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Prior to reading this second part of my look at Elite XC, I must note that even though the entire Pro Elite company is going out of business, I am simply going to focus on the business practices of Elite XC and the downfall of that end of Pro Elite.
After a pretty successful first year in MMA, Elite XC would finish 2007 with their final event of the year, Elite XC: Renegade. This event, in hindsight, would lead to one of the biggest contributing factors to the death of Elite XC less than a year later. It would begin with the debut of You Tube sensation Kevin Ferguson, better known to the world as Kimbo Slice. Kimbo Slice would face MMA veteran Bo Cantrell at Elite XC: Renegade and defeat him in under a minute. This victory would spark the Elite XC mega push of a sideshow attraction as its biggest star and ultimately the biggest factor in the companies demise.
The seeds for another controversy in Elite XC would be planted at this event and it concerned a title known as the Elite XC Lightweight Title. The main event for Elite XC: Renegade pitted the controversial Nick Diaz against KJ Noons to crown the first Elite XC Lightweight Champion. This fight would only last five minutes, but it would have lasting effects on the remainder of Elite XC’s existence. This fight saw KJ Noons upset Nick Diaz and defeat him via doctors stoppage after a cut was badly opened over Nick Diaz’s eyelid. Interestingly enough, KJ Noons wasn’t supposed to even fight Nick Diaz, it was supposed to be Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett fighting instead of KJ Noons. Either way, KJ Noons capitalized on an opportunity and defeated Nick Diaz to become the Elite XC Lightweight Champion.
Many MMA fans easily looked at this event as just another event by Elite XC, but it would eventually be looked at as the beginning of the end for Elite XC.
The first Elite XC event of 2008 would be a Sho XC event that occurred on January 25th in the gamblers paradise known as Atlantic City, New Jersey. This event would feature three very important fighters, the first would be international standout Eddie Alvarez. If Elite XC didn’t shut down this month, Eddie Alvarez would be facing Nick Diaz for the vacant Elite XC Lightweight Title in November. The next fighter who competed at this event was Paul Daley, who would put off his retirement plans to fight and lose to Elite XC Welterweight Champion Jake Shields at Elite XC: Heat, the final event in Elite XC history. The last fighter and least known fighter is Kala Hose, who would go onto defeat UFC veteran Phil Baroni at an Icon Sport event in Hawaii to win the Icon Sport Middleweight Title.
Elite XC would run its fourth event entitled Elite XC: Street Certified on February 16th, 2008 and it featured the first of three times Kimbo Slice would headline an Elite XC event. Kimbo Slice would take on UFC legend Tank Abbott and defeat him in less than a minute into the opening round. Of course, Kimbo Slice would be scheduled to face another UFC legend in what turned out to be the companies final event, but that is a situation that will be discussed in due time. This event also featured the Elite XC debut of Scott Smith, who defeated Kyle Noke at this event and would go onto compete in one of the most controversial fights in Elite XC’s eventual debut on CBS. UFC veteran Yves Edwards would also compete and defeat Edson Berto, Yves Edwards would become synonymous with Elite XC history as the last fighter who would challenge Elite XC Lightweight Champion KJ Noons for the title. The event would also feature Brett Rogers defeating James Thompson, but it would be James Thompson getting the nod to fight Kimbo Slice on the debut of Elite XC On CBS, a move that would anger Brett Rogers.
May 31st, 2008 would be one of the most pivotal days in not only Elite XC history, but also in MMA history as a whole. That date would be the date that Elite XC would be making his historic debut on CBS with a whole host of top MMA stars like Elite XC Middleweight Champion Robbie Lawler, Gina Carano and even the company sideshow act, but also its most pushed fighter in Kimbo Slice. This event would do phenomenal ratings for CBS, but it would also be the focal point of conversation for the business practices of Elite XC from this point on.
Although I said that Kimbo Slice was the most pushed fighter in the company, it would be two other fights that highlighted the event on CBS. First, Gina Carano would face off against Kaitlin Young in a brutal women’s MMA fight that saw Gina Carano defeat Kaitlin Young by referees stoppage after the second round. This fight would also be controversial because Gina Carano would come into the fight nearly five pounds over the agreed weight limit of 140 pounds. Most MMA insiders would blame the weight deficiency on Gina Carano’s ever demanding schedule following her tremendous success outside of MMA. The fight was an Elite XC Middleweight Title fight between champion Robbie Lawler and challenger Scott Smith. After a brutality filled three rounds of MMA action, the NJSAC doctor would stop the fight after Scott Smith was accidentally poked in the eye and couldn’t continue. The controversial ending to this fight would lead these two to a rematch and that would headline Elite XC On CBS II. The main event of the evening would feature the heavily hyped Kimbo Slice winning a controversial three round fight over James Thompson by referee stoppage/TKO. This fight was highlighted by the disgustingly cauliflower ears of James Thompson, one of which would get busted open to cause massive bleeding and the eventual end of the fight.
This event would find a lot of controversy amongst both the MMA fans/insiders and the executives at CBS, the television station that hosted the event. CBS was angry at Elite XC because the event was slotted for two hours and it nearly went three hours in length, this issue would be seemingly settled at the second event on CBS, but it would return for the third and final event. MMA insiders, for the most part, saw the event as a disgrace to MMA and continuously bashed it as a whole. Despite most of the negativity following the event, Elite XC On CBS did achieve massive ratings and that alone, despite the negatives, would give them more opportunities for future events with CBS.
Midway through there run in the MMA universe, Elite XC had there biggest pushed asset in Kimbo Slice, with there ever popular fighters in Gina Carano, KJ Noons and Robbie Lawler following behind in Elite XC’s eye, but not in the fans eyes. Elite XC also made history with there ratings success debut on CBS and continued to do well on Showtime with both Elite XC and Sho XC.
With Elite XC hitting their success peak with their CBS debut, things would start going downhill with CBS, KJ Noons, Gina Carano/Cyborg Santos, Ken Shamrock and a host of other notables. While Elite XC thought they would go onto even greater heights, who would’ve guessed that a “silverback” would seemingly put the final nail in the Elite XC coffin.
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
