EliteXC: Funeral for a Friend (Kimbo Lies Bleeding)
Posted by Dave Walsh on October 22nd, 2008
Today, we the MMA fans, media and those involved with the industry mull over the death of one of our own — today we remember the ProElite family. Now, I know what you are thinking, you are thinking of Gary Shaw standing firm, signing fighters directly to himself as opposed to the company, or pushing millions of dollars into creating stars. Maybe you are thinking about Kimbo Slice and his impressive career that began and will most likely die in an EliteXC branded cage. Or maybe you are thinking about a company that dared to dream in a hostile world that really didn’t need ProElite. There is no doubt in my mind that upon reflection, we could find some good to go with the bad that was ProElite.
ProElite seemed cursed from the very start, as the company launched attempting to be immediate, direct competition to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. UFC, the established juggernaut and company single-handedly responsible for launching the MMA revolution in the United States had been untouchable for a long time. The EliteXC concept was, in and of itself, a sound one. There was substantial risk involved in launching a brand new Mixed Martial Arts brand and immediately taking it national. An agreement between the newly founded and mind-bogglingly public company, ProElite Holdings, and Showtime garnered a new promotion; EliteXC. The first event also mind-bogglingly held in MMA hotbed Mississippi, featuring Renzo Gracie vs. Frank Shamrock as their big draw.
The first card was a mild success, good enough for a first time card, but nowhere near on the level of being competition for UFC. Your average company would re-evaluate the market, the demand for their product and maybe take a more conservative approach. This was not ProElite. EliteXC’s second event was a co-promoted event between themselves and K1’s HERO’s promotion, from the LA Coliseum. This arena, for those that don’t know, was used to host the 1932 Summer Olympics, and can house up to 100,000 spectators depending on the set up. Dynamite!! USA drew a claimed attendance of just over 18,000, with the paid gate being 3,674. The event was seen across the board as a monumental failure and an early sign of EliteXC/ProElite’s desire to bleed money to look like a premier MMA promotion.
The decisions that have dragged down ProElite continued, such as purchasing King of the Cage, Icon Sport and the UK-based Cage Rage. This was ProElite’s attempt at instantly expanding their brand name and reach, as well as acquiring fighters to fill out their cards. They launched a somewhat-monthly series on Showtime titled ShoXC that featured fighters from these smaller promotions, with the idea that fighters who looked impressive on ShoXC cards would then move on to the “big stage” of EliteXC.
The truth was, up until this point, ProElite was just a company that got lucky. They went out, decided they wanted to run their own MMA promotion, happened to get involved with Gary Shaw, who had a good relationship with Showtime, and then they were a real promotion, pushed right into the deep end. They had the money, they had promotion, they had the brains (at least it seemed that way), they just needed the names.
Then Kimbo happened. Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson was an internet legend for his street fights that found their way to YouTube. Slice, an imposing hulk of a figure, a former bouncer from the Miami area, in his videos was shown essentially just pounding the living tar out of anybody that would get in his way. Ironic enough, the one man that took it to Kimbo, Sean Gannon, was given a UFC contract only to look like an absolute fool and get the tar pounded out of him. Kimbo was a name, and there had been reports for a few years now that Kimbo was training to be a professional boxer and that he would consider Mixed Martial Arts, then he would never consider it, then he was seriously considering MMA — it was all running in circles until EliteXC produced Kimbo Slice in the cage. In his first official fight he mauled relative newcomer and no-name Bo Cantrell, punching him in the armpit into submission. It was impressive, he looked massive, imposing, powerful and energized.A star was born.
EliteXC knew what they had in Kimbo, but knew that they had to be careful, as he was still untested in the full spectrum of the Mixed Martial Arts world. Enter the aging David “Tank” Abbott, a fighter far past his prime, but a solid name to MMA fans and anybody with even a shred of MMA knowledge. The hardcore fans knew this was simply an offering for Kimbo, that Tank was either going to get pummeled to death or take a dive for money. To this day, while it isn’t crystal clear, I think we can all come to our own conclusions for that fight. Regardless, Kimbo’s stock was on the rise, as was female fighter and unlikely sex icon Gina Carano.
