Archive for the 'Elite XC' Category

Your round-tablers today:
Lee Casebolt (LC)
Dave Walsh (DW)
Alan Conceicao (AC)
Iain Liddle (IL)

Topics being discussed:
- Affliction planning future shows already - brave or foolhardy?
- Nick Diaz vs. Thomas Denny booked for CBS - the correct decision?
- Have you been able to watch the Kim Couture fight?
- Will you miss Ivan Salaverry?

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Your Roundtable:

IL: Iain Liddle(UK)
DW: Dave Walsh(USA)
AC: Alan Conceicao(USA)
LC: Lee Casebolt(USA)
KS: Kendall Shields(CAN)
JS: Jonathan Snowden(USA)
MS: Marc Staehling(CAN)

Jake Shields vs. Nick Thompson for the first Elite XC Welterweight Title Live on CBS

DW: As fun as it is to make fun of EliteXC or anything involving Gary Shaw, this is unquestionable content. I can’t wait to see it, but this really isn’t going to wow a CBS crowd. As much as people complain about subpar displays like Kimbo Slice, that is what your average person in the audience is expecting to see.

JS: think the Shields-Thompson matchup is great and should add some much needed technical prowess to the Elite XC CBS show. Read the rest of this entry »

Via the new Wrestling Observer website. Check it out.

Mr. White’s is a Familiar Act

When people say comparisons between pro wrestling and MMA don’t make any sense, keep things like this in mind: according to Sherdog, Dana White and the UFC will run a show on SPIKE TV on July 19th. This is the same day that Affliction debuts with a star studded card on PPV, featuring Tim Sylvia vs. Fedor Emelienko in the main event.

To long time wrestling fans, this will seem all too familiar. In 1987 Jim Crockett Promotions was excited to air their first PPV, Starcade 1987. They were less thrilled when Vince McMahon’s WWF offered a competing PPV on the same day. They were nearly in tears when McMahon informed cable companies they could either carry his show (a brand that had a track record of success) or Crockett’s untested show. You can imagine what happened.

The next January, McMahon upped the ante. When Crockett announced his second PPV, Bunkhouse Stampede, McMahon countered with a free special called the Royal Rumble on the USA Network. Crockett would get revenge by broadcasting the inaugural Clash of the Champions for free on TBS in competition with Wrestlemania IV. And so it went, until WCW was finally laid to rest.

Dana White has a history of vigorously attacking the competition in the courts. Now he’s bringing his bag of dirty tricks to the television industry. And because the UFC is the only brand with regular access to a significant TV audience, it’s not exactly a fair fight. Still, this is dangerous ground to walk for White and the UFC. Boxing promoters are pretty careful about putting on shows in competition to each other. There are enough weekends in the calender year for everyone.

A broadside like this may do irreparable harm to Affliction’s chances, but does White really want to open the Pandora’s box that could lead to the next Kimbo Slice fight being programmed for free on CBS opposite Chuck Liddell’s next pay per view fight? I think White would have been better served letting the market decide whether Affliction could survive the choppy waters of modern MMA promotion. He might have been pleased with the answer.
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By Dave Walsh

Really, what were you expecting from EliteXC on CBS? I am looking around the net right now, and it is actually kind of distressing the level of insanity that is coming with the inaugural MMA event on broadcast television and the coverage that it is getting. A lot of the mainstream media is giving this event some positive or simply complacent reviews, while most of the net is going absolutely livid over it. What I see is a whole different level of understanding, and it isn’t in the way which you would think.

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And we are off~! The internet prelims are just getting started for the most high-profile night in North American MMA history. Go to proelite.com or CBS sportsline to watch them now.

Iain Liddle and Alan Conceicao bringing you everything you need to know.

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Tomorrow night, Kimbo Slice will enter the cage for Elite XC in a moment that is quite possibly the most important in the history of the sport. Naturally, this sort of event brings out all the MMA bloggers/pretend journalists from the woodwork and has brought an insane amount of talk about what a show that hasn’t yet happened will do for the long term health of the sport. What’s not been discussed by virtually anyone is what a severe departure tomorrow night’s show is from every other MMA show previously televised.

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Recently, CBS Chairman Sumner Redstone criticized his network’s decision to show Elite XC bouts on the public airwaves. The internet exploded with fire and brimstone. How dare someone suggest that grown men pummeling each other for $3000 is “socially irresponsible?” What could possibly be wrong with rewarding a man for killing another’s priceless and irreplaceable brain cells?

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Editor’s Note: Hardcore MMA fans live in their own insular little world. I know before I click what Josh Gross or Zach Arnold are going to say before they say it. I thought it might be interesting to send an outsider to watch a show up close. A, dare I say, TUF-Newb. What does a California hipster goofball think about MMA. We’re about to find out…

By Andrew Wallace

It was with great excitement that I accepted Jonathan’s kind offer to go to Strikeforce as a member of the prestigious total-mma.com’s elite journalism team. I don’t know much about MMA, or journalism, or anything. As I write this, I am on a train headed towards San Jose. My frantic writing in this notebook will probably give me away as a complete fool. I’m nervous. As a member of the media am I expected to sit passively, completely neutral to the nights proceedings? Or am I allowed to just completely lose my goddamn mind? I guess that all depends on if I find a bar before the show starts.

I have arrived and my mind is completely and utterly lost. As I write, I am in the press room watching Dave Meltzer eat meatloaf. This is the most incredible moment of my entire life, I want to just start laughing. Meltzer has a hearty appetite and an awkward manner of interpersonal interaction. He is my king.

Oh, the sneaky little fellow has crept off somewhere. I shall try to find him!
Total-MMA is apparently lacking in the prestige department as I am seated in a wheelchair landing. This is not ideal.
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DISCUSS THIS STORY IN THE TOTAL-MMA.COM FORUMS

By Marc Staehling

Originally posted at Nokaut, and then subsequently at MMAmania, and MMAjunkie.com, rumours are swirling that ProElite, parent company to EliteXC is the leading suitor to gain the services of the Russian superstar. While I personally would like to see Fedor end up in the UFC, it appears as if that’s a pipe-dream at this point and in the long run, a spot on CBS might be the best move for the sport of MMA on the whole.

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Discuss this article in the Total-MMA forum!

 By Lee Casebolt

Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, I presume you’ve heard about the deal between the CBS television network and MMA wannabe player ProElite, parent company of EliteXC.  The announcement has garnered a fair amount of response amongst the MMA congnoscenti, ranging from the moderately positive to the outraged.  On the one hand, you have those who see an enlarged market for the sport of mixed martial arts, with all of the opportunities that brings.  On the other, you have those who see Kimbo Slice, face of MMA, and are (justifiably) terrified.

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