Thanks Kimbo!: EliteXC Out of Business

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Thanks Kimbo!: EliteXC Out of Business

Filed on October 21st, 2008 in MMA ⋅ ⋅

ProElite, Inc., the MMA league that intended on competing with Dana White and the UFC, has gone out of business, less than two years after getting into business. You may know ProElite by it’s stage name, EliteXC, home of super-fraud, Kimbo Slice.

ProElite was a media and entertainment company that featured EliteXC, an MMA league, known for it’s deal with Showtime, and more recently CBS. Showtime, which had held some ownership of ProElite, had looked into purchasing the entire struggling company, but opted not to, leading ProElite to shut its doors this week.

Sherdog.com reported this week that the doors of the company are shut for good, and that they will file for bankruptcy protection.

All of this comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding their last CBS card, which featured Kimbo Slice getting knocked out by a replacement fighter in just 14 seconds. After beating Kimbo, Seth Petruzelli told people in interviews that the EliteXC promoters made it worth his while to stand and trade with Kimbo, rather than take him to the ground. Officials in Florida are investigating these claims.

Also from Sherdog.com:

“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.”

They continued:

“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.”

The Kimbo fight was a ratings success, but the fallout may have been what killed ProElite. The controversy surrounding the nature of the Petruzelli comments were likely enough to scare Showtime away, as well as other possible investors.

Of course it didn’t help that the face of the league got absolutely demolished, leaving them with not much hope of any ratings grabbers in the near future.

As I’ve said in the past, the tape-delay of the CBS cards was a terrible decision, and certainly hurt the west coast numbers on all of their network shows.

It’s always nice to see some competition in these sports, but the way this league was run was pretty poor. I know that Dana White and the UFC are doing better, but I promise you that they too will meet this fate if they don’t change their business model soon. Fifty-five dollars to watch Chuck Liddell get his ass kicked again is doing nothing for most people, but for some reason Mr. White keeps setting him up, and somebody keeps knocking him down.

Mark my words, if UFC doesn’t make major changes to their operation in the next five years, they will be in serious financial trouble. More on this when I get the time to write it.

But for now, so long to EliteXC. Hopefully the super-talented Cung Le finds a home where he can get paid. If UFC wants a star that can actually fight, he’s the guy they should be going after. Most of us are tired of watching the same guys beat each other up.

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