Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano And Andrei Arlovski: Saturday's Elite XC Preview

This Saturday, October 4th, EliteXC will make its third foray into the mainstream market. And once again, the shaky promotion is banking on the draw of headliner Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson, who puts his pedestrian 3-0 MMA record and superhuman Internet cred on the line against MMA pioneer Ken Shamrock. But while Kimbo steals all the buzz, the entire fight card offers plenty of depth, including late addition Andrei Arlovski.

Most MMA pundits are quick to dismiss the main event as a sideshow - the feeding of the aging Shamrock, loser of seven out of his last eight fights, to the company golden boy Slice. EliteXC is clearly banking on Shamrock being too slow to get Slice to the mat and becoming the first round KO that James Thompson was supposed to be. But MMA has a funny way of coming back to bite promotions, and the undersized, out-powered Shamrock is still technical enough to pull something out. I have no problem with this fight being made to give Kimbo more seasoning (although I wish Ken would retire already, for safety's sake). It just shouldn't be the headliner.

Especially because the rest of the card is stacked, top to bottom. Starting with former Middleweight Champ Murilo "Ninja" Rua against IFL knockout artist Benji Radach, who in 22 fights went to decision twice. Both are well rounded and seem to be evenly matched, and either will present a far tougher test to current Champ Robbie Lawler than Scott Smith did. Next is a fight between Gina Carano and Kelly Kolbald, and although the idea of women hitting each other still makes me a little squeamish, I have yet to see a female MMA fight that hasn't been fast paced or exciting. If Carano wins like she's expected to, here's hoping we see her against Cristiane "Cyborg" next. There's also a title fight between Paul Daley and Jake Shields. And while I think Shields will win fairly easily, that's because Shields is the only welterweight who could hang with the big boys of the UFC, and not because Daley is unworthy.

Which brings us to former UFC Heavyweight Champ, Andrei Arlovski. When rival promotion Affliction postponed its event, that left a lot of fighters hanging. So it was good of Elite and Affliction to arrange a fight between Arlovski and IFL Champ Roy Nelson, also left hanging by the Affliction postponement. And while this fight will probably be similarly one-sided to Arlovski vs Ben Rothwell, it's still a chance to see one of the best heavyweights on the planet facing a legitimate, if beefy, opponent.

The intriguing part to me, will be whether being on the same card as Arlovski will make Kimbo look bad by comparison. But to those diehards who complain about the main event, stop complaining. On paper, this is by far the best card that has ever been on network televison. Besides, if Ken Shamrock manages to get Kimbo into any trouble, just imagine the hand-wringing going on among the EliteXC execs. Priceless.