACIE FOR GRACIE," SAYS SHAMROCK

Line up, let me fight you. I’ll fight each and every one of you. I’ll fight you each month if need be because if this is how it’s going to be, I don’t even need to train that hard… we can start from small to big and work my way up, Gracie for Gracie.”

Those were the words of an indignant Frank Shamrock following his disqualification at the EliteXC even, which was the debut mixed martial arts event on the Showtime Networks.

The bout with Renzo Gracie ended with Shamrock landing two illegal knees to the back of Gracie’s head and neck. Gracie was given the allotted 5 minutes to recover and continue the bout, but was unable to do so. Since the knees were illegal and considered intentional, Shamrock had been warned earlier in the bout for punches to the back of the head, referee Herb Dean disqualified Shamrock.

In this post-fight interview, Shamrock talks about the controversial ending to the bout, “I screwed up. Like I said, I thought we were fighting. If it had been me, I’d have super-glued my face back together and got in there and fought.” He also talks about the situation involving his contract dispute between him, Strikeforce, and Pro Elite, which resulted in the two promotions striking a deal to work together.

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Showtime’s Reality Check

By Jake Rossen

Here’s the thing about real fights: they can be a real pain in the ass to promote.

A hundred years ago, legitimate wrestlers would roll and twist on a mat for hours in an attempt to snag a submission. When organizers realized the stalemates were driving away spectators, they started choreographing bouts. Evolution of that particular strategy eventually brought us Hulk Hogan and folded steel chairs to the cranium. (Lucky us.)

In 2007, there seems to be equal fretting over the grappling component of mixed martial arts.

Leave two men on the mat for too long without any action, and the crowd begins to get restless, their jeers fueled by high ticket prices and cheap beer. The referee, pressured by the mob, the athletic commission, and the promoters, stands up the athletes to resume their C-level kickboxing contest. This is likely beneficial to the fighter who was on the bottom, since he knows that by simply hanging on instead of engaging, he’s destined to get back to where he feels most comfortable.

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Shamrock delivers stinging blows - from dressing room

Frank Shamrock's best shots of the night against Renzo Gracie during EliteXC's debut Saturday night were of the verbal variety during an impromptu post-fight news conference in his dressing room.

Listen to Shamrock Describing the end of the fight.

Listen to Shamrock discuss how Gracie "took the easy way out."

Shamrock was trailing in the fight and didn't mount much offense through the first round and a half, but said he was setting up Gracie for a third-round KO. Gracie, who won by disqualification from knee strikes to the back of the neck, was taken to a hospital for tests and was left with a concussion.

Both fighters say they want a rematch.

Leave it to the ladies to steal the show. The tussle between Gina Carano and Julie Kedzie produced the fight with the most bell-to-bell action. Kedzie showed tremendous resolve against a stronger, more talented striker.

Carano used early leg kicks to set the table to go upstairs.

Listen to Carano's fight strategy.

The Las Vegas fighter improved to 4-0 and could be ready to return to the cage for EliteXC's second 2007 show May 5.

How Do You Spell “Anticlimax”?

It was supposed to be a memorable and unforgettable evening on Showtime for the inaugural EliteXC event. But sadly, the most important battle was nothing more than, well, forgettable.

Frank Shamrock, hailed by some mixed martial arts experts as the greatest fighter in the sport’s young history, lost for the first time in a decade. What was even worse, though, was that the loss came via disappointing disqualification after a rather uneventful seven minutes of fighting.

It wasn’t supposed to happen that way, that’s for sure.

Shamrock was set to return to past glory by walloping Renzo Gracie and rekindling the magic that made him, when he was tearing up the UFC, a one-of-a-kind fighter.

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Controversial End Greets Showtime’s MMA Debut

SOUTHAVEN, Miss., Feb. 10 — Frank Shamrock fancies himself the best middleweight in mixed martial arts history. The rest of us were supposed to have the veil of uncertainty lifted from our eyes tonight when the former UFC champion dismantled veteran Renzo Gracie.

Instead of becoming a star in his coming out party on premium cable, Shamrock turned into an excuse-making blowhard after being disqualified Saturday for an illegal knee to the head while the middleweights were on the floor.

Afterwards, Shamrock suggested that Renzo had somehow lost the will to compete, seemingly forgetting the fact that he had been controlled during their round and a half in the cage.

