Gary Shaw: Plans for Smith/Lawler II afoot

by Jesse Holland on Jun 2, 2008 10:13 AM EDT Comment 27 comments

EliteXC middleweight champion "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler had his hands full with a resilient challenger in Scott Smith during the CBS broadcast of "Saturday Night Fights" this past Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

With a bout that had the potential for fight-of-the-night, things were brought to an abrupt halt in the third round when Smith suffered an unintentional eye poke from Lawler. While action was stopped and Smith was given time to recover, ringside officials would not allow the bout continue.

Because a championship bout is required to complete a full three rounds for a decision, Saturday's slugfest was ruled a No Contest. Lawler retains the championship and Smith gets a pair of shiny new crutches for the broken foot he suffered during the fight.

Many fans did not appreciate the stoppage and EliteXC President Gary Shaw said at the post-fight press conference that the company hopes to have the rematch headline its next CBS broadcast, perhaps sometime in early fall. Shaw already has a title in mind for the planned show: "Unfinished Business."

Shaw was also generous enough to award both fighters win bonuses as a reward for their efforts.

Now he can reward the fans who felt cheated out of a title fight by having the rematch as soon as both fighters are physically able to compete.

0 recs | Comment 27 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Read More: elitexc, robbie lawler, scott smith

Comments

Damn, that’s one ugly-ass foot in the photo. My regards to the owner of it. He/she should keep that thing under wraps!

by JRK on Jun 2, 2008 10:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The only reason I watched this event was to see this fight, and it gets stopped due to eye pokage. That was rediculous. Pretty tough guy for jumping around in anger when the fight got stopped, having a broken foot and all. lol

by Toms Bombs on Jun 2, 2008 10:27 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

BOYCOTT EliteXC!

by the_mexicutioner on Jun 2, 2008 10:41 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

i hope it doesnt stay around long enough to boycott it. i know it was free, so for the few miscreants that dont think this show was garbage, dont have to remind me of this. the thing that sucks is that their 2nd free show will probably have shields ,diaz, and maybee cung le, the guys who should have been on the 1rst show. yes there were a few exciting elements in the fights and it wasnt the fighters fault, but this was mma at its worst. they should bring back royce gracie to fight kimbo next. kimbo looked like those guys he used to beat in the early 90s. ive looked at almost all the big mma web-sites, just to see what other hardcore fans and veteran writers are saying, and this shit is at about a 95% disapproval rate. the adreneline/affliction combo is the only org i see having a chance to compete with the ufc.

by b.w. on Jun 2, 2008 11:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Boycot it? Why? Because didn’t feature any Mexican Fighters?

by ViolentMike on Jun 2, 2008 3:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I like when Pulver was poked in the eye last night, I said here we go again, but he was ok and kept fighting. Scott Smith problem was that he kept saying I can’t see. All he had to say was “:just give me whatever time I can have and I’ll be ready” Once the doctor hears I can’t see, what else are they going to do? They can’t risk you getting jacked up or it’s their fault for not stopping it. Not an enviable job. Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t.
While I do feel that Smith would have been able to continue, I can see the doctor’s side of it as well.

by getrawbc on Jun 2, 2008 10:41 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Get real, of course he can’t see the doctors rushed in there to end it. You get poked in the eye and your eye waters up, you also close it cause it burns a bit. Give me a break and don’t defend bs. Right before they are about to make the call he’s up and getting ready to fight again, looks like he was ok. Also you can clearly see in the video they do a close up of his eyes and they work well together and there is even little irratation. He just wanted a break, he couldn’t breath

by Bic on Jun 2, 2008 11:55 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wrong call Bic. Dont get me wrong, I wanted the fight to continue. But he told the doctor multiple times he couldn’t see. They explained that if you tell the doctor more than twice, it’s done. Smith should’ve worded it better. It sucks, but that’s the breaks. Doesn’t justify the other bad doctor stoppage at all though.

by chefdaddy on Jun 2, 2008 12:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No No. Everyone got it wrong a bit. When you are poked in the eye, you get a full 5 minutes before you must continue. During the first of the 5 minutes, he twice said that “I can’t see right now, but I’ll be fine in 5 minutes”. He is allowed 5 minutes. The doctors should not have even been able to make a decision until the 5 minutes have passed. He is ALLOWED that time to recover.

