« UFC 90 card line-up | Home | Your ‘horrible media timing’ winner of this year (involving the Orlando Sentinel and Seth Petruzelli) »
Elite XC reportedly shuts down
By Zach Arnold | October 20, 2008
The company is reportedly out of the MMA business.
Update: ESPN, on their channel newsticker, announced the news of Elite XC shutting down. The crawler also says that EXC promoters are ‘still under investigation’ by the Florida Boxing Commission.
Reports: Sherdog | MMA Mania | Bloody Elbow | Sports Illustrated
Remember, Jeremy Lappen was only saying days ago how ‘excited’ he was for Elite XC’s future.
If you believe Dave Meltzer’s report, then the Elite XC ‘stand-up scandal’ involving Seth Petruzelli and Kimbo Slice supposedly stopped CBS in its tracks from purchasing Elite XC. To review the history of the ‘stand-up scandal,’ just click here and read all the stories.
Meltzer was adamant in a radio interview that both CBS and Showtime were thrilled with the third Elite XC show, but once the Petruzelli scandal hit, the corporation didn’t want to be involved in the stand-up scandal and all of the ‘fixed fight’ media coverage.
As for CBS’s future in MMA, Meltzer claims CBS will do one of two things:
1) Wash their hands of MMA
2) Go with Affliction
He claims that Affliction’s payroll is so high that they would need PPV and need 175,000-200,000 buys to break even with CBS, but CBS isn’t going to pay that kind of money for a show with Fedor headlining.
Adam Swift adds more credence to Meltzer’s report with this follow-up:
Multiple sources told MMAPayout.com in the week leading up to the 10/4 event that the deal was all but complete with the paper work already drafted. There were even preliminary conversations regarding the return of Gary Shaw to the equation. The deal ultimately collapsed under the weight of Standgate and possibly CBS’s financial condition.
Gary Shaw, the same person who told the LA Times that he didn’t find anything ethically wrong in encouraging fighters to stand-up during fights.
Company assets
In regards to questions about who gets the first rights to purchase or obtain Elite XC’s assets, the answer is… Showtime Networks Inc..
Quick reaction
This doesn’t surprise me, although I am happy to hear that CBS was not interested in bailing out Elite XC. Much in the same line that Fuji TV pulled the plug on PRIDE, CBS pulled the plug on Elite XC. As I asked in a previous post on this site, why would Viacom or any CBS shareholders go to bat for a scandal-tainted company? There was no value in them doing so, given how much PR damage they could suffer from it. It goes back to the question I asked in regards to how CBS would react to pressure from shareholders or from outside interests once the stand-up scandal grew legs — and the response became very clear, as we can now see. You can have shady people involved in an MMA promotion, but if that promotion can’t do business in a self-contained manner and has to rely on a corporate sugar-daddy that wants control, then that MMA promotion has no margin for error at all.
On a personal note, I find intriguing that (once again) several MMA web sites got caught with their pants down when it came to trying to avoid covering a scandal in the fight business. We know a ton of MMA web sites that refused to cover the PRIDE yakuza scandal, which led to the demise of that organization, and a few big MMA web sites that ignored the stand-up scandal only to watch Elite XC close its doors.
Topics: Media, MMA, Pro Elite, UFC, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Wasn’t onthemat.com the site that broke the story? I know they came out with it well before some of the sites you linked to, Zach.
PS – Dang. They sure took Kimbo losing pretty hard.
Will this may be lead to UFC being on CBS?
Probably not. If it is indeed true that the “stand up scandal” killed the EXC/CBS deal, then why on earth would CBS give the UFC freedom to do whatever they want (which, btw, is what the UFC wants from networks)?
EXC made their bed, and honestly we should all be glad they did.
And their November card was going to be really solid. One of the first I was actually excited about.
Can’t say I am going to miss the company. All of the weird weight classes. The favoring of fighters. The juvenile actions of their people.
I would like to see their Top 10 or 15 guys go to the UFC, Strikeforce, or DREAM.
“I would like to see their Top 10 or 15 guys go to the UFC, Strikeforce, or DREAM.”