“He held my head to set up for the knee,” Gracie said at 4 a.m. after being discharged from Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto. “He knew that I was dominating him and he wanted a way out.”

“Listening to his breath and hearing the way he was grunting when I was hitting him, he was ready to give up and he was ready to get knocked out,” Shamrock, 34, said in his locker room after the fight. “I was telling him I was going to knock him out. He was about 30 seconds away from going to sleep, and I think — this is my personal opinion — I have a lot of respect for Renzo: he took the easy way out.”

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Renzo dominates Shamrock

In the brand new Elite XC cage, no one got advantage while standing and striking. Renzo Gracie, however, put his opponent Frank Shamrock four times on the canvas with efficient takedowns, and on the ground dominated the Californian star, passing his guard and hitting the former UFC champion from the side position.

In the second round, Gracie managed to get Shamrock down again, getting to the cem-quilos position again, That was when Ken Shamrock’s brother strike back with an illegal hit: he put his feet on the cage and came back with a strong knee from the ground, hitting Renzo on the back of his head. After 5 minutes, Renzo did not get recovered and Frank was disqualified.

Source: www.graciemag.com :)

SHAMROCK DQ'D; LADIES STEAL THE SHOW

Southaven, Miss. – Debut events can be the toughest time for any organization trying to put the best foot forward in MMA. When the UFC came back under Zuffa in 2001, every televised fight going to decision and a main event getting cut off by pay-per-view didn’t bode well for the organization. Lackluster production plagued the WFA’s debut event in 2006. And now Elite XC gets to add on to that list in which a great night of fights were overshadowed by a controversial ending in the main event.

Frank Shamrock and Renzo Gracie added another chapter to their family rivalry but this time with no solid conclusion to talk about. In the first round, Shamrock came out looking to stand with Gracie, landing some good leg kicks early on. Gracie withstood and got to the clinch with Shamrock, eventually taking him down where he spent a great amount of time in side control trying to improve positions. The 2nd round opened much the same way with Renzo Gracie taking Shamrock down with relative ease and ending up in side control once again.

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Gracie beats Shamrock by DQ on first Elite Xtreme Combat MMA card

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. (CP) - Veteran middleweight Renzo Gracie won by disqualification over Frank Shamrock on Saturday night on the Elite XC mixed martial arts card dubbed Destiny.

The fight was stopped two minutes in the second round and Shamrock had a point taken away for an illegal knee to the back of the head. Gracie was on top of Shamrock near the edge of cage at the time with Shamrock's back on the ground and his legs up against the cage - firing knees at Gracie.

A dazed Gracie was given five minutes to recover but was unable to continue and needed help leaving the ring. The win was awarded to him.

His manager said he had a concussion.

"I thought we came here to fight. That's what I was doing," Shamrock said in the ring. "I don't know what happened . . . I barely hit the guy, God bless him. But obviously he took the foul and he got the win.

"My bad, I'm sorry."

Referee Herb Dean said he had warned Shamrock about a blow to the back of the head earlier in the fight.

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RENZO GRACIE, "I WAS BORN READY!"

Renzo Gracie is one of the greatest ambassadors in mixed martial arts and tonight he looks to conquer the always boisterous Frank Shamrock. Elite XC is making their mark in MMA by having the first event ever on Showtime.

The bout was in doubt at one point when Strikeforce filed a suit against Frank Shamrock for breach of contract. Nevertheless, Strikeforce and EliteXC were able to come to terms and the fight is on. Renzo wasn't worried anyway. “I knew if Frank wasn't able to fight, I would fight him in the future. I knew they would find me a replacement and that I would fight.”

Renzo is riding a two fight win streak over Carlos Newton and Pat Miletich, but is he ready for Frank Shamrock? “I was born ready from day one, let me tell you,” said Gracie recently on MMAWeekly Radio. There has been speculation about animosity between the Shamrock and Gracie family that stems back to Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie back at UFC 1. Renzo dismisses any of those rumors. In fact, he has nothing but praise when speaking of the Shamrock family. “In reality, I have no bad feelings toward no Shamrock. I have nothing but admiration for them.”

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MMA staking place on scene

By Ron Higgins

We have become a society of the right now.

