45 makes many excellent points in regards to the latter. I was willing to give EXC the benefit of the doubt in figuring out the business etc., but it’s becoming more and more clear that they are incompetent, concerned with very short-sighted planning that does nothing for the sport.

ProElite is going to go the way of the IFL, Bodog, WFA, etc. and all their class fighters are going to go fight in the UFC, Strikeforce, FEG (Zach claims that DREAM is on life support but I don’t think FEG will stop promoting MMA) or Sengoku if they are still around. Maybe Affliction too if they can find a way to stay on life support beyond January. Gina Carano though might not have a place to go in fighting after ProElite unless Strikeforce ponies up to get her.

1. 160 lbs. Men’s Weight Class
2. 150 lbs. Men’s Weight Class
3. 140 lbs. Men’s Weight Class
4. The continued weight class changes for Gina Carano.
5. Promoting a Street Fighter with few real MMA skills.
6. Putting unskilled fighters in a main event above title belts.
7. Their public dispute with KJ Noons (the letter was completely unprofessional).
8. EliteXC saying Nick Diaz was the #1 contender, but then putting Eddie Alvarez in the next title belt with him. If they have Alvarez, then he was the real #1 Contender, not Diaz.
9. The announcing team. Mauro saying “Mulligan”. The lady calling Tito a former “Heavyweight Champion”. Frank Shamrock’s metal braces. Them even brining up a quote during the Radach/Rua fight that one of the fighters had Anderson Silva like skills.
10. Jared Shaw screaming at the ref during the Kimbo fight.

You get the point. I think Affliction and the IFL had horrible business plans, but I never rooted for them to go out of business. I am literally on the sidelines cheering for EliteXC to go out of business. They are bad for the sport. No other way around it. I want MMA on Network TV, but it has to be the RIGHT KING of MMA. Not this version, which continues to give the sport a bad name.

Last night’s show was entertaining for all the right reasons: Kimbo steps up and gets stopped (fast), Carano legitimizes herself, Rua/Radach and Arlovski/Nelson were fun fights, and Jake Shields again shows why he’s such a dark horse at welterweight. The whole “they should go out of business!” talk is just annoying. What, you have issues with world class fighters competing on network TV or something? They’ve done nothing but improve since the first show. All they need now is to get rid of Ranallo (who seems increasingly like he’s the kiss of death or something) and just work with Gus.

Tom Atencio’s crew are genius for making Fedor’s 36 second demolition of Sylvia into a commercial. It was well done. Hopefully the casual fans still remember that Sylvia was a former UFC heavyweight champion before he got beat by Randy and Big Nog. Otherwise they might not care too much about how bad ass Fedor is I guess.

Not in the US, but in Germany. Both Regina Halmich and Susi Kentikian have been headlining cards over here, fighting in front of up to 8000 people, bringing in good tv-ratings…

I just took mmamania.com off my bookmarks. I can’t go to that site anymore and still have respect for myself.

People talk about Gina Carano like she could be the savior of the company. I disagree. Not even in boxing have women proven to be a draw as the main event. They are a nice sideshow, like midgets for Pro Wrestling. Not to mention that she will likely lose to Cyborg and end her run, just like Kimbo.

And hence the issue with EliteXC’s gameplan. Fighters in MMA lose. That is how it works. So you can’t use the boxing method of promotion “your fighters”, because eventually they will all lose. Zuffa has the right idea. They get a stable of 20+ fighters in a weight class, and let them continue to fight each other. This lets the best rise to the top, and the UFC promote accordingly. It is really the only way to promote the sport effectively over the long haul. Unfortunetely for the smaller organizations, it costs a lot of money to have so many fighters under contract, and nearly impossible for a start-up organization.

EliteXC couldn’t even get a $1 Million gate for Kimbo/Shamrock. That is horrible. No other way to say it. Those are supposed to be two huge drawing names, and they had no power to get them to bring in a legit crowd.

I can’t wait for EliteXC to go out of business. There are countless examples of how they stink.

“I don’t know how this can be viewed by anyone as a positive.”

He should talk to Seth.