EliteXC and CBS Officially Announce Their Second Show

Buoyed by the success of their first show, EliteXC and CBS have jointly announced today that their second show will be held on July 26th in Stockton, California. There will be three fights shown on Showtime starting at 8 pm ET/PT, and then the main card will start on CBS at 9 pm ET/PT.

There are a number of interesting matches on this card. It should be interesting though to see how the ratings fare with no "Kimbo Slice" and no Gina Carano (so far).

Nick Diaz will be squaring off against Thomas Denny in a lightweight fight. The winner of this fight will presumably get a shot at KJ Noons and his lightweight title at a later date. MMA fans are surely hoping that Nick Diaz wins this fight, just so that Diaz and Noons can square off against each other. The two have a tremendous amount of bad blood between them that erupted after the last EliteXC show. The two simply don't like each other, and the build-up to a Diaz/Noons fight would be almost as entertaining as the fight itself.

Robbie Lawler will also be defending his middleweight title against Scott Smith. The two fought on the first EliteXC / CBS show, but the fight was stopped in the third round due to Smith taking a thumb in the eye. The fight was then declared a No Contest, which led to plenty of controversy. This was easily the fight of the night on that show, so it should come as no surprise that the two would have a re-match. This should be a great fight.

Jake Shields will also be squaring off against Nick "The Goat" Thompson. The winner of this fight will claim the vacant Welterweight title. Shields has an impressive record of 20-4-1 and has won both of his fights in EliteXC in convincing fashion. Nick "The Goat" Thompson has a career professional record of 34-9-1, and was the reigning Welterweight champion in Bodogfight before the organization shut down. Thompson has a wealth of experience and has fought in the UFC and in Bodogfight.

According to published reports that have surfaced online, EliteXC will also be crowning a heavyweight champion on this show as well. Antonio Silva has already committed to the fight, and it is rumored that he will be facing off against Sergei Kharitonov. Silva is a 6'4, 300 pound monster with a lifetime career record of 10-1-0. His most recent fight was a unanimous decision victory against Ricco Rodriguez at EliteXC - Street Certified. Kharitonov has a lifetime professional record of 15-3-0, and made a name for himself while fighting in PRIDE. Kharitonov has fought an impressive array of fighters over his career, including the likes of Aleksander Emelianenko (loss), Fabricio Werdum (win), Pedro Rizzo (win) and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (loss).

This is shaping up to be a decent card, but as I said, it will be interesting to see it how does with no "Kimbo" and no Carano.

Play Poker - Receive a $600 Bonus