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Prior to reading this third 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 there controversial, but overall successful debut on CBS, Elite XC returned to action with Elite XC: Return Of The King on June 14th, 2008. This event wound up becoming a pivotal event in Elite XC history for a multitude of reasons, mainly the headlining star. The main event for Elite XC: Return Of The King featured Elite XC Lightweight Champion KJ Noons defending the title against Yves Edwards.
The fight between KJ Noons and Yves Edwards didn’t last that long, but its post fight antics and their outcome would change Elite XC for good. KJ Noons wound up defeating UFC veteran Yves Edwards by TKO in under a minute in the first round, but the post match antics began. Shortly after his victory, Elite XC Lightweight Champion KJ Noons and various family and training partners were confronted by Nick Diaz (whom KJ Noons defeated for the Elite XC Lightweight Title at Elite XC: Renegade) and brother, UFC Ultimate Fighter 5 champion Nate Diaz.
The Diaz Brothers started insulting and antagonizing KJ Noons and his party, which resulted in a near riot as the Diaz Brothers seemingly tried to take on everybody left in the cage. Many in MMA were starting to anticipate a potential rematch between Elite XC Lightweight Champion KJ Noons and Nick Diaz would be taking place in the future, they would be dead wrong. Elite XC officials were quick to get a rematch signed and Nick Diaz was on board, but KJ Noons didn’t want to defend his title against someone that he felt didn’t deserve a rematch. This situation between KJ Noons, Nick Diaz and Elite XC would eventually come to ahead with Elite XC losing a champion and a fighter, who were one in the same.
KJ Noons would claim that international sensation Eddie Alvarez was the true top contender to his Elite XC Lightweight Title, not Nick Diaz and Elite XC thought differently. Elite XC and KJ Noons would soon go to legal war over the situation, with KJ Noons also claiming that Elite XC had not marketed him correctly during his time in the promotion. After a growing legal battle, Elite XC wound up giving KJ Noons a deadline in which to sign a contract to face Nick Diaz or be stripped of the title. As you probably guessed by now, KJ Noons didn’t respond to the deadline and Elite XC would strip him of his Elite XC Lightweight Title, although KJ Noons would claim that he relinquished the belt to Elite XC. Interestingly enough, Elite XC would book Nick Diaz against Eddie Alvarez for the vacant Elite XC Lightweight Title for November, but the fight would never take place.
Elite XC: Unfinished Business would be Elite XC’s second event on the CBS network and it took place on July 26th, 2008. The event was headlined by Robbie Lawler defending his Elite XC Middleweight Title against Scott Smith in a rematch from the first Elite XC event on CBS. You may remember that in the first fight, Robbie Lawler accidentally poked Scott Smith in the eye to end the fight via medical stoppage. This fight wouldn’t end by medical stoppage this time around, as Robbie Lawler would defeat Scott Smith to retain his Elite XC Middleweight Title. Speaking of titles, Jake Shields would become the first Elite XC Welterweight Champion by defeating Nick Thompson in the first round by submission. Antonio Silva would also capture the Elite XC Heavyweight Title by defeating UFC veteran Justin Eilers by TKO in the second round.
However, it would be a relatively unknown female fighter named Cristiane Santos who would capture the imagination of MMA fans everywhere. After her domination of Shayna Baszler, MMA fans started salivating at the thought of a fight between Cristiane Santos and Gina Carano. The company even began to tease the fight, which was rumored to take place at Elite XC’s first ever pay-per-view. Despite the fan interest, Elite XC would never pull the trigger on the fight and they would never get the opportunity to.
September 26th, 2008 would feature the last time Elite XC would crown a champion when Wilson Reis would defeat Abel Cullum to become the Elite XC Featherweight Champion. This Sho XC event would be one of three event run by Elite XC/Sho XC in about two weeks, it would also be the starting point for the last two weeks of the promotions existence.
Elite XC: Heat would be the third and final event that Elite XC would run on CBS and controversy would reign supreme at the event. The main event for the show was scheduled to be Kimbo Slice taking on UFC Hall Of Famer Ken Shamrock, but then it happened. Prior to the event, Ken Shamrock would up getting cut while rolling with his trainers, the cut was severe enough to get Ken Shamrock pulled from the event after three separate doctors wouldn’t allow him to compete. The event was scheduled to start live at 9pm EST.. on CBS, Elite XC officials would announce the fight situation until 8pm EST., when the preliminary fights were already taking place.
Another Shamrock in Frank Shamrock nearly took the place of his step-brother, as well as Aaron Rosa, but UFC castoff Seth Petruzelli wound up getting the opportunity. “Rocky! Rocky! Rocky is here” would be shouted out during color commentary after Seth Petruzelli shocked the world and defeated Kimbo Slice in just fourteen seconds. That’s right, the man that Elite XC put all there time and effort into as their face of the company was beaten by a relative unknown in fourteen seconds. The ramifications of this fight wound up hurting Elite XC so much that it would only be a week later until Elite XC would go under. It would be Seth Petruzelli’s comments that he was paid to stand up against Kimbo Slice that would echo throughout the MMA community for awhile to come.
It wouldn’t take long for the athletic commission to launch an investigation after Seth Petruzelli’s comments, even after Seth Petruzelli took back what he said. Eventually the athletic commission would say there was no wrongdoing by anybody in Elite XC, but it wouldn’t matter as Elite XC would be out of business by that point. However, many believe that it was those comments by Seth Petruzelli and the athletic commission’s investigation that caused Showtime and other potential buyers from saving Elite XC from going out of business.
One more event would be run under the Sho XC banner that featured heavyweight contender Dave Herman defeating Kerry Schall and UFC Ultimate Fighter alumni Jason Guida losing to Mamed Khalidov. A few days after Sho XC ran on October 10th, 2008, Elite XC and parent company Pro Elite would declare bankruptcy and become the latest MMA company to die.
It just under two years of existence, Elite XC would experience the highest of highs and lowest of lows and would eventually die a death that could’ve been prevented. Elite XC would make stars of Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano, KJ Noons, Jake Shields, Antonio Silva and Cristiane Santos, but when you put all your eggs in the basket of an unproven commodity in Kimbo Slice, no other amount of stars were able to keep the ship from sinking.
R.I.P Elite XC: February 10th, 2007 - October 10th, 2008
You can contact David Tees at bigtees360@yahoo.com
