Likely it was Kimbo Slice’s pummeling by Seth Petruzelli on October 4 that was the beginning of the end , but now Kimbo’s organization EliteXC has folded according to the Herald Tribune:
The mixed martial arts organization that put former street brawler Kimbo Slice and female fighter Gina Carano on national television is going out of business.
EliteXC canceled a show scheduled for Nov. 8 in Reno with an e-mail Tuesday to Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission. J.T. Steele, Elite0XC’s manager of fight operations, also informed Kizer that the organization was ceasing operations.
“Unfortunately, it’s not a surprise, but you still hoped for the fighters’ sake and for the community up there that they would find something,” Kizer told The Associated Press.
EliteXC existed for just two tumultuous years, making history in its fast-growing sport by putting three recent shows on CBS in prime time. The venture made minor stars out of Slice, the former Miami bodyguard whose real name is Kevin Ferguson, and Carano, who became the sport’s best-known female athlete.
But EliteXC struggled to sign elite talent despite its CBS showcases, and Slice was stopped 14 seconds into his most recent fight with journeyman Seth Petruzelli on Oct. 4.
With the end of EliteXC also comes the end of CBS’s Saturday Night Fights as reported by the NYT.
A new franchise for CBS, “Saturday Night Fights,” is coming to a premature end because the mixed martial arts league that put on the shows, Pro Elite, abruptly closed its doors this week.
In a bid for younger viewers and Saturday programming, CBS broadcast three mixed martial arts matches this year, most recently on Oct. 4. CBS had planned to show one more match.
The financial problems starting before the last show on CBS. They had been buying up smaller promotions for big bucks and had lost $55 million the past two years. They were relying on Showtime to buy them, but the last show on CBS was a debacle so Showtime ended negotiations and EliteXC was out of money. Originally CBS negotiated with the UFC but they could not come to a deal so we will have to see if CBS and UFC negotitate again.
The UFC will not be on broadcast television anytime soon bc they won’t give on production control and the big 4 networks get that from every other sport that they showcase. Either CBS will join with Affliction, or showcase fights on their own.
Strikeforce may be doing live fights on NBC next year.
The other possibility is that CBS may decide that mixed martial arts just isn’t worth the aggravation anymore. The network has succeeded this season by refocusing on already proven program genres. This may not be the time and place to continue experiments.