LOS ANGELES, CA. — In a transaction signaling the dawn of a new era in the world’s fastest growing sport, world championship mixed martial arts (MMA) organization Strikeforce®, has acquired certain fighter contracts from ProElite, Inc, the parent company of former Strikeforce ® co-promoter, Elite Xtreme Combat (EliteXC).

Strikeforce® also acquired other specific assets of ProElite, including a library of EliteXC events, which were distributed live on either CBS or Showtime Networks.

“This is a tremendous development that will bolster the Strikeforce® roster and allow us to produce even more competitive matchups between top fighters,” said Scott Coker, Founder and CEO of Strikeforce®. “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.”

Strikeforce® and EliteXC joined forces to deliver the first live SHOWTIME PPV® MMA event, “Shamrock vs. Baroni,” on June 22, 2007. In the headlining contest, former UFC middleweight champion and MMA legend Frank Shamrock submitted knockout artist Phil “The New York Badass” Baroni in the second round, where upon Shamrock became the first Strikeforce® World Middleweight Champion.

On March 29, 2008, the two promotions collaborated once more to deliver a live telecast on SHOWTIME® featuring one of the sport’s most anticipated showdowns – Shamrock versus undefeated world kickboxing champion Cung Le. In a battle that has since been proclaimed “Fight Of The Year” by critics, Le seized the Strikeforce® middleweight crown by pouring on a relentless offensive and fending off Shamrock’s counter attacks before breaking the defending champion’s arm with a hard roundhouse kick. Shamrock retired from the bout after the third round of a five round match.

A martial arts promoter for over 23 years, Coker has gained widespread acclaim among industry colleagues and the media, including Rolling Stone magazine, Yahoo! Sports, and The San Jose Mercury News. Coker elevated his 14-year-old Strikeforce® organization to become a major player in the World’s fastest growing sport. Strikeforce’s® inaugural MMA event hosted a capacity crowd of 18,265 at San Jose’s HP Pavilion on March 10, 2006. The live gate figure also broke the then all-time record for attendance at an MMA event held in North America.

EliteXC burst onto the MMA scene with “Destiny,” the first live, SHOWTIME®-televised MMA fight card in history, on February 10, 2007. Held at Southaven Mississippi’s DeSoto Civic Center, the main event pitted Shamrock against Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert, Renzo Gracie.

The promotion made history again by bringing, for the first time, a live MMA event to the CBS Television Network on May 31, 2008.

Sherdog:

Showtime Networks filed public notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday announcing its intention to enter preliminary negotiations for the purchase of Pro Elite Inc.

Showtime, a subsidiary of the parent conglomerate CBS Corporation, already enjoys broadcasting deals with the Los Angeles-based company on both its premium cable channel and CBS. Showtime also has a 20% ownership stake in Pro Elite.

The potential acquisition could not come at a more opportune time for the fledging company, as Pro Elite faces a $55 million deficit accrued during its two years of operation.

It looks like Pro Elite’s rapid buyout of a lot the smaller mixed martial arts promotions (Cage Rage, Icon, ROR, KOTC…..) has finally caught up with them.

According to SEC filings, Pro Elite needed to raise 3.3 Million to continue operations, but fell short only obtaining 1 Million from Showtime which must be paid back by June 18, 2009 to fend off Showtime from holding “First Priority” interest stake in the company.

Former Cage Rage world champion Paul “Semtex” Daley had a lot to say to Fighters Only Magazine about the threats by Pro Elite to force him off the Cage Warriors card this Saturday Night.

UPDATE: Paul Daley defeats Bojan Kosednar via KO at 4:53 in the first round.

Here’s the rant:

“They tried to get me to fight for Cage Rage, which I wasn’t going to do on the principle that I’ve agreed to fight in my hometown….They’ve gone about it in a not so pleasant way, I think they could have gone about it a lot better. I can’t say much more for legal reasons but I think Cage Rage have had a lot to do with it.”

“There wasn’t a problem initially, but then other people, outside sources, got involved. Me just fighting on Cage Warriors didn’t seem to be a problem, then there was a date clash with Cage Rage, a lot of fans think the Cage Rage card is not as strong as it has been in the past.”

“I am the Cage Rage world champion, but I don’t have a contract with them. As the champion, what they were offering me to fight and how they were treating me was not how I feel I should be treated considering what I’ve achieved.”

“I know Cage Warriors and Cage Rage are rival promotions but I have no loyalty to Cage Rage as there’s no contract there. Before Pro Elite got hold of the reigns at Cage Rage, they [Cage Rage] didn’t really wanna know who I was. I was always an upset for them, me winning both belts, me beating their poster boys, and you know, it’s just one of those things. Now I’m getting a bit of recognition and moving away from them, they’re realising their fans don’t give a fuck about their fighters and it was really me who was putting bums on seats. They’ve lost one of their star fighters.”

“They’ve basically said if I fight it’s going to be in the hands of the legal team. I hope that I can work it out with Pro Elite, on a personal level they’re good people.”

“I tried to explain to them, this is a full-time job for me. I need to fight to get money, they did offer me to fight on Cage Rage on the same day, for a number of reasons I can’t list, I didn’t take that. On a personal level, I felt that I had already agreed to fight for Cage Warriors so that was what I was going to do.”

“They [Pro Elite] did offer me a fight on the July 26th card against Rory Markham, who we all know has signed with the UFC, so I thought it was a ploy to stop me fighting on Cage Warriors. I felt that if I had accepted the fight, they would have just cancelled on me.”

“A lot of other guys had fought twice in the same month for two different promotions, a non-Pro Elite and then a Pro Elite event – I said look, I’ll fight July 12th and I’ll fight July 26th, not a problem. I feel confident in this fight and all being well I would get out uninjured and with a victory and I’d fly straight to America. They didn’t want to hear any of that.”

“If I had been Nick Diaz, it wouldn’t have been a problem. The guy smokes weed, starts riots on TV, doesn’t make weight, fights whoever the fuck he wants, and there’s no problem there. It’s a bit of a piss-take really.”

“I’m gonna fight 100%. Cage Warriors are behind me, I said I’m going to fight no matter what, nothing is going to stop me from fighting on this event. A lot of people, a lot of friends and family are going to be there, I’ve trained really hard, my whole team’s had a good ten week training camp. I’m really looking forward to fighting for Cage Warriors.”

“I went with Pro Elite because I thought they thