EliteXC Closes its Doors

Sorry guys. It's been a while since I've posted and a bunch of stuff has happened. I'm gonna do my best to keep up with the important news of MMA. Today is a perfect time to start.

EliteXC, the first MMA promotion to hold a live event on network television, has ceased operations after less than two years.

Its parent company ProElite has filed for bankruptcy and the lone remaining EliteXC event of 2008 “A Night of Champions” has been cancelled.

The event in Reno, Nevada was scheduled to feature title bouts between Robbie Lawler-Joey Villasenor and Eddie Alvarez-Nick Diaz.

Diaz’s camp confirmed the shutdown and fight cancellation on GracieFighter.com.

“We are confirming that EliteXC has folded. What this means for our fans and supporters is that there will not be a Nick Diaz vs. Eddie Alvarez fight on November 8th,” the website stated.

The future of ProElite’s assets – which includes King of the Cage, Cage Rage and Icon Sport – will likely be decided in bankruptcy court.

The EliteXC production was fair at best but it still provided live fights on network television. They did a decent job of promoting but certainly promoted the wrong guys in their organization. The writing was on the wall and the Kimbo loss basically put the final nail in the coffin. The entire night actually put the nail in the coffin.

Actually, the way the entire night unfolded gave CBS some serious cold feet about the unpredictability of the fight game. Shamrock having to pull out and another opponent being named right on the spot after a month of promoting didn't sit well with the network executives. But more importantly, watching Jared Shaw, a representitive of EliteXC, screaming at the referree that Seth Petruzelli was hitting Kimbo in the back of the head, also put CBS in an awkward position. It didn't help when Petruzelli said in an interview that the EliteXC officials tried to influence his fight plan against Kimbo by offering him money to stand and trade with Slice. It was very amateurish how Jared Shaw behaved, CBS could easily read into that and pulled the plug.

What we had with EliteXC was possible competition for the UFC and more free fights. They were never gonna come close to the UFC but every time EliteXC was on, the UFC put some conflicting programming on SpikeTV. They televised a UFC event, did a profile on Chuck Liddell, and had a behind the scenes of The Ultimate Fighter. As an MMA fan, we were the winners.

Now it's up to Affliction (good luck) to try and battle the UFC for mixed martial arts supremecy. That's not going to happen at all but as long as there's another company, the UFC has to keep putting on great shows. Which as of late, haven't been as good as a couple years ago.

So it's goodbye to Kimbo vs. Shamrock, Gina Carano vs. Cyborg, and....well that's pretty much it. And Kimbo-Shamrock wasn't gonna be anything spectacular anyway. The major mistake was not promoting their welterweight champion, Jake Shields. Here's hoping he gets signed by the UFC because he's an instant contender at 170.

So I bid a hearty good luck to Affliction, but I also know that their days are probably numbered as well. In a couple years it's gonna be UFC or nothing which is not a good situation at all. It's gonna be WWE all over again.