I completely agree with this, but don’t forget about Affliction. They aren’t down for the count quite yet (it may come soon though, unfortunately).
Well, let’s hope with EXC going down, that the smaller companies ProElite bought out will come back to their independent status and NOT out of business. I am not suprised that they are going out of business, but this soon? They really couldn;t wait until after their Nov. 8th show (which was looking solid as hell. Easily one of their best cards in a while).
Well, let’s hope DREAM and WVR stay afloat over in Japan, and maybe Strikeforce can make a move.
Do you know whether the loans Showtime/CBS gave them were secured or not?
Well, when the money runs out, that’s it. Nobody is going to loan money to a company with no assets. They would have never had a 3rd CBS show without CBS putting money into the company/show.
As for Affliction, it just seems like it is a matter of time before they are out of business. I can’t see them getting a lot of PPV Buys between two UFC PPV’s…. Where one will get 200,000 and the other will get 500,000.
I am actually looking forward to Strikeforce on NBC, as long as they do it right. However, EliteXC was everything that could be bad about the sport. It just needed to die off.
As for the UFC, it would be nice if they got Brett Rogers & Ed Herman. That would give them an entire stable of young HW prospects. Then add Shields to Welterweight and perhaps Lawler to Middleweight, and that would just give everything even more depth.
it’s about time. dana, please sign jake shields and robbie lawler. i really want to see shields vs gsp and lawler vs anderson sometime in 2009.
So, CBS still wants to run MMA and is looking at going with Affliction, which probably has far more money still lying around than the company that was $60 million in the hole. Paradigm shift! Game over! Vince McMahon! But if they pull it off, THE MMA WORLD CHANGES FOREVER~! at least until Strikeforce announces that NBC deal everyone was talking about at the end of last week, in which case THE WORLD CHANGES FOREVER SOME MORE~!
Management REALLY effed it up man.
I think all of the big wigs at the company are out of jobs, who would want to hire them? Just because they have connections with the fighters and camps? Yeah right.
They really messed up! Ugh, this didn’t have to happen either!
They should have respected KJ Poops!
Are we looking at world in which there can be only one MMA organization worth mentioning?
What are we all going to do?
The person this really sucks for is Gina Carano. The boys can go to the UFC, but there just aren’t many opportunities for female MMA stars. Where will she go now?
[…] 10/21/08 12:04AM ET] – The problem Affliction faces with partnering with CBS. From Dave Meltzer via Fightopinion.com: As for CBS’s future in MMA, Meltzer claims CBS will do one of two […]
I hope the UFC can pick up their top talent, especially Shields and Lawler. Both guys are top 5 on Fightmatrix, and most websites have them similarly ranked. I’m fairly certain the UFC will pick up Lawler due to his close connection with Matt Hughes, but I’m not so sure about Shields.
What’s Alvarez’s contract status? Is he signed with DREAM or EXC? He’s another guy I’d love to see.
Alvarez is an EXC guy. I can see him immediately try to get booked on the Dynamite!! show now.
Alvarez is signed by Monte Cox’ Adrenaline MMA, though the contract’s an “open” one…
Man, this does indeed suck for Carano. She’s the one who helped carry the company and now she’s got nowhere to go other than Japan and shitty video games.
I’m gonna have to start watching AG again. But suplexing old ladies Tae-Bo moms just isn’t the same.
WEC just opened up a lot of space on their cards by dropping two weight classes. Women in their future?
Eddie has made what I consider some bad career moves. He has said he doesn’t like traveling and fighting overseas and I don’t see why he shouldn’t sign with the UFC now. Somehow, I think he won’t.
I am sure Monte would release him from his contract with Adrenaline to fight in the UFC.
Alvarez vs Joachim 2 on NYE would be tight.
I’d like to see Daley in the UFC. Daley vs Alves would be fireworks. Shields is the obvious other pick.
If WEC is hanging onto their 170lb class, it would be cool to see Diaz go there. He’s be an awesome matchup for Carlos Condit, and if they ran NorCal again, having Faber & Diaz on the card would be nice for the local fans.
Robbie Lawler vs Anderson Silva wouldnt suck