Enough Negative. The Positive Points Of EliteXC: Heat

Enough is enough.  Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of EliteXC's Heat event, lets take a look at what they did right and where they can improve before their fourth and final CBS event.

First of all the quality and excitement of all four broadcast under cards was good.  Benji Radach and Murilo Rua opened the show with a fast paced standing exchange that was exciting despite the fact that it was a little sloppy. The fight almost ended in a double KO and if you can't appreciate that maybe you should stick to WWE "fights" instead of MMA.

By featuring both Cristiane Santos and Gina Carano on the same card, EliteXC has generated some sincere interest in seeing the two of them fight. While I haven't seen Santos' fight, yet the buzz is that it was the fight of the night. Carano's weigh in troubles indicate she should be fighting at 145lbs rather than at 140 anyways.

The production of the broadcast wasn't perfect but it was much better than the previous two events. There were no long tedious walks to the cage by any of the fighters and the commercial breaks between fights seemed shorter than before. Shots of the dancing girls were almost nonexistent and the fights moved along in a timely manner.

The show ran long but I blame the fifteen to twenty minutes over explaining Ken Shamrock being pulled from the card for that.

I'm a big believer that you're only as good as your last game so I have some recommendations for EliteXC to further improve their broadcast.

Get rid of the pseudo reporter Karyn Bryant. She is terrible and brings absolutely nothing of value when she "reports" on the event. It’s awkward for the fighters to do live interviews while they're warming up and anything that needs to be said has already been said during the pre-fight hype for the event. If they need filler between fights they should go the pre-recorded Q&A route that the UFC uses.

Replace Mauro Ranallo and possibly Gus Johnson with better, seasoned analysts. Ranallo brings absolutely nothing to the table and Johnson gets far too caught up in the action to do any quality play by play. Plus, both talk over Frank Shamrock who can at least bring some technical analysis. If EliteXC is looking for color commentary and technical analysis all in one, they should give Bas Rutten a call.

Top tier referees are needed for their next event. I know there's a shortage of MMA referees but this is a broadcast television event and should be officiated by the best. While no referee is perfect, I seriously doubt Herb Dean would have stood up Roy Nelson while he had side control of Andrei Arlovski. Referees who take their cues from the crowd are bad for any event.

Lastly and maybe most importantly, EliteXC needs to pick an arena they can fill for their next event. While you could hear the crowd on television, there wasn't near the noise level there should have been. If they use a 9,000-seat arena, fill it, somehow, or move to a smaller venue. If they can't sell out the location, then give away hundred count ticket packs to local radio stations to use as giveaways. Pride events were historic for their crowd size and noise and the UFC uses arenas they can easily fill rather than places that will be three quarters full.

While I won't go so far as to say I'm on the edge of my seat for EliteXC's next event, I will look forward to seeing them improve upon what they've already done right.