With UFC unwilling to bend to any network’s demands, EliteXC had a national broadcast television contract fall into their lap, and with their two stars as the headliners, were heading into uncharted territory for MMA on CBS. Kimbo Slice faced a non-threat in Josh Thompson and Gina Carano face a formidable challenge in Kaitlin Young. The main event turning out like a three-ringed disaster aside, the show was a success, Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano were exposed to a much larger audience, and thus their star power rose. Kimbo became a spokesperson for Nike (sort of..), saw the cover of ESPN magazine and the media blitz on Kimbo was unstoppable. EliteXC had created a juggernaut of a star, the only thing that could tear him down would be mismanagement of the company and his own lack of ability.
Thankfully for Kimbo, none of that… Oh wait.
To say that EliteXC was mismanaged is an understatement. ProElite was not bleeding money, they weren’t even hemorrhaging money. No, it was much worse — ProElite was having limbs torn off with a chainsaw in every fiscal quarter. This is not unheard of, as the UFC was over 40 million in the hole when Zuffa picked it up, and was on the verge of bankruptcy when their reality show “The Ultimate Fighter” became a smash hit, thus saving the company and sparking the MMA revolution in the United States. To ProElite, 40 million in the red was when they decided maybe it was time to change their business practices, this was just about a year into the company’s existence. The entire debt UFC had acquired over a decade was what ProElite went through in just a little over a year. ProElite being a public company, their SEC filings are freely available to the public, and for those that ventured out to view them, it was shocking how poorly they managed their money.When ProElite’s big TUF-esque break came, it was far too late. It didn’t matter that EliteXC on CBS was getting good ratings, the only thing that could save them would be for their business partner CBS to outright purchase them and keep them afloat. The real zinger here is that CBS was ready to do so, they supplied ProElite with 1 million to keep running until their third CBS special. If the show did well (which it did), CBS was fully prepared to enter further into these talks and acquire EliteXC. Until Ken Shamrock took a headbutt in training and could no longer compete. Until Seth Petruzelli stepped into the cage and scored a flash TKO victory over Kimbo. No, it wasn’t Petruzelli’s steely (lol, seriously) fists that destroyed EliteXC, but his loose tongue.
I am in no way rationalizing EliteXC’s actions, but I believe that their shady dealings and “bonuses” have been going on for a while now, especially when it involves Kimbo Slice. On this night, they knew that no risk was worth it, they needed to ensure that Kimbo won, they needed to ensure that the ratings were good. The sad part was, the ratings were good even without Ken Shamrock in the main event, that the company would still be around today if they had not paid off Petruzelli and if, well, they did so properly and made him keep his mouth shut. To really understand the ineptitude of EliteXC officials, think about this, they can’t even pay somebody to take a dive properly. They can’t pay somebody off properly and it cost them everything. Let that settle in for a minute. They failed to pay Petruzelli to take a dive. They claim that what they paid him to do wasn’t illegal, because it wasn’t blatantly fixing the outcome of the fight. What they failed to admit was that keeping Petruzelli on his feet and not allowing him to use muay thai kicks was an attempt to rig the fight in Kimbo’s favor, and of course, Kimbo fell like a lead balloon.
The past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind for ProElite, and as of Tuesday, word has gotten out that ProElite, parent to EliteXC, has passed along. We should all see EliteXC not as a giant failure, but a learning experience. This was a company that had every dumb-luck-chance in the world thrown at them, and at every turn failed to capitalize on them. This is a company that decided to build up their star power with shady backstage deals only for it to blow up in their face. This is the company that bought out the competition, and then let all of these smaller promotions they bought out flounder and die under their mismanagement. This displaces fighters, employees and fans, all due to absolute stupidity.
Remember EliteXC for putting on fun MMA cards and giving women a shot, hope that you’ll see Gina Carano in a WEC, UFC or Strikeforce ring, hope that maybe somebody learns from EliteXC’s giant mistakes before they venture out into the world of MMA with high hopes.
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:13 am
What kills me about the attempted payoff of Petruzelli is that Petruzelli’s a standup fighter by preference anyway. No one who’s ever seen him fight seriously thought he’d be diving for a takedown at the first opportunity. It’d be like paying off Wes Welker to never go deep.