EliteXC is folding

[Admin]

Man I feel sorry for their fighters. Now an overcrowded UFC will become more crowded and what happens to the female fighters like Gina Carrano? ... hopefully Playboy for Gina :)

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http://sherdog.com/news/news/nov-8-elitexc...ite-folds-14860

EliteXC “Night of Champions,” scheduled for Nov. 8 at the Reno Events Center in Reno, Nev., has been cancelled as the promotion heads into its final days of business, Sherdog.com has learned from numerous sources.

Joey Villasenor, who was slated to challenge Robbie Lawler for the EliteXC middleweight crown in Reno, was informed of the show's cancellation Monday evening.

TJ Thompson, a Pro Elite executive, said he'd been informed Monday morning by the company that it was closing its doors for good this week and that bankruptcy paperwork had already been filed. Thompson's Hawaii-based Icon Sport promotion was purchased by EliteXC's parent company, Pro Elite, in 2007.

As of Monday afternoon, Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer said he had not received word that the event had been cancelled.

A notice posted Monday evening at graciefighter.com read, “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.”

Graciefighter.com is operated by representatives of Diaz’s camp, who was slated to face Alvarez for the vacant EliteXC 160-pound title.

Representatives from Pro Elite did not return calls Monday.

Pro Elite, which has accrued $55 million deficit during its two years of operation, had been in need of a helping hand in recent months.

On Sept. 17, Showtime Networks filed public notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announcing its intention to enter preliminary negotiations for the purchase of the fledgling company.

Showtime, a subsidiary of the parent conglomerate CBS Corporation, already has broadcasting deals with the Los Angeles-based company on both its premium cable channel and CBS. Showtime also has a 20% ownership stake in Pro Elite.

Discussions of Pro Elite’s purchase were said to have gone well and a deal looked imminent as of two weeks ago when EliteXC held its third installment of “Saturday Night Fights” on CBS. The Oct. 4 event, which was funded entirely by Showtime, drew 4.56 million viewers and almost matched their initial May offering on the network.

But negative press surrounding questionable conduct before the main event between Seth Petruzelli and Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson have overshadowed the ratings success. Petruzelli, who stepped into the headlining bout on an hour's notice and beat Slice in 14 seconds with a short right jab, intonated afterward on a Monday morning talk show that promoters had given him added monetary incentive to stand with the less ground-savvy Slice.

Pro Elite officials later denied any wrongdoing, calling the pre-fight locker room discussion a "knockout bonus" offer, but public outcry led the Florida State Boxing Commission to open an investigation on the matter.

[gsuteke]

I've never watched a UFC event in my life but I did watch two of those fight nights on CBS.

I enjoyed them.

[Admin]

I've never watched a UFC event in my life but I did watch two of those fight nights on CBS.

I enjoyed them.

I've never watched much UFC because I just don't care to pay for the PPV fights, but since I had Showtime I could see EliteXC all the time and then the CBS fights were really good as well. It's a definite shame and I'm hoping that there's still a chance that Showtime buys them out so that they won't fold.

For all of the money that ProElite has lost, it's nothing compared to what Dana White said the UFC lost it's first few years.

[BigDirty]

In my opinion a more overcrowded UFC can only be a good thing for the fans, might suck for some of the fighters though. ;)

Is there a pure female MMA organization? If not maybe one will emerge, who knows, I guess there would be a certain niche market for people who enjoy females fight (I personally don't like women beating each other bloody......maybe if they were really ugly I would), I mean there are all female wrestling feds so why not MMA feds too.

I wonder what Kimbo Slice will do now. UFC obviously isn't an option. Will he go to a smaller MMA fed? Maybe do some K-1? Go back to fighting bums of the street? I think his best option might be WWE if he can handle all the travel, the money is good, he'd still perform infront of a huge crowd and there would be a lot of interesting things they could do with him e.g. a fight with former Sambo champion Oleg Prudius (a.k.a. Vladimir Kozlov) or a tag team with Rycklon Stephens (a.k.a. Ezekiel Jackson) or a "boxing" match against Big Show (like they did with Floyd Mayweather).

[Admin]

In my opinion a more overcrowded UFC can only be a good thing for the fans, might suck for some of the fighters though. ;)

Is there a pure female MMA organization? If not maybe one will emerge, who knows, I guess there would be a certain niche market for people who enjoy females fight (I personally don't like women beating each other bloody......maybe if they were really ugly I would), I mean there are all female wrestling feds so why not MMA feds too.

I wonder what Kimbo Slice will do now. UFC obviously isn't an option. Will he go to a smaller MMA fed? Maybe do some K-1? Go back to fighting bums of the street? I think his best option might be WWE if he can handle all the travel, the money is good, he'd still perform infront of a huge crowd and there would be a lot of interesting things they could do with him e.g. a fight with former Sambo champion Oleg Prudius (a.k.a. Vladimir Kozlov) or a tag team with Rycklon Stephens (a.k.a. Ezekiel Jackson) or a "boxing" match against Big Show (like they did with Floyd Mayweather).

Unless the UFC makes their PPV fights more reasonably priced or start having better network tv fights then this sucks since EliteXC routinely had very entertaining fights with quality fighters on Showtime and every 3 months on CBS.

I'm hoping that somebody will find a way to host a Carrano - Cyborg fight as I think that would be awesome.

Kimbo is probably done in MMA as he'll certainly never be signed by UFC. His best bet is probably the WWE and it seems fitting for him.