Get rich quick? We buy lottery tickets. Need to be entertained? We can go through 300 TV channels with a remote control in about two minutes. No time to eat? There's a drive-through every 100 feet or so. Cook at home? Microwave it.

We like our news in sound bites, graphics and in the blink of a computer click. We prefer self-check out. Even talking on cell phones is so yesterday. Don't you know how to text message somebody?

Our sports are becoming the same. Speed up games. Want more action. Got to have a clear-cut winner. Don't need judges or media or any middlemen to get in the way of finding out who's the best.

All of which is why it should be no surprise that one of the fastest growing sports in America is extreme fighting, a competition that mixes various martial arts to provide a quick, no-doubt victor.

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Handicapping Elite Xtreme Combat

Sports coverage on the Showtime Network has been limited to boxing for many years but the subscription-based cable channel will expand its combat sports offering this Saturday when it enters the red hot world of mixed martial arts. Showtime's entry into the space is known as "Elite Xtreme Combat," a joint venture between the cable network and Pro Elite, Inc.

For years the UFC and PRIDE have dominated the marketplace but recently, many fly-by-night promotions have come along looking to capitalize on the sport's meteoric growth.

Both Showtime and Elite take offense to being labeled a "fly-by-night promotion," and when you couple Showtime's history with boxing and Pro Elite's past existence as the Rumble on the Rock MMA promotion, they have a valid point.

The MMA world will not only be watching the strong main event between Frank Shamrock and Renzo Gracie from Southaven, Mississippi with great anticipation, but to also see whether EliteXC can prove to be a legitimate challenger to the UFC's throne.

Here's a full preview of the action you'll be seeing from EliteXC this Saturday:

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Elite XC - Destiny - Press Conference Video

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EliteXC reaches to the past to launch what it hopes is the future of MMA

By Steve Sievert

Is Elite Extreme Combat the next big thing in mixed martial arts?

The newest MMA promotion makes its debut tomorrow night with a show aptly named "Destiny" in Southaven, Miss. You read that right - Southaven, Miss.

Shamrock's thoughts on the bout:
"For me, I was the Michael Jordan of this sport when nobody was watching. I beat everybody in the world. I beat every world champion. I fought in 10 different styles, and unfortunately, at that time, it was not the popular thing to be doing. So I sat out of the sport and I started some businesses and built some wealth for my family and I continued to train in martial arts. As the sport grew and as I watched the idea of MMA become accepted in our society, I grew more and more excited about fighting. I have fought for promotions in the past — some of them good and some of them bad. I have built and launched quite a few promotions and I have launched quite a few shows. I am very interested now in reestablishing my name as the name for mixed martial arts. I believe, and whether everyone else believes it yet or not, I believe that I am the greatest fighter in the world and I am just looking forward to showing that to everybody."

Insight from Gracie:
"I feel like I am in the best shape of my life and I feel when I train with the young guys like I can still have a top game. Even though you need a lot of time to dedicate yourself towards fighting — and I have a lot of business going on right now — my school has 560 students and business is booming and I need to expand — but I enjoy so much to fight. Since my childhood, it has been my aim to become a fighter. This is a dream come true. I never expected to make my living out of my teaching and I can fight. For sure, I will be involved in this for the rest of my life."

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Notes from the Elite XC press conference

FRANK SHAMROCK
“I am ready to do it. I am so proud to be part of this promotion. The professionalism and the hype surrounding this event is one of the best I have ever been around or seen. Renzo, if you choke me out on Saturday night, I will gladly go to sleep until Monday. But we both know that is not going to happen.’’

RENZO GRACIE
“The fans in attendance and watching on SHOWTIME are going to see a great fight. I am so happy to be part of this history-making event. Everything about it has been done first-class since day one. I have been around this sport a long time and to see it moving forward the way it should be is a great thrill for me.’’

GINA CARANO
“I am super excited to be part of this, and extremely proud to be part of the first women’s TV fight on SHOWTIME. Julie is a great fighter and this will be a great fight. We’re both fighters; I know we won’t disappoint. I want to thank everyone for their amazing support. I feel pressure but it is all positive.’’

CHARLES “KRAZY HORSE’’ BENNETT
“I fight for money, but I am going to break his (Noons’) jaw. He talks too much. If he thinks trash-talking me at a press conference is going to get under my skin, he is dreaming. He thinks he is going to go into boxing after this fight. He is going to the hospital after I break his jaw and shut him up for good.’’

