MMA Hot Stuff

Strkeforce Inks Deal with ProElite CONFIRMED

It's been rumored most of this week that Strikeforce was going to acquire certain fighter contracts from ProElite. Well this is clearly the confirmation we've been waiting for. I just received this press release from my friends at Strikeforce:

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LOS ANGELES, CA. — In a transaction signaling the dawn of a new era in the world’s fastest growing sport, world championship mixed martial arts (MMA) organization Strikeforce®, has acquired  certain fighter contracts from ProElite, Inc, the parent company of former Strikeforce ® co-promoter, Elite Xtreme Combat (EliteXC).

 

Strikeforce® also acquired other specific assets of ProElite, including a library of EliteXC events, which were distributed live on either CBS or Showtime Networks. 

“This is a tremendous development that will bolster the Strikeforce® roster and allow us to produce even more competitive matchups between top fighters,” said Scott Coker, Founder and CEO of Strikeforce®.  “Some of these athletes have been on the sidelines for a while now and are eagerly waiting to return to competition. We look forward to providing them with the opportunity to do so in the next few months.”

 

Strikeforce® and EliteXC joined forces to deliver the first live SHOWTIME PPV® MMA event, “Shamrock vs. Baroni,” on June 22, 2007.  In the headlining contest, former UFC middleweight champion and MMA legend Frank Shamrock submitted knockout artist Phil “The New York Badass” Baroni in the second round, where upon Shamrock became the first Strikeforce® World Middleweight Champion.

 

On March 29, 2008, the two promotions collaborated once more to deliver a live telecast on SHOWTIME® featuring one of the sport’s most anticipated showdowns – Shamrock versus undefeated world kickboxing champion Cung Le.  In a battle that has since been proclaimed “Fight Of The Year” by critics, Le seized the Strikeforce® middleweight crown by pouring on a relentless offensive and fending off Shamrock’s counter attacks before breaking the defending champion’s arm with a hard roundhouse kick.  Shamrock retired from the bout after the third round of a five round match.

 

A martial arts promoter for over 23 years, Coker has gained widespread acclaim among industry colleagues and the media, including Rolling Stone magazine, Yahoo! Sports, and The San Jose Mercury News.  Coker elevated his 14-year-old Strikeforce® organization to become a major player in the World’s fastest growing sport.  Strikeforce’s® inaugural MMA event hosted a capacity crowd of 18,265 at San Jose’s HP Pavilion on March 10, 2006.  The live gate figure also broke the then all-time record for attendance at an MMA event held in North America.

 

EliteXC burst onto the MMA scene with “Destiny,” the first live, SHOWTIME®-televised MMA fight card in history, on February 10, 2007.  Held at Southaven Mississippi’s DeSoto Civic Center, the main event pitted Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert, Renzo Gracie. 

 

The promotion made history again by bringing, for the first time, a live MMA event to the CBS Television Network on May 31, 2008. 

About Strikeforce:
Strikeforce® is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California state history.  The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out record crowd of 18,265.  Since 1995, Strikeforce® has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for ESPN and after 12 years of success as a leading world championship kickboxing promotion, the company unveiled its mixed martial arts series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.”  Since then, it has co-produced the first SHOWTIME PPV® mixed martial arts event in history with its world championship “Shamrock vs. Baroni” card on June 22,2007 followed by the first-ever mixed martial arts event at the world-famous Playboy Mansion on September 29, 2007. 

Dana White on EliteXC, Kimbo Slice, and "Paying Petruzelli to keep the fight standing"... Hilarious!

Here' s a quick video in which Dana White expresses his opinion of EliteXC, Gary and Jared Shaw, Kimbo Slice, and his thoughts on the allegations that EliteXC paid Petruzelli to keep the fight standing. Classic Dana White all the way!

Update: Since posting this video, the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulations, which oversees the state's boxing comission completed it's investigation of ProElite (promoter of the Kimbo VS Petruzelli fight) and found no wrongdoing on the part of ProElite.

EliteXC Taps Out

After almost two years of business, EliteXC has tapped out... submitted to poor business decisions and an inability to build a deep stable of quality fighters. The company, which launched in late 2006, had achieved something no other promotion had; exposure to the masses through prime time television. Unfortunately, in an attempt to deliver a quality product to the fans they racked up somewhere between $20M and $55M in debt, purchasing multiple organizations and not getting a substantial return on that investment.

Even with the help of consulting executive T. Jay Thompson, who has promoted 55 events under the Icon Sports and Superbrawl brands over the past 13 years, EliteXC could not deliver a profitable business that showed promise with the fans.

In my humble opinion, EliteXC made a few key mistakes. First and foremost, it sounds like they made some poor financial decisions which stemmed from their attempt to "buy a brand" among MMA fans. They tried to do too much, too fast. Looking at some of the promotions that have been around for a while and achieved either national or regional success, they have built their brand from the ground up, struggled through the tough times, and have expanded slowly.

