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On Saturday Night July 26th, Elite XC returns to CBS for their second event headlined by the Elite XC Middleweight Title rematch with champion Robbie Lawler defending against Scott Smith. Unlike the first Elite XC event, which was headlined by Kimbo Slice and James Thompson, this event will be broadcast on CBS, Showtime and Pro Elite.
This is an interesting opportunity for MMA fans, but it also has the potential for failure because of this broadcasting idea. As it stands at this time, the preliminary fights will be streamed live on the internet with Pro Elite, which has been done with all past Elite XC events. This is something that most MMA companies donʼt do, which is stream the preliminary fights either online or on television, but Elite XC has been doing it with Pro Elite since day one.
The second portion of the event will be broadcast on Showtime and it will feature three fights, headlined by the crowning of the first Elite XC Heavyweight Champion as Antonio Silva takes on Justin Eilers. This is a very interesting move by Elite XC to crown their first ever heavyweight champion during a broadcast that will potentially have the lowest amount of viewers of the three broadcasting mediums that night.
Now I believe that there are two key issues heading into this fight that must be addressed, with the first being Justin Eilers and the second being broadcasting the fight on Showtime. Despite challenging then UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski for the title at UFC 55, Justin Eilers hasnʼt competed on the national MMA scene since his final UFC fight at UFC 57. This is not to say that Justin Eilers isnʼt a dangerous fighter, because he certainly is, but this will be Justin Eilers Elite XC debut and he is already being put in a top spot in the company. I find that to be an odd move considering Elite XC can bring in Kimbo Slice, Brett Rogers, Dave Herman and other top fighters to face Antonio Silva for the title.
You would think that such a historical fight should be broadcast in a position with the most viewers possible for the fighters and the promotion. You would obviously think that the Elite XC Heavyweight Title fight would be broadcast on CBS since they would have the most viewers, but instead the fight will be the headliner for the Showtime portion of the event. Thatʼs night to say that Showtime shouldnʼt have quality fights on their portion of the event, but if your trying to breakthrough on broadcast TV like Elite XC is attempting to do, then you should put the top fights in a position where they can be seen by the most amount of people.
The third portion of the event will be broadcast on CBS, that portion of the event will be headlined by the aforementioned Elite XC Middleweight Title fight between champion Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith, a rematch from the first Elite XC On CBS event. This portion of the broadcast will also feature Jake Shields facing Nick Thompson to crown the first Elite XC Welterweight Champion, Elite XC Lightweight Nick Diaz taking on Thomas Denny and womenʼs MMA action featuring Shayna Baszler.
This is a decent card for the second CBS event, but you canʼt tell me that the Antonio Silva/Justin Eilers fight couldnʼt be switched with the Nick Diaz/Thomas Denny or Shayna Baszler fight so all three title fights could be broadcast on the same portion of the event. With the record numbers that the first Elite XC On CBS event did, it would seemingly behoove both CBS and Elite XC to put the biggest fights of the event on that portion of the card to bring in those record numbers once more.
When Saturday Night July 26th rolls around, Elite XC will definitely be putting on a historical night of action that will be broadcast across three different entertainment mediums, featuring three title fights and the Elite XC debut of Justin Eilers. This will truly be a historic night in the realm of MMA and this experiment of three different broadcast will see if MMA can succeed on so many different platforms.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