WESLEY “CABBAGE’’ CORREIRA
“I am very pleased to be on this first-ever SHOWTIME EliteXC event. This should be a wonderful experience. If you like lots of loud bangs and falls, this is the fight for you. I really believe that our fight could steal the show and be the fight of the night.’’

DAVID LOISEAU
“I feel truly honored to be included on this show. This is really going to be a great fight and I know the fans are going to love every second of it. I have a lot of respect for my opponent, but I am in my best shape ever. I am very confident I will come out of the cage with a victory.’’

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It's showtime for Frank Shamrock

By Dave Meltzer

Frank Shamrock never practiced any martial arts growing up. He never did any wrestling, boxing or kickboxing. In and out of trouble, at the age of 21, he was working at a drug store and living in the small town of Lockeford, Calif., not far from Stockton, when his life changed.

Today, at 34, he's perhaps the most polarizing figure on the U.S. mixed-martial arts scene. He has his biggest match in more than seven years Saturday night when the sport takes its latest major step, debuting on Showtime at 10 p.m., as he faces Renzo Gracie in the main event from the DeSoto Coliseum in Southaven, Miss.

It's not a fight that will shift around the top ten rankings in the 185-pound weight class. But it could be among the most important, and intriguing, matches of the year.

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Elite XC - Destiny

ELITEXC: DESTINY – THE BATTLE BEGINS’Saturday, Feb. 10, 2007; Telecast Begins at 10 p.m. ET/PT Sixteen of the 20 fighters who will compete on the outstanding 10-bout EliteXC mixed martial arts event Saturday at DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Miss., attended Thursday's final press conference at Sam's Town in Tunica, Miss.

The first five bouts of the live card will be streamed live on the Internet beginning at 7 p.m. (ET) at ProElite.com -- a growing destination for the MMA community.



The final five bouts, headlined by the eagerly awaited, history-making Frank Shamrock-Renzo Gracie showdown, will be televised on SHOWTIME (10 p.m. ET/PT, delayed on the west coast). It will be the first time an MMA event airs live on premium television.

Tickets, starting at $25, are available in all price ranges at the DeSoto Civic Center Box Office and at Ticketmaster outlets.

For more information, please visit EliteXC.com

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The Basement Breakdown: Elite Xtreme Combat "Shamrock vs Gracie"

Mixed martial arts makes its Showtime debut Saturday night live from Southaven, Mississippi. Long time boxing promoter, Gary Shaw enters the world of mma with his newly created Elite Xtreme Combat. The card is headlined by Frank Shamrock taking on Renzo Gracie, and features a number of talented fighters on the undercard. UFC veteran David Loiseau returns to the ring against Joey Villasenor, as well as, heavyweight project Antonio Silva looks to take out brawler Cabbage Correira.

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Interview with MMA Legend Frank Shamrock

By Sean McClure

Despite not being in today's most commonly known MMA organizations, Frank Shamrock's career is one of the most followed and criticized on the planet.

He has been called out, called names, and now called upon to fight by one of the hottest up and coming professional MMA organizations, EliteXC. This Saturday, February 10, Frank will attempt to put another Gracie's name in his "W" column. In Frank's EliteXC debut that will air on Showtime, he will be staring across the cage at MMA veteran Renzo Gracie. Despite his hectic schedule, Frank took time out to talk to MaxFightng.

MaxFighting: How's your training going?

Frank Shamrock: It's going fantastic. It's all done and I am ready to roll.

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Frank Shamrock prepares for Renzo Gracie

Back in 1993 when mixed martial arts first burst onto the scene, it was a Shamrock and a Gracie leading the charge into the public’s eye. Now, more than a decade later, it will again be a Shamrock and a Gracie leading MMA to new frontiers – this time as it breaks through onto premium cable.

When Frank Shamrock and Renzo Gracie do battle on Feb. 10 in the main event of EliteXC’s inaugural fight card at the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Miss., it will also mark the first time Showtime will be televising a MMA event. For Shamrock, it’s a dream come true.

“I’m really excited for two reasons,” Shamrock said. “One, fighting on Showtime has always been a dream of mine and I think it is going to be huge. Two, fighting against Renzo is something I’ve always wanted to do, so I’m just tickled pink over here.”

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