Strikeforce buys EliteXC deal

[jonman12]

The long-rumored sale of many of the ill-fated ProElite organization's assets is finally complete.

Rumors of the sale initially surfaced on Wednesday evening as SI.com's Josh Gross received confirmation of the transaction from ProElite Chief Executive Officer Chuck Champion.

Today a press release by the California-based Striekforce organization confirmed that the company has purchased a significant portion of ProElite's assets, including some fighters' contracts and a video library of past CBS and Showtime-broadcast events.

"This is a tremendous development that will bolster the Strikeforce roster and allow us to produce even more competitive matchups between top fighters," Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker stated. "Some of these athletes have been on the sidelines for a while now and are eagerly waiting to return to competition. We look forward to providing them with the opportunity to do so in the next few months."

ProElite is the parent company of Elite Xtreme Combat, which in 2008, became the first-ever mixed-martial-arts organization to air on major U.S. network television.

No specific mention of which fighters' contracts were included in the acquisition was noted in the release, nor was any mention made of the CBS and Showtime television deals that ProElite had in place before it ceased operations. Immediate attempts by MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) to reach Coker and Strikeforce Director of Communications Mike Afromowitz were unsuccessful.

The CBS and Showtime television contracts in question would seem to be a driving factor behind Strikeforce's desire to purchase the assets of the crumbling ProElite organization. Strikeforce currently airs a weekly 30-minute program of highlights and fights from its video library on NBC. As MMAjunkie.com reported in late 2008, Strikeforce was in advanced talks to air live events on the Peacock Network, through a deal has yet to be reached.

Strikeforce and ProElite's other recently rumored suitors were also interested in the previously mentioned fighter contracts. ProElite held the contracts of such marketable commodities as Gina Carano, Eddie Alvarez, Jake Shields, Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson and Nick Diaz, though it's not clear which, if any, will be acquired in today's sale.

The release does not bring further details to the fate of the other ProElite-branded promotions King of the Cage, Cage Rage, Rumble on the Rock, ICON Sport and SpiritMC.

Strikeforce, which added MMA to its kickboxing offerings in 2006, has been one of the most financially successful fight promotions outside of the UFC. Its debut event set (since-broken) North American MMA attendance and live gate records. In 2008 the organization began hosting events outside of its California home and ventured to Washington and Colorado.

Strikeforce co-promoted two previous events with EliteXC. The most recent, "Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Le," featured Cung Le's upset of Frank Shamrock for Strikeforce's world middleweight title and drew more than 16,000 spectators.

Strikeforce announces acquisition of select ProElite/EliteXC assets | MMAjunkie.com

[stpierrecanada]

Nice. I heard about it earlier but thanks for the source and stuff.


Nice to see that a fight organization isn't completely gone.

Nick Diaz might be on a Strikeforce event in April!!!!!!

[Macster78]

Good to hear. I'm a big advocate to see Lawler vs Cung Le. That would be a big card.

[stpierrecanada]

Originally Posted by Macster78

Good to hear. I'm a big advocate to see Lawler vs Cung Le. That would be a big card.

Lawler VS Lee would be interesting I must say. I hope they get some more fights and get some nice cards. They acctually run the shows pretty well. I like Strikeforce. Smart move doing what they just did.

[mobb13]

I would also like to see big mouth shamrock fight again

[stpierrecanada]

Originally Posted by mobb13

I would also like to see big mouth shamrock fight again

Haha, Yeah I agree. And Frank vs Baroni II would be a classic, they should hook that up. Their first fight was hilarious.

[Andrew_The_Man]

lol you know whats funny, garunteed next Kimbo fight will be record breaking numbers again even after he got knocked out by a jab. Just because all the thugs and wannabes will be tuning in. I can here them now , "ayo dat ***** Kimbo fightin next week he breakin *****s dawg" lmao

[stpierrecanada]

Originally Posted by Andrew_The_Man

lol you know whats funny, garunteed next Kimbo fight will be record breaking numbers again even after he got knocked out by a jab. Just because all the thugs and wannabes will be tuning in. I can here them now , "ayo dat ***** Kimbo fightin next week he breakin *****s dawg" lmao

People are interested in him, plain and simple. He was advertised and made out to be the greatest thing since Mike Tyson. I knew all along he would not be a superstar, or even do great at that. But I will still to this day be pumped to watch him fight, he will slug it out with anyone, and he has good power and standup. he could be good if he trained his all-round game more. But hey, I wanna see him fight i'm not going to lie.

[Raysor]

i wanna see kimbo fight, so he can lose again.

[stpierrecanada]

Originally Posted by Raysor

i wanna see kimbo fight, so he can lose again.

I hope he does well now. I just had to see him get crushed at least once after the James Thompson fight. He lost that fight and got a gift, so I was happy Seth beat him so that kimbo gets the loss on his record he deserves and so that people will stop calling him the best.

But now I wish him the best. He does have potential, but he needs to keep training hard and fighting.