FanHouse Kaitlin Young

When Gina Carano failed to make weight for her EliteXC fight on CBS last month, I wrote that it was totally unacceptable, and I was surprised by how many MMA fans tried to make excuses for her. So I was glad to see that Carano herself isn't making excuses:

"There's really no excuse, I don't think, to not make weight," Carano said. "There's no excuse. I just didn't make it and so I'm going to have to try harder next time."

Carano also said she agreed with her opponent, Kaitlin Young, that their fight should have gone on, despite Young's badly bruised face: "In guy fights, they don't stop it until it's cut," Carano said.

Carano said she expects to fight next in October.

UPDATE: Carano previously responded to my criticism in this interview with Dave Hollander.

EliteXC brought mixed martial arts to the masses by televising five fights on CBS Saturday night. But while the show was a ratings success, many MMA fans have criticized it.

Some fans say the fights were stopped too early. Some fans say the main event between Kimbo Slice and James Thompson was more freak show than fight. Some fans say the quality of the action was inferior to the quality of fights that UFC puts out.

So was the EliteXC show good for the sport? I interviewed EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw on Monday, and that was my first question.

The main event of Saturday night's EliteXC show had a controversial ending, as Kimbo Slice beat James Thompson on an early stoppage. But that wasn't the night's only controversial ending.

In Saturday's women's fight, Gina Carano defeated Kaitlin Young when Young didn't answer the bell for the third round. But now Young is speaking out and saying that she thought she could have kept going, her corner thought she could have kept going and even the cageside doctor thought she could have kept going.

Epic Carnival reports that Young is taking to a women's MMA web site to explain what happened.

After a dull first hour, the EliteXC CBS prime time show finally got interesting when the women's fight started.

Gina Carano stayed undefeated in her mixed martial arts career with a second-round TKO of Kaitlin Young. The fight was far superior to anything the male fighters gave the fans in the first two fights of the CBS card. Young was game, but Carano's superior Muay Thai skills won out: She pummeled Young repeatedly late in the second round, and the doctor came in afterward and said there wouldn't be a third.

"I've got to give it up to Kaitlin," Carano said afterward. "She's one of my toughest opponents, and she's a class chick."

Although Carano made herself and her sport look bad by failing to make weight on Friday, she made herself and her sport look good by winning Saturday. CBS and EliteXC should have started the show with these two, rather than the dull foursome of Brett Rogers, Jon Murphy, Joey Villasenor and Phil Baroni. It shouldn't have taken more than an hour for this show to get interesting.

EliteXC had the weigh-in for its Saturday night CBS show today, and the face of women's mixed martial arts, Gina Carano, failed to make weight.

Carano weighed in at 144.5 pounds, or 3.5 pounds over the limit. Her opponent, Kaitlin Young, weighed in at 140.5. The fight will not be canceled, though. Carano will have to surrender 12.5% of her purse to Young.

I've been a supporter of Carano's, but this is totally unacceptable. If she can't make weight for the biggest fight in the history of women's mixed martial arts, she's not dedicated enough to her sport.

All of the other fighters on the EliteXC card made weight. In the main event, Kimbo Slice weighed in at 235.5 and his opponent, James Thompson, weighed 257.

EliteXC weigh-in results: MMA Mania, MMA Frenzy.