After weeks of speculation over who would be Antonio Bigfoot Silvas (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 years 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 hes targeted and fixed whatever holes in his game were leading to those knockout losses, and hes once again ready for the big stage.
Eilers is a capable fighter but I see this bout as a showcase for Silva. What does help hype for this bout is that Eilers challenged for the UFC title once but this fight is on the Showtime TV undercard and not on the main card on CBS which is weird.
Yeah that came up when the event was announced. I think what it is, is that Showtime want a big fight on their time slot. They don't want their part to seem like an undercard and therefore not have a large number of viewers. They seem to have a bit of leverage when it comes to match making within EliteXC.
