The Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana will play host tomorrow night (October 10) to Elite XC's ninth installment of the Sho XC Challenger Series. The event will air live on Showtime, beginning at 11 p.m. ET.
As the case usually is with the Challenger Series events, there are quite a few promising prospects on the card for Elite XC -- look no further than the main event.
Undefeated rising star Dave "Pee Wee" Herman (11-0) has won his last two fights for the promotion via technical knockout. He's made a name for himself despite having only appeared in one televised fight thus far.
Only once has the Indiana native been taken out of the first round during his 11-fight pro career. That's made more impressive by his claim that he trains by himself out of his own garage, speaking volumes for the guy's natural athleticism to still be able to compete at such a high level without the top notch training other guys are getting.
Here's what he had to say on his training for this fight:
"Yes, I am still training alone and, no, I'm not really worried about joining a camp or team although I went and trained for a week in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. I worked on striking and how to block a punch … without using my face. I sparred with Frank Mir. That was fun."
There are plenty of other fighters on this card to keep an eye on as well. In fact, Elite XC did a really nice job with the matchmaking for this event -- all five of the main card bouts could legitimately go either way.
If you like competitive fights, make sure you check this card out.
To help get you prepared for what looks like a solid night of action, here are the weigh in results and a brief preview for each main card fight:
Main event:
265 lbs.: Dave "Pee Wee" Herman (243) vs. Kerry "The Meat Truck" Schall (261)
As stated above, Herman is not only undefeated, but he's finished each of his 11 opponents. Schall is no walk through opponent, but neither was Ron Waterman or Mario Rinaldi. This should be a fun fight to watch, but expect similar results to the last couple of fights we've seen "Pee Wee" in.
Prediction: Dave "Pee Wee" Herman via technical knockout in round two
Main card (Showtime):
170 lbs.: Anthony Lapsley (170.5) vs. Mike Stumpf (172.5)
Lapsley relies heavily on his submissions to win fights. He's finished 10 of his opponents by way of tapout. He's only been competing in professional mixed martial arts for a little over two years, but this will mark is seventeenth bout.
Stumpf has a strong wrestling background and he, too, brings a decent ground game to the cage.
But Lapsley is the better athlete and if this fight gets to the mat it certainly favors him. His go-to move is the triangle choke. Of his 10 submission wins, he's used that hold five times. If Stumpf's wrestling lands him on top of Lapsley on the mat at anytime, he'll be in danger of becoming victim number six.
Prediction: Anthony Lapsley via submission (triangle choke) in round two
205 lbs.: Jason Guida (204.5) vs. Mamed "Cannibal" Khalidov (200.5)
We all remember Clay Guida's brother for coming up a pound shy of the 205-pound limit on the first episode of this season's "The Ultimate Fighter," which resulted in his ouster. However, it turns out he's a pretty decent fighter who has competed 34 times as a professional.
Guida only has a .500 record, but he has the same mentality in the cage as his brother -- even if he doesn't share the same work ethic outside of it.
Khalidov won't be an easy fight for Guida in his Elite XC debut. He's a well rounded fighter with a wrestling background who hasn't lost in more than three years, spanning 12 fights. He's drawn comparisons to a younger version of "Shogun" Rua by the way he conducts himself in a fight.
That's a bold comparison there.
We don't think he's that good, but he should be able to get past Guida here. We look for these two to just go at it right off the bat and Guida's conditioning will probably catch up to him either late in the first or early second.
Prediction: Mamed "Cannibal" Khalidov via technical knockout in round two
160 lbs.: Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm (161.5) vs. Rafaello "Trator" Oliveira (160.5)
Beerbohm has only been fighting professionally for a little over a year, but he's gone undefeated (7-0) with six finishes. Oliveira took his first fight in 2004 and has only competed four times since then. We look for Beerbohm to be the aggressor in this fight and put the heat on "Trator" early and often en route to his eighth win.
Prediction: Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm via technical knockout in round two
185 lbs.: Alexander "Storm" Shlemenko (184.5) vs. Robert "Bubba" McDaniel (183.5)
This is a classic striker vs. grappler match up.
The last time McDaniel faced a knockout artist similar to Shlemenko was against Kala Hose ... and he submitted him in 41 seconds. The last time Shlemenko faced a ground technician the likes of McDaniel was against Scott Henze ... and he knocked him out in 57 seconds.
This fight is a coin flip, but we're taking the Russian.
Prediction: Alexander "Storm" Shlemenko via knockout in round one
Here's the rest of the under card (non-televised) portion of Sho XC 9 complete with weigh in results
140 lbs.: Jacob Hey (141) vs. Jared "The Spider" McMahon (140)
160 lbs.: Torrance Taylor (159.5) vs. Jeff Cox (160)
140 lbs.: Orville Smith (139) vs. Matt Jaggers (141)
175 lbs.: Johny Hughes (175) vs. Tiawon Howard (175)
170 lbs.: John Kuhner (169.5) vs. Deray Davis (170.5)
265 lbs.: Josh Barnes (269.5) vs. Jeremy Norton (263)
MMAmania.com will provide live results coverage of the main card tomorrow night, beginning with the Showtime telecast at 11 p.m. ET. Check in early and often for what looks to be a solid lineup of mixed martial arts action.
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