ProElite and UFC have both reached milestone deals for mixed martial arts — though not with each other. ProElite has reached a deal with CBS to air four cards on network television, and UFC has signed a deal with Budweiser, bringing much needed sponsorship money to the MMA league.

The deal with ProElite, who produces MMA events such as EliteXC on Showtime, calls for two-hour live events to be aired on CBS on Saturday night four times a year. The deal would start off with a Kimbo Slice event in New Jersey.

MMAjunkie.com originally reported the deal, which could prove to be a landmark agreement for all of MMA, as well as boxing, as it opens the door to combat sports returning to network television.

Boxing has made attempts to return to the networks in the past few years, only to have deals fall through at the last minute. UFC also was in talks to land a deal with CBS during the writer’s strike, but was unable to finalize anything. EliteXC currently airs on Showtime, which like CBS, is a Viacom owned station. That may have been the key ingredient that allowed ProElite to make this deal and not UFC.

The UFC was also busy today, as they announced a deal with Anheuser Busch that makes Bud Light the new exclusive sponsor for the UFC. This is a huge deal for the UFC as their primary sponsors in years past were niche market companies, and apparently quite unstable as Xyience energy drink and Amp’d Mobile have both since filed bankruptcy. This will provide some much needed financial stability to the UFC.

The biggest question I have is whether or not the UFC uses their deal with the Undisputed King of Beers to take care of their fighters. Compared to boxing and other sports, the UFC severely underpays their fighters, and hopefully this deal will allow them to open the wallet a little bit more.

Right now UFC fighters are at the mercy of Dana White and he seems to be hellbent on going down every wrong road that hurt boxing in the 80’s and 90’s. Ironically, as boxing is getting cleaned up and UFC was seen on as the second coming, UFC starting to look financially unstable and crooked, while boxing is breaking records.

I’ve never written about the MMA vs. boxing argument because I believe they are completely different sports, though they have their similarities. MMA will never kill boxing, and vice versa. Boxing has too much in it’s history and roots for it to just go away. There are boxing gyms on every corner in every city in the country. That can’t be said for MMA. There will always be another generation of amateur boxers, and it is infinitely more popular worldwide. MMA is a sport that has changed so much in the last 15 years that you can’t even begin to look at it’s history. Watch UFC 1 and UFC 81 and you are watching two completely different sports.

Eventually, MMA will level off and be an accepted sport of it’s own. The biggest problem it has now is it’s trying to take boxing fans by force, by spewing their propaganda that boxing is dead and UFC is the future. Boxing is nowhere near dead, as shown by their huge pay-per-view numbers last year, and UFC has seemed to have hit a peak. The fighters are underpaid, there are more fishy decisions, and a lot of top fighters don’t want to fight for them. The sooner Dana White is gone, the faster UFC will get back on it’s feet and get it’s mainstream acceptance.

Part of the reason MMA has not taken off the way everyone expected it to five years ago is access. SpikeTV, Showtime and pay-per-view are about the only places you can see top level MMA fights. They don’t have the history that boxing does to get away with all of their fights on pay channels. Boxing can be seen every week (almost) on either HBO, Showtime, ESPN, Versus, Telemundo, and PPV. There is more of an opportunity to watch fighters as they come up and develop in boxing, earning their shots at titles. MMA cards are all big events, making it tougher for the younger fighters to hone their skills in front of an audience, and tough for the casual fan to just catch a little bit of a fight card. This deal with CBS is step one for MMA, but there needs to be more of it on channels we all get. More SpikeTV cards, maybe an ESPN or Fox Sports deal, or something like it to allow simply more fights on free television. But ProElite and EliteXC are the big winners with this deal.

These deals are both great for MMA fans. ProElite’s deal is huge because it brings MMA to network television. I can’t even begin to describe how monumental that stands to be. UFC’s deal is huge because of the financial stability it provides. Hopefully, this will lead to more MMA or boxing on network television, but even if it doesn’t, this is great exposure for EliteXC. Regardless, this is a great day for MMA fans and both the UFC and ProElite should be excited and proud of their deals.

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