By the Way, the Latest EliteXC Show Sucked

And I normally enjoy their product. Here are some notes:

- Bill Goldberg's gotta go. Period. I thought he did a decent job during September's "Uprising" card, but the broadcast came to a stand-still every time he opened his mouth Saturday night. Particularly awful were his post-fight interviews, which were laden with awkward pauses and his professional wrestling delivery.

- I can deal with the EliteXC dancing girls, even though at one point, a few of the girls were dancing when there was no music in the arena. But the guy dancers in the middle of the ring? Come on now...

- Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva looked good, disposing of a very sloppy Jonathan Wiezorek in Round 1. For a big fella, Silva moves well, especially on the ground.

- Jake Shields is for reals! I thought Mike Pyle would give Shields a tough fight. Nope. Pyle landed 2 solid knees early in the first round, but Shields shook them off, reversed a takedown attempt by Pyle, mounted, and then choked out Pyle via RNC in Round 1. Shields said he was pissed that this turned out not to be a title fight, and he seemed to have taken it out on Pyle.

- Nick Diaz didn't look bad in defeat. Sure, he took some big shots, but he also took some punishment early on against Mike Aina, Gomi, and just about everyone else he's faced professionally. As expected, he started out in a very tactical, methodical, almost precise manner. Unfortunately, KJ Noons did not and landed some very damaging right hands that busted up Diaz early on and eventually prompted the ringside physician to call the fight before Round 2. The best part of the evening was Diaz storming out of the cage, throwing up double middle fingers and slapping away a camera on his way to the showers.

- I'm a huge Nick Diaz fan, but hats off to KJ Noons. This guy loves to throw his hands, and he does it well. He also did a good job of stuffing Diaz's takedown attempts, which did not look particularly crisp. I look forward to more from Noons.

- Kimbo Slice didn't show me much, simply because he didn't have to. Bo Cantrell opened the fight with a spinning backfist (that didn't connect), and Kimbo repsponded with a right uppercut and a close-range right elbow. And that's all she wrote. If you ask me, Cantrell was psyched out before he even entered the cage.

- The Kleinbeck-Noke fight was also stopped as a result of a cut, but damn did Noke look good! Kleinbeck is a strong, powerful middleweight, but Noke gave him fits on the ground and seemed to be just as strong, especially from inside Kleinbeck's guard. I'd love to see these two meet again soon.

Overall, there just wasn't enough fighting for my liking; 5 matches gave us only about 18:30 of actual action. Luckily, I didn't have to pay for this card.