Lawler KO's Smith in EliteXC title rematch
Champion finishes challenger in second round of middleweight title fight
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Robbie Lawler saw his own blood and realized he could be in trouble.
So the EliteXC middleweight champion decided to turn things up a notch, immediately turning the tide in his title match with Scott Smith. Lawler utilized a series of knees to the body from the clinch, hurting Smith, before the challenger went down and Lawler finished him off with a second-round TKO.
"The thing is, I got cut and I knew I had to step it up and not give the ref any time to stop it," Lawler said afterwards. "If there was a lull in the action, he might've looked at it, so I had to keep the pace up and keep moving forward."
After an action-packed first round that recalled their first fight on May 31, Smith connected with three straight elbows that caused a cut on the top of Lawler's head. Smith seemed to pull back while Lawler took the fight to him. They ended up in the clinch, and Lawler connected with several knees to the midsection that clearly hurt Smith, who eventually fell to the canvas before Lawler could finish him off.
By the time the fight was over, Lawler had blood all over his face, but also had his hands up as the winner.
"I was waiting for someone else to win the fight and not me," Smith said. "That's something you never want to do, but while I was waiting for the ref to look at the cut, he went to work on me."
In another title match, Jake Shields captured the EliteXC welterweight championship when he finished Nick Thompson via modified guillotine choke in just 63 seconds.
Shields took the fight to the ground immediately and hooked the submission on with one hand from top position, forcing Thompson to tap.
Stockton native Nick Diaz gave the local fans something to cheer about when he scored a second-round knockout of Thomas Denny in a crowd-pleasing fight. Diaz and Denny stood and traded for the majority of the bout, exchanging combinations throughout the duration.
Diaz had Denny in trouble at the end of the first, but Denny was able to hang on and make it into the second round, but Diaz immediately picked up where he left off, dropping Denny after a straight right, then finishing his opponent with two shots before the referee stepped in.
In another undercard fight, Cristiane Cyborg defeated Shayna Baszler by second-round TKO.
Prior to the televised card, Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva scored a second-round TKO over Justin Eilers to win the vacant EliteXC heavyweight championship.
Full results
Drew Montgomery def. Brandon Tarn via TKO
Carl Seumantafa def. Mike Cook via TKO
Wilson Reis def. Bryan Caraway via unanimous decision
Rafael Cavalcante def. Travis Galbraith via TKO
Antonio Silva def. Justin Eilers via TKO
Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos def. Shayna Baszler via TKO
Jake Shields def. Nick Thompson via guillotine submission
Nick Diaz def. Thomas Denny via TKO
Robbie Lawler def. Scott Smith via TKO
Notes
EliteXC will hold its next CBS card in October, to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Both Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano are scheduled to fight, though their respective opponents are not yet known.
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