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Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano earn TKO wins at EliteXC card

BY JOE FERNANDEZ | joe.fernandez@newsday.com

5:08 AM EDT, June 1, 2008

NEWARK, N.J. - So their stars shine on.

All eyes were on CBS and EliteXC as mixed martial arts took the primetime network stage, touting names such as Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano.

Slice, who garnered fame with his street fights on YouTube, was the evening's main event -- scoring a technical knockout on James Thompson 38 seconds into the third round.

Thompson, who was taken to the hospital with breathing difficulties after the bout according to EliteXC, started out strong with an early first-round takedown. Slice, who improved to 3-0 in his young mixed martial arts career, survived a near stoppage late in the second round, which featured Thompson dropping short elbows and half-powered punches on his grounded opponent and a questionable point in the first round where many people believed that Slice tapped during a guillotine choke. At the start of the third round, Slice landed a big right hand to Thompson's badly cauliflowered left ear, which then started to bleed. Slice threw enough unanswered punches for referee Dan Miragliotta to stop the fight. With MMA legend Bas Rutten coaching him now, Slice for the first time had to fight on the ground, showing a submission attempt and even a basic defensive guard.

"I kept letting the referee know 'I'm good, I'm good'," said Slice after he was asked if he tapped after a Thompson guillotine attempt. "Tapping is not part of my repertoire."

When asked if Slice tapped during the first-round guillotine attempt, Thompson answered "No."

In one of the 11 undercard fights, Carano kept her perfect record and stayed perfect in the eyes of mixed martial arts fans with a TKO at the end of Round 2. With some controversial doctor and referee stoppages during the event, Carano's fight against Kaitlin Young was one of the purist of the night. The Xtreme Couture-trained fighter dominated for two rounds, gave the crowd what they wanted to see and is turning into a true rock star in the sport.

Carano (5-0) used her front kick effectively and was able to batter the face of Young (4-2) with a barrage of jabs and crosses.

"I've never had more respect for a fighter than I did for Kaitlin Young," Carano said. "She's sitting over there with a ball on her face and she's still smiling."

The fight was the crowd's favorite of the night, drawing "Gina" chants from the Prudential Center crowd of 8,033.

In the middleweight championship fight, Robbie Lawler retained his belt against Scott Smith with a no contest in the third round. With the fight action escalating, Lawler caught Smith with an accidental thumb in the eye ending the fight and annoying the crowd. Lawler was cornered by former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes.

As for the locals, Long Island went 1-2 on the night with Garden City native Joe Sampieri earning the first-round referee stoppage win against Mike Groves in the night's first bout. East Meadow product Nick Serra couldn't continue his fight and lost to Matt Makowski in the second round; and despite a WWE-type entrance, Massapequa's Phil Baroni was knocked out by Joe Villasenor in the first round.

For Newsday's full coverage of every fight, visit Joe Fernandez's mixed martial arts blog here: Fightin' Words