Take the UFC for example. Remember the days when there were 2 or 3 UFC events per year at the most? They built their brand slowly by not pushing fighters onto fans that weren't worthy of the spotlight. This also allowed them to slowly add to their stable of great fighters, creating deep weight classes which then allowed them to offer more and more events with quality fights. Or how about an organization like Strikerforce that has built an impressive brand in the west, and especially in the Bay Area. This is an organization that has slowly grown their brand and stable of fighters, and has exhibited patience and sound judgment. They've created a brand that bay area MMA fans are familiar with, and know what to expect from their events.

Secondly, EliteXC tried to simply capitalize on the popularity of MMA without respecting the knowledge of the fans. In my opinion, pushing Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano as the organizations stars was a bad idea. Not only did fans and experts alike question Kimbo's abilities, but it felt as if they were simply trying to parlay the novelty of the internet legend "Kimbo Slice" into success. MMA fans want to see quality fights, even if the fighters aren't known across the internet.

By the way, didn't you know the end was near when you saw Jared Shaw cage-side with a look of absolute horror on his face as Kimbo went down and the ref stepped into stop the fight? It reminded me of a scene from a bad horror flick.

With regards to Carano, although she has talent, I think fans quickly figured out that her heart was not 100% with fighting as she continually missed weight, yet spent so much time in the spotlight due to American Gladiators and other ventures.

The organization did have quality fighters to push to the forefront. Jake Shields being an example, as a consistently top ranked welterweight, they could have easily propped him up as the face of the organization. Along with other stars like Robbie Lawler, Nick Diaz, Scott Smith and others. Unfortunate incidents with Antonio "Big Foot" Silva and KJ Noons certainly didn't help their situation.

It's really too bad that EliteXC went under, as different MMA organizations is a good thing for the fans and fighters alike. Unfortunately, no one has been able to mimic the UFC's success, probably because it just takes time, and what executive wants to wait for success when he can just buy it? After all, MMA is the hottest sport on the planet, right? Or is it just that the UFC is the hottest promotion on the planet?

As for our favorite EliteXC fighters, where will they go? Luckily many of most talented ended their run with EliteXC on a positive note. With convincing victories over Paul Daley and Nick Thompson, Jake Shields finds himself in a good position. Certainly fans would love to see him go to the UFC where he'll join a deep and very talented weight class and receive the challenges he so deserves. Who wouldn't love to see Jake fight the likes of Diego Sanchez or Thiago Alves? 

Robbie Lawler is another fighter that could make a successful move (and return) to the UFC. After all, the UFC is at a loss about who to put up against Anderson Silva, here's one more option for them. Nick Diaz seems to never be short of options in Japan, and we love to see him in action. A talented fighter with a great future, it also seems as though Nick has been taking lessons in Public Relations, and we hope it pays dividends for him in the end. Always popular and exciting, and organization would be lucky to acquire his services.

One organization that surely stands to gain from EliteXC's misfortune has to be Affliction. They began with a great card, unfortunately it was stacked with heavyweights and not much depth at other weight classes. Certainly this event will provide them the opportunity to acquire more talent in different classes. With a reputation on their side for treating fighters well, they certainly could parlay this into further success.

Where ever they go, we wish the best of luck to our local favorites Jake Shields and Nick Diaz!

Elite XC "Heat" Video Weigh-ins and Predictions

The weigh-ins for tomorrow night's Elite XC "Heat" card definitely delivered the goods on this much hyped event.

The full video of the weigh-ins is below so you can enjoy watching everyone step on the scale but here are some highlights.

Gina strutted in wearing sunglasses (I'm guessing she thought the florescent lights are more powerful down there in Florida). After she made her way to the scale, she stepped up... and tipped the scale at... 142.75. WTF? She didn't make weight (again)? OMG What to do, what to do... Oh, yeah strip. She had some very nice handlers hold towels for her while she took off her already skimpy clothes and on the third attempt finally had an official weigh in at 141lbs. The show will go on! Gina, I kid, I kid. I know you could kick my ass so I'm just playin. :)

Then the defending Elite XC champion of the world - and the oh so hot - Jake Shields weighed in at 169.75 lbs. During the standard face off Paul Daley had a mouth full of smack and spewed it all over Jake while they were touching hats bill to bill. Jake not only took it, but gave some back and also threw out a flashy and confident smile. So confident in fact that he blew Paul a kiss and set off a shoving match. The two had to be seperated by EliteXC officials while both men continued shouting at the other. Sparks flew, and tomorrow punches will fly! 

The next highlight worth mentioning is the worlds "most dangerous man" (and almost oldest) Ken Shamrock weighing in at 206.5-lbs and the world famouss street fighter Kimbo Slice weighing in at 234.5-lbs. Again during the standard face off Ken was a gentleman and faced Kimbo but Kimbo turned his back. Ohhhhh the nerve! Ken didn't take to that and gave Kimbo a little shove. The crowd broke out into a flurry almost as if this were an actual street fight! We know how it sets Ken off when fighters don't "respect" him, a la Tito Ortiz.

If this is a glimpse of what we have to look forward to tomorrow night, it's sure to be one great fight after another.

Before you jump to the video, here are my predictions. As always, winners in green.

Murilo Rua vs Benji Radach - If Rua can get this on the ground he'll win.
Gina Carano vs Kelly Kobald  - This is a tough one to call. Kelly has lost her last two fights, however she hasn't fought in over a year. I do think Gina has spent more time promoting herself than training. I give this fight to Kelly by TKO.
Andrei Arlovski vs Roy Nelson - The Pitbull has been training with Randy Couture, and since he was suppose to be getting ready for battle with Josh Barnett, I know he's ready. I give this match up to Andrei. His bite is bigger than his bark!
Jake Shieds vs Paul Daley - While Paul is a great striker, I don't think Jake is going to give him the chance to land anything, as Jake will take Paul down fairly quickly. MMAHotStuff knows Jake has been working on his takedowns and also keeping fighters up against the cage, so I think Jake will win this fight by submission.
Kimbo Slice vs Ken Shamrock - This one makes me a little sad. Frankly I can't believe Ken would step into a cage with Kimbo, he's such an animal. Yes Ken has much more formal experience, and is technically a better fighter. Better submissions, more experience, etc. But while Kimbo has a very lean MMA record, he's proven so far that nobody can stop him. I hate to say Ken is old, but he's old and really hasn't shown much heart in his last few fights. Ken, keep your hands up and hope to god he doesn't break your nose. Kimbo by KO.

Okay, now.. the video from weigh-ins.

ESPN: MMA Live Episode 21

Here is Episode 21 of ESPN's MMA Live. I gotta say, I'm loving this program. It's like Sports Center but just for MMA fans. Love it.

On this weeks episode the guys are joined by Kmbo Slice, they recap this weekends EliteXC card, and discuss results from a few other promotions as well.

EliteXC: Kimbo Slice on ESPN

Here's a video interview of Kimbo Slice from EPSN's MMALive. Find out his thoughts on his upcoming fight with Ken Shamrock this Saturday night on CBS. Also, he speaks about what might be next for him and also what his "dream fight" would be. Fedor? Randy? Bret Rogers? Nope... find out for yourself, it might surprise you.

EliteXC: Jake Shields VS Paul Daley Promo Video

On October 4th we'll get to see Jake Shields in his first title defense since becoming EliteXC Welterweight champion. Jake is on a tear lately, finishing everyone that steps into the cage with him. Paul Daley claims to be "the best", and Jake is "ready to kick his ass"... what do you think? Personally, I can't wait for October 4th!

Prediction coming next week.

EliteXC: Who is Kimbo Slice?

Want to know who Kimbo Slice really is or how he came to be? Great video from EliteXC.

Poll Results: Is Kimbo Slice the real deal?

MMAHotStuff readers have made their point clear regarding Kimbo Slice. The results are:

15.4% of you said "Yes, he's got talent to be one of the best".

38.5% of you are "Undecided, he needs to fight a high quality opponent".

46.2% of you said "No, he's an internet sensation that hasn't proven anything in MMA".

So it seems clear, at this point MMA fans aren't ready to accept Kimbo as much more than a marketing scheme for EliteXC. In Kimbo's defense, EliteXC isn't making it very easy to judge Kimbo's talent with the competition they've given him, and even more so due to the lack of competition they have for him.

Granted his upcoming fight with Ken Shamrock may show us something, but that's only if it gets past the first round given Shamrock's tendency to lose early in his last 5 fights. Kimbo may find himself painted into a corner with EliteXC. It seems the fight people really want to see is Kimbo VS Brett Rogers given their run-in at the post-fight press coference back in May. Rogers is a big fighter with some good skill, but beyond that there's not much on the horizon that will truly answer the MMAHotStuff poll question.

EliteXC: Diaz camp responds to KJ Noons "cryfest". I love it!

Much has been made of the back and forth between KJ Noons and EliteXC, and now Nick Diaz's camp gets into the mix via response to the KJ Noons "cryfest" via GracieFighter.com.

For a quick recap, EliteXC had offered KJ a fight with Nick Diaz for the October 4th CBS card. After being non-responsive to the offer, EliteXC pulled the offer from the table and let it be known how unprofessional KJ had been acting. KJ then retaliated by making his "case" that Nick Diaz was not the #1 contender and that EliteXC has not been treating him well.

Well, now Diaz gets into the mix by reacting to Noons' comments. It's a bit lengthy but absolutely hilarious with comments like "This is a business not Burger King, you can't have it your way"; and my favorite "Your (I could have been a contender) drunk father, started a near riot and should be banned from further events and immediately placed in an Alcoholics Anonymous treatment center for his own self respect".

Hilarious... click below to read the entire response.