EliteXC and Pro Elite Close Down Shop

SI.com and Sherdog's Josh Gross Gets the Scoop

Less than two years following the formation of ProElite, Inc., the group notified employees and fighters Monday it was shutting its doors effective immediately, multiple sources confirmed to SI.com.
ProElite was an entertainment and media company founded in partnership with Showtime Networks and spearheaded by the mixed martial arts promotional brand EliteXC.
Representatives for ProElite, EliteXC and Showtime did not return calls for comment.
Through its partnership with Showtime and later CBS, which in 2008 agreed to broadcast four live EliteXC events in primetime, EliteXC gained a tremendous amount of visibility. The company, however, hemorrhaged tens of millions of dollars during its 22 months in operation.
In September, Showtime, which owned a 20 percent stake in ProElite, entered into preliminary negotiations to purchase a controlling interest in the company. When those negotiations failed, said a source inside ProElite who asked not to be identified, funding dried up and the company was forced out of business.

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What becomes of Kimbo Slice, Jake Shields and Gina Carano?

EliteXC Heavyweight Champion Antonio Silva Tests Positive for Steroids

Juicing Alert, www.f4wonline.com has the scoop.

Antonio Silva Jr., the current EliteXC Heavyweight Champion, tested positive for Boldenone. He has been suspended for one year and fined $2,500.

Here's what wikipedia has to say about this particular steroid.

Boldenone (1,4-androstadiene-3-one-17β-ol, available as the undecylenate ester), also known under the trade names Equipoise, Ganabol, Equigan and Ultragan, is an anabolic steroid developed for veterinary use, mostly for treatment of horses. It is not indicated for use in humans in the US and is only available through veterinary clinics.

Apparently this is the most popular steroid among MMA fighters. From Wikipedia.

Stephan Bonnar and Josh Barnett, mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters from the UFC and PRIDE Fighting Championships, have also tested positive for the banned substance.[1] After the World Extreme Cagefighting show on January 20, 2006 Muay Thai turned MMA fighter Kit Cope also tested positive for Boldenone.[2]Following the Strikeforce card on June 22, 2007 former PRIDE and UFC fighter Phil Baroni tested positive for Boldenone, as well as Stanozolol.[3] Most recently, at a K-1 WGP event in Las Vegas on August 17, 2007 two fighters, Rickard Nordstrand and Zabit Samedov, both tested positive for Boldenone.[4] Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures) has tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone, the California State Athletic Commission said Monday in a statement, on July 7, 2008.

From the Affliction show Edwin Dewees was busted for Nandrolone.

EliteXC "Unfinished Business" Preview

Here's an open press workout for EliteXC's second CBS show with the main event of Scott Smith vs Robbie Lawler 2.

Full Card So Far

Televised Card (9pm on CBS)
“Ruthless” Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith (EXC Middleweight Title)
Nick Diaz vs. Thomas Denny
Jake Shields vs. Nick Thompson (EXC Welterweight Title)
Shayna Baszler vs. Cristiane Cyborg

Undercard (8pm on Showtime)
Antonio “Big Foot” Silva vs. Justin Eilers(EliteXC Heavyweight Title)
Wilson Reis vs. Brian Caraway
Rafael Feijao vs. Travis Galbraith

Miami Herald Rips Mixed Martial Arts

This article makes me sick. While I'm not thrilled about the idea of Kimbo being the headliner for the first MMA on network TV, thats no reason to go on and bash the entire sport. Here's an excerpt from Miamiherald.com writer Greg Cote.

CBS-TV lends the fraud-sport grandly calling itself Mixed Martial Arts the false imprimatur of legitimacy by this week inaugurating a new prime-time series, EliteXC Saturday Night Fights -- with Miami's own inexplicably popular Kimbo Slice the first headlining act.

Pardon my not swelling with civic pride over one of our own hitting the big-time at last for what amounts to legalized criminality, a plain barbarism that would tend to discourage a pedestal for this man.

Would-be hero Kevin Ferguson (Kimbo's real name) says he dreams of tearing off a man's arm and beating him with it.

Taking liberties, I'll guess that when real hero Martin Luther King said, ''I have a dream,'' he had somewhat nobler pursuits in mind.

Surely the ghost of Edward R. Murrow is weeping over his network's self-debasement by association, though not for the first time.

Read the Entire Article by Clicking Here

Strikeforce on NBC Episode 1 Video

"Strikeforce on NBC" episode 1 aired at 2am this morning. The episode focusing on Strikeforce middleweight champ Cung Le. NBC has been kind enough to put the full episode up for viewing on their website.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE EPISODE

Post-Fight Interview with Cung Le

Great interview with Cung here after the fight by Ricco Rodriguez.

EliteXC Expected to Announce Deal with CBS

This is courtesy of MMAjunkie.com, this could be a hit to the UFC, but the UFC will always have PPV.

The announcement will come just weeks after EliteXC’s successful “Street Certified” event in Miami, Fla. In addition to drawing a sold-out crowd and setting a live gate record at the BankUnited Center, the event reportedly drew more than half a million Showtime viewers.

The fact that EliteXC — and not the UFC, the worldwide MMA leader — landed the first network-television deal is a bit of a surprise.

Beginning in October, UFC president Dana White stated that he was confident the organization would reach a deal with a major TV network, most notably CBS or NBC. In November MediaPost Publications reported that the UFC and CBS were in “advanced negotiations” and that the announcement of an official partnership was expected to happen at any time. UFC 81, which took place earlier this month, was expected to be the first UFC event to air on CBS.

However, the deal eventually fell apart — reportedly over issues with the creative control of the events. Those same issues kept a deal between the UFC and HBO from coming together last year, as well.

ProElite has been on a shopping spree during the past year, purchasing organizations such as ICON Sport, Cage Rage, King of the Cage, and Spirit MC. Additionally, the organization has recently signed long-term deals with notables such as Nick Diaz, Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, Robbie Lawler, Jake Shields, Murilo “Ninja” Rua and Gina Carano.

Read the Rest Here

Ken Shamrock vs Frank Shamrock a Possibility?

The president of the ElieXC is reportedly very interested in promoting a brother vs brother event. There's no blood relation between the 2, they were both adopted. Ken is 44 and Frank is 34. Heres a snippet from Gary Shaw courtesy of thefightnetwork.com.

“I talked to my team about it,” Shaw said. “I would love to do brother versus brother. It would be a great promotion.”

Read the rest HERE

In my opinion this is defenitely a PPV I would pay to see, Im not sure how close the brothers are, but it could sell some PPV's for sure. Frank looked great in his return to the ring against Phil Baroni, while Ken hasn't fought in a year with his last fight being his third loss to Tito Ortiz. Ken is a competitor though and this could be a very interesting fight if it were to happen.

By the way I don't if everybody knows but Frank Shamrock has a blog, check it out.