If one of the fighters took a shot to the balls. That b*tch doctor would have said to herself “Hmmm, he looks to be in a lot of pain and can’t stand up. STOP THE FIGHT”. However, again, they get 5 minutes to recover. I was MAD at the stoppage.

I thought Smith was going to be done in round 1 from the body kicks. It kept taking me back to the Pete Sell fight.

by ViolentMike on Jun 2, 2008 3:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

thats true it sucks but you can not tell the dr you can’t see or it will be stopped eveytime.every fighter should know that its not a new rule it was the same in boxing.

by roy on Jun 2, 2008 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Lawler should have pressed Smith when he had him in trouble in the 1st round.

by JV on Jun 2, 2008 10:51 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It was a good fight, while it lasted. I will admit that i would be curious to see a rematch!

Question? What happens if you bet a fight and it results in a No Contest? In all my years of wagering on mma, it has never happened to me and I am curious to know what happens.

Did anyone lay any action on that fight saturday night?

by John on Jun 2, 2008 11:16 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

John, I believe that you would get your bet back.

Something similar happened to me for the first time. I bet on the Celtics to outscore the Pistons in the 2nd quarter of one of their games (moneyline, no spread). During the 2nd quarter, they both scored the same amount of points. I got my bet back.

by ViolentMike on Jun 2, 2008 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The bet’s off at that point. I ha a friend who was pissed because he bet on Tito to beat Rashad with that whole point deduction issue. The bet was refunded but he (mistakenly) thought he should have won.

by PW on Jun 2, 2008 7:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks Guys! Never happened to me yet since I been betting online….and I hope it never does…Win or loose baby, its still a high!

Spoken like a TRUE Degenerate! lol

by john on Jun 2, 2008 7:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

if he is gunna call it Unfinished Business, then i think thompson should get a rematch with kimbo,

by Valentino on Jun 2, 2008 11:18 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Please don’t suggest that, that was the worst performance by either fighter and Thompson showed even less skill than Kimbo. I don’t want to see either of them fight again and if they do I definetly don’t want to see them fight each other.

by Bic on Jun 2, 2008 11:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The fight was pretty ok imo, at least between 2 B-class fighters, although lawler did show pretty impressive patience when it came to striking – im actually surprised he didnt knock out smith within the 3 rounds they fought.

i’m not sure why the officials stopped the fight – smith looked pretty good to go, maybe the eye got gouged deeper than it looked.

I was very impressed with Gina Carano though – sure she outweighed Young by a significant amount, but her striking was heavy and she used her size/reach really well i thought

by jerrolds on Jun 2, 2008 11:26 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Entertaing fight. Not much MMA, but a decent slugfest.

by chefdaddy on Jun 2, 2008 12:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh, and although this is no excuse for not making weight, she only outweighed Young by 4 pounds.

by chefdaddy on Jun 2, 2008 12:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Kaitlin Young has the chest of 11 year old boy. Gina has breast implants that must weigh at least 2 lbs each. If you subtract the 4 lbs (because she does have 2 boobs), then she would have made weight – only half pound over, which is allowed.

All these flat chested busted lookin chicks have a distinct advantage at the weigh ins.

by ViolentMike on Jun 2, 2008 3:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Someone needs to tell Kalib Starnes, that’s how you fight with a broken foot.

by Jason on Jun 2, 2008 12:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Even though the Scott Smith & Robbie fight was good & unfortunate for the stoppage. I do not believe Scott had a broken foot walking around with crutches. I saw him at WEC last night walking around with a soda & nachos. He was right in front of me. If it was broken then props for being able to walk around with what looked like no pain. His face was pretty messed up though.

by Bruce on Jun 2, 2008 12:22 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The piece is misleading in stating “Smith was given time to recover”. Technically that is true. He was given SOME time but he wasn’t given the time that he was due to receive. Suffice it to say for the 1000th time, BS stoppage.

by Jason on Jun 2, 2008 12:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Grim v Kimbo should be on this card! anyone agree?

by braveheart on Jun 2, 2008 2:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

this was a sick fight!!

by XxXFactor on Jun 2, 2008 3:01 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Especially after watching the Lawler/Smith fight I cannot believe what Kevin Iole wrote about Saturdays event. I liked how this article summed it up. Heres the full article

by Parabola on Jun 2, 2008 3:13 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs