After weeks of speculation over who would be Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva’s (10-1) opponent in the battle for the first-ever Elite XC heavyweight championship, the mixed martial arts promotion has finally announced Justin Eilers (19-6-1) as its man, according to FiveOuncesOfPain.com.
Eilers is probably most known among the casual fans for his three straight losses over a year’s span in the UFC. From February 2005 to February 2006 he dropped three fights — each by first round technical knockout — to Paul Buentello, Andrei Arlovski and Brandon Vera, respectively.
However, Eilers is on a very impressive streak as of late, having won 10 of his past 11fights with the lone loss a decision to the hard-hitting Pedro Rizzo last March at The Art of War 1. It seems as though he’s targeted and fixed whatever holes in his game were leading to those knockout losses, and he’s once again ready for the big stage.
Apparently Elite XC thinks so, anyway, deeming his resume solid enough to compete for its heavyweight gold.
It won’t be an easy task for Eilers, however.
In fact, it will be a “giant” one — 6′4″ 265-pound Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva has long been touted by Elite XC Live Events President Gary Shaw as the “best heavyweight fighter in the world,” and he was a lock for the company’s first division title bout.
Coming off a less than impressive split decision victory over Ricco Rodriguez in February, “Bigfoot” is eager to show the fans a knee injury he sustained prior to that bout was a factor in his lack luster performance, and that he is in fact a much better fighter than he showed that night.
The Elite XC heavyweight division has been gaining depth lately and a title being introduced into the mix was long overdue. This should be a competitive bout, but one that is likely set up for Silva to win.
This fight is believed to be the main event of the Showtime portion of the co-telecast with CBS for the ‘Unfinished Business’ event on July 26 in Stockton, Calif. It will be the first of three scheduled title fights taking place on the evening, with Jake Shields and Nick Thompson fighting for the welterweight belt, as well as Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith re-matching for the middleweight strap.
76 Comments »
Weak.
I had heard Sergei Kharitonov was gonna whoop bigfoot for the title
This is a joke! Eilers? Really? For the title? This is just crazy! Why even have a heavyweight title if u got nobody decent to challenge for it.
Silva will destroy Eilers on te ground, it wont even be close!
ye i heard sergei kharitonov aswell! would have been fun to see him kick big foots ass! eilers is a joke! he has been since he blew his knee against arlovski
Big Foot fighting Sergei Kharitonov was all message board rumor BS. Sergei would be a threat to Big Foot. Shaw wants Silva to hold the title and he wants to build up Kimbo SLice. Dream situation for him is one and half years down the road, having the two of them fight for the title.
Justin Eilers couln’t hang in the UFC, but he has actually been doing well for himself fighting in the smaller promotions as of late. After Silva’s last performance, I am interested to see if he runs right thru Eilers or if Justin will give him problems. I have a feeling that he will run right thru him.
A fight that I would like to see, but probably wil never get to see is:
Bigfoot (antonio Silva) vs. Sasquatch (Gonzaga) That fight would be bad ass. Who do u think would win that fight?
This is Scumbag Shaw at his finest. Got an undefeated internet sensation? Throw him in with a guy who falls over in a stiff wind (and still should have won the fight). Got a HW that you’re touting as the best in the world? Throw him in with a guy who got tossed out of the UFC’s weakest division.
how many times do you think they will refer to eilers as “former ufc fighter justin eilers”. i say at least 100 times!
I saw Eilers a year or two ago in CO at a local promotion, he was supposed to fight Pat Smith but Smith dropped out cause of some legal issue and Eilers almost got GnP’d by a short stubby fat guy alternate, i’m not impressed…
I got some UFC 88 (Atlanta) news for you guys:
Matt Hamil vs. TBA
Rich Franklin vs. TBA
Rich is still deciding if he will fight at 185 lbs or 205 lbs. I have a feeling he will fight at 205 lbs. in Atlanta If he does decide to fight at 205, who knows we may see:
Franklin vs. Hamil, but there is no evidence to support this, I am just speculating!
Jens Pulver eying october return against Nogueira:
“Pulver says he will be ready to fight again in October, and while he’s quick with the obligatory “I’ll fight anybody they put in front of me,” he has an opponent in mind. He believes a match-up against Alexandre Franca Nogueira makes sense for both fighters.
“He’s been in a lot of wars and has been around for a long time,” Pulver said. “He’s still a top fighter, and with both of us coming off losses, it’s a perfect fight for one of us to get right back up there in the division and one of us becomes a journeyman.”
Franklin moving up to 205??? WTF?? He didn’t run away from Anderson Silva. Now Anderson is competing at 205. I think Franklin is ducking Hendo because he wants to be considered the best American MW to all the UFC only fans. But all the MMA fans know that Hendo is the best American MW.
I hope Hendo chases his bitch ass up to 205! They need to fight each other. I dont know WTF is wrong with Joe Silva for not booking this fight already, either at 205 or 185, we all know Hendo doesnt care…Franklin needs to step up and fight Hendo!
yea but then whoever wins has to fight silva… it’s just creating this perpetual knockout/submission cycle of evil..
MMA BECOMES LEGAL IN TENNESEE TOMMORROW PER AOL FUNHOUSE! SCREW DELAWARE!
Heh, I like how Elite XC’s title shots are UFC flops.
This guy was a huge flop in UFC’s worse division.
I wish the newest TUF was doing HW’s to help populate it instead of LHW and LW, the two most stacked divisions in the UFC(world).
I keep asking myself that… why LW?? At least someone in LHW could MAYBE drop to MW. But still, i don´t see the added benefit.
I remember once in an interview Dana said that if he could find 16 REAL heavyweights out there (real as not only in talent but more importantly weight… no 220-230 guys i think he meant) then he would do it in a heartbeat.
Either way, I’m sure he could find at least 8… i mean come on… who, as a fresh fighter wouldn’t jump on this!!
That makes sense.
I was wondering if they were having trouble finding HW fighters.
The HW’s are not as common and they always ask 5x the money of everyone else if more then 10 people know thier name.
will some tell shaw that fedor is a heavy weight and so is rand and andre and josh barnet? they brought justin into loose insted of taking a chance of having “the worlds best hw fighter” loosing. boy that’ll realy prove how great bigfoot is might as welll have him fight kimbo. grrrrr this article make me mad! me smash! oh no my key board!!!
I agree! like, COME ON! U might as well throw me in the ring with Big foot! I have as good of a chance at beating him than Eilers does! lol
This sucks for mma. All the non fans, will tune in see a heavyweight title fight, and think that these 2 are some HEavyweight mma gods, fighting for the titlle, when in reality, Eilers is a bum. I like BigFoot, but I am not sure if I wouuld rank him in thetop 10
I’ve got 20 bucks on john against Eilers! any takers? sorry but odds on big foot not so good john him might start swinging his chin at ya.
lol
Pediction: John via tickling his big feet until he cant take it anymore and he taps.
LOL at Justin Eliers. Good thing he doesn’t have any teeth because they would have got knocked out anyways. What a BS match up.
Hey BNF, I just read your post on the Forrest/Rampage thread. It’s some funny stuff. I think I’ll take your suggestion on Automation. I might have party’d too hard this weekend, and havent been on the sight too much.
Automation, I still game lets confirm the bet. Forrest is going to choke Rampage out!!!
Pretty good right… I told you I would help you out. Forrest has to win!!!
Well for both our sakes let’s hope Forrest chokes his a$$ out!!!!!!!!!! Oh and yea I appreciate the help. Automation might be alittle nervous now.
his head is HUGE
thats what she said? i’m so sorry.
LOL
Large heads mean you can take bigger punches than the average sized headed fellows
hm.. go figure a lesser non Elite XC exclusive fighter fighting a top notch Elite XC guy.
Roy Nelson would of been a better choice than Justin along with many other Heavyweight Fighters.
he is injured.
Eliers will probably tko himself on his way down to the ring. Weak!
Holy shit I think I’d die laughing
Bigfoot is very talented. If he gets the proper competition he would be able to show that and maybe even get offered a UFC contract in the future.
This is just more of the ELITE XC hype train, they have like 4 good fighters and the rest are UFC drop outs or just plain old garbage….I love it how the article tries to hype up Eliers! He’s been on a tear lately and has won 10 of his last 11…yeah cause he has been fighting losers! WAKE UP! He sucks!
Elite XC has Diaz,Sheilds,Noons,Bigfoot and Lawer….other than that its a crap league!
I think Joey Villasenor should have made your list. But thats just my opinion.
Whoaaaa! Slow down there. THey have other solid fighters like:
Eddie Alvarez (top 10 in anyone’s book)
Ninja is starting to look like his old, ultra exciting self
Joey Villasenyor
The Great Kimbo Slice…lol
OK, I see your point! lol
I see him making it to affliction before the ufc.
I agree. That’s because affliction is making big investments to lure quality fighters away from the ufc. Which is going to hurt them in the long run. I’m still watching their ppv but once they see # of ppvs vs. Fedor purse=bankrupt they’re going to have to change there stratagy.
Honestly, I would be surprised to see more than three Affliction events…
I agree
it’ll be crazy awesome if they stay around just seems very unlikely… but the again flying heel hook by chonan on anderson so maybe affliction will stay around….. what i’m trying to say is we just need to go to the pound and pick up a new jazz man.
i would be happy with 3 events. almost like a 3 rnd gpx for the hws. the 1rst event is about 3 weeks out and i still havent seen any tv ads for this or much promotion at all. the ufn 19 already has ads on spike and espn. affliction/adrneline needs to get the lead out. remember adreneline has big tim and rothwell under their banner and under contract so they are a big player in this as well.
yea i saw that ad too i noticed how they said “on july 19th you wont have to order pay per veiw to watch the best fighter in the world” funny thing is i’m sure most people have no idea yet there is a ppv that night yet.
Did Dana book Anderson to fight on the 19th so he can advertise him as the best fighter on the planet because Fedor is fighting that night as well. Of course Dana was going to put on an event for free, but he his featuring his top fighter.
Right now Anderson Silva is on top of the world. However, if Fedor crushes Tim Sylvia, Fedor will gain almost all of his hype back.
Eilers got worked over hard by Rizzo, wasnt even close.
Only reason he didnt get knocked out was because he got saved by the bell.
Anytime he takes a step up in competition he gets dominated. Way to keep up the “competitive” match ups EliteXC
His nickname should be, “Cranium Mandibular”, “Cro-Mag” or “Father of Tito”.
HA!
how about kimbo. kimbo’s gotta fight someone good sooner or later, might as well be bigfoot to expose kimbo as to some no-name. who’s worse kimbo or eilers? any takers!
eilers if i had to pick, not by much though. both shitty
Big Foot vs. Travis Fulton
Big Foot vs. Dan Severn
Big Foot vs. Bob Sapp
Big Foot vs. Hong Man Choi even.
Just not Eilers.
you forgot butterbean and don frye. where’s cabbage when you need him. lol!
Damn I thought Tito had a big head…
Hell, Big Foot looks kinda deformed from his head.
pathetic match for a title
i call an upset in this fight….
and imagine what shaw would do what a ufc drop out as their champ
bigfoot is underrated, and the reason that shaw declared him the best hw in the world bc he’s the best at the hw in elitexc…. let him fight one of the big boys in the ufc and see what happens…
He is still pretty raw. He has the tools to be one of the greatest of all time.
i said underrated because hes good, but he hasnt fight fighters his level
there will be few and far between of match-ups that real mma fans want to see out of elite!
MMAMANIA!!!!!! PLEASE HELP? WHY DO NONE OF MY POSTS MAKE IT ON THE SCREEN?
I know it’s way off topic but I was trying to figure out some fights that can happen sooner rather than later. Let me know what you think
Franklin vs Kampmann……………Bonnar vs Hamill
Carwin vs Coleman………………Day vs McFedries
Hazelett vs Swick………………Hyun Kim vs Davis
Grove vs Leites………………..Wand vs Sokoudjou
Thiago vs Lyoto………………..Banha vs Goran
Marquadt vs Lister……………..Sherk vs Clementi
Gouveia vs Jardine 2……………Maynard vs Pellegrino
these are all excellent match-ups imo and there is no reason why they shouldnt happen, except joe silva sucks!
marquardt beat lister recently!
excellent match ups man but with injuries you get training if they were st up about 20-30% would have to be cancelled
still we can fantasise
what about
cheick kongo vs shane carwin
fabricio werdum vs sergei kharitonov number 2
sergei would be a great addition.
a fit shogun vs brandon vera
yeah, rich and kampmann were supposed to fight last year at ufc ireland, but kampann blew his knee out. injuries suck but they happen.
thats one ugly mofo
jeff monson was begging gary shaw to sign him! monson would be a semi legit addition to elite xc
Cheick kongo vs shane carwin would be great. we could put velasquez in against coleman. kharitonov would be great. the ufc needs some HW right now
Hey guys, what about Kimbo Slice vs Bob Sapp. Can you imagine a worst main event? hahahahahahahahahahahah
Hey guys, what about Kimbo Slice vs Bob Sapp. Can you imagine a worst main event? hahahahahahahahahahahah
i was not impressed with silva against rodriguez, i got a feeling he wins, but it’ll be by decision…
WAR GRIFFIN!!!
When I heard the Elite was going to bring in Sergei Kharitonov I was happy that they were going to give Big Foot a real fight and I was hoping that they were going to stop this trend of feeding there top fights nothing but Cans but now I see I wrong. I don’t understand why they would make this fight it serves no purpose at all. I really don’t feel like hearing Mario Ronaldo,Bill Goldberg and Stephen Quadros talking all night trying to build up Justin Eilers as a top ranked Heavy weight. I can see it now Mario telling every one on the broadcast how great and dangerous Eilers is. Thas’s the crap they have to stop right there, These kinds of fights are suck a dam joke it only makes me hate Elite Xc that much more. All they do is thorw cans and fighters 20 years past there primes at there top fighters. I can’t tell you how pissed I was to hear the Sergei Kharitonov was passed up for Justin Eilers of all people !!! UNREAL this is why Elite XC will never make it !!!!!!!
This is just bull this fight is a prime example why Elite Xc will never make it. Lets feed all our top fighters cans and 20 year past there prime fighters and make it act like they are top ranked compatition. UNREAL I can’t tell you how pissed I am that they will not put Big foot up against Sergei Kharitonov !!!!
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