FanHouse BenjiRadach

At the April 11 Strikeforce MMA event, Benji Radach lost to Scott Smith by third-round TKO, and he wasn't happy about it. Radach said later that he believes Smith gained an advantage by grabbing the cage in the second round and by hitting him in the back of the head in the third, and that the referee robbed him of the fight.

Radach now says he's going to appeal the fight to the California State Athletic Commission, and try to get his loss overturned. But he's going to have a hard time convincing the commission to take such an extreme action -- especially considering that he hasn't even convinced his own cornerman, Bas Rutten, who said on HDNet's Inside MMA that he doesn't see Radach winning the appeal.

Get live updates for tonight's Strikeforce fight in St. Louis now.

Strikeforce is back Saturday night with its first show of 2009, and the fights are over. I tweeted the results if you want to follow me on Twitter, and the full results of all 10 fights are below.

Strikeforce will put on its first MMA event of the year Saturday night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, and the fights will air on Showtime.

But watching on TV isn't the only way to see the fights if you won't be in the arena. It might not even be the best way.

Anyone who thought the fate of EliteXC on network television was tied to the fortunes of Kimbo Slice is "100 percent misinformed," a CBS executive told me today.

CBS Senior Executive VP for Primetime Kelly Kahl said that despite the dramatic knockout of Kimbo at the hands of Seth Petruzelli, the network has every intention of putting mixed martial arts on its airwaves again.

"We have a four-fight contract," Kahl said. "We certainly plan on coming back with fight No. 4."

I asked Kahl for his immediate reaction when he saw Kimbo go down.

"I think we all said, 'Holy,'" Kahl said, "and then you could insert a four-letter word."

Although Kimbo Slice showed on Saturday night that he has no business in a mixed martial arts cage, I hope that doesn't mean the end of EliteXC on CBS. The four televised undercard fights demonstrated that MMA does belong on network television.

Benji Radach came out swinging against Murilo "Ninja" Rua and earned a TKO halfway through the second round. Radach has been around a while, but that was the best win of his career. I loved the way he controlled the tempo.

Gina Carano showed, indisputably, that she's a real fighter with a dominant unanimous decision over Kelly Kobold. If EliteXC has another show on CBS, I hope Carano vs. Cris Cyborg is the main event.

It's the fight card that could determine the future of EliteXC and maybe even the future of mixed martial arts on network television. EliteXC: Heat is just a day away, and although the main event is Kimbo Slice trying to knock out a washed-up legend, I'll be tuning in more for the four undercard matches. Here are the details:

What: EliteXC: Heat

Who: In addition to the Kimbo vs. Ken Shamrock main event, the card also features Gina Carano vs. Kelly Kobold, Andrei Arlovski vs. Roy Nelson, Jake Shields vs. Paul Daley and Murilo "Ninja" Rua vs. Benji Radach.

When: Saturday, 9 p.m. ET

Where: Bank Atlantic Center, Sunrise, Florida

How: Watch for free on CBS

Predictions after the jump.

The veteran mixed martial arts fighter Benji Radach will fight Murilo "Ninja" Rua on Saturday night in the EliteXC: Heat show on CBS. But no matter how well he performs in the cage, he's not going to be able to top what he once did at a restaurant.

Radach was out to eat at a diner in Vancouver when he saw that a man was pointing a gun in the face of the woman behind the counter. So, he says, he walked up to the man and put his MMA experience to use: He grabbed the robber's wrist with one hand and punched him in the face with the other.

A CBS executive told me today that the network is committed to showing all five fights on Saturday night's EliteXC: Heat main card, and that the addition of the Roy Nelson-Andrei Arlovski fight just means that viewers will get five fights instead of four.

CBS Senior Executive VP for Primetime Kelly Kahl tells me that the fight between Murilo "Ninja" Rua and Benji Radach is "Absolutely still on" and will be the first fight on the CBS show.