At the second installment of CBS & EliteXC Saturday Night Fights, the first-ever EliteXC Welterweight Champion will be crowned-- and the matchup of Jake Shields vs Nick "The Goat" Thompson pits two evenly-matched, world-class welterweights against each other in a bout that could be a main event on any card.

While the fighters do not lock horns until July 26th, you will not have to wait until then to get inside the fighters’ heads.

Starting next week, ProElite.com will bring you a "Countdown to Welterweight Gold" blog series featuring both Nick Thompson and Jake Shields.

Each week, "Countdown to Welterweight Gold" will feature a new blog penned by each fighter. Shields and Thompson will share their unfiltered thoughts on a variety of topics, giving the readers a unique look into their mindsets from the final weeks of training camp until minutes after the pre-fight press conference.

In a fight card headlined by a Middleweight Title bout that guaranteed to bring fireworks, it is the Welterweight Title bout that could end up stealing the show.

Start following the Jake Shields and Nick Thompson "Countdown" blog series early next week as they debut on the front page of ProElite.com.

Publisher’s Message: Redemption and Transformation

by Todd Hester

With mixed martial arts around the world being watched, followed and commented on by people who really have no basis in the sport other than a desire to see two tough guys beat each other to a bloody pulp, its easy to get swept along in the mania and forget why we train and what grappling, jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts is really about. First of all, it isn’t about the fighting.

While it is undeniably interesting seeing two people compete who train in a style that we personally know – be in judo, karate, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, muay Thai, wrestling or whatever – that isn’t what took us into the academy or dojo in the first place. We can watch fighting without training in any martial art; but fighting for the sake of pure violence is basically immoral.

I’ll wager that the reason most of us got into our particular martial art was to improve, redeem, and transform ourselves. Then when we saw the difference it made in our lives we invited our friends to participate. Over time, this geometrical progression caused MMA to reach a tipping point and attract mainstream fans who wanted to know what the fuss was about.

When I started training with the Gracies in the late ‘80s I learned that family mattered most above all, you could train hard against people and still be their friends, and that there were things in life you could do that you never thought possible. It took me out of my comfort zone and gave me the courage to try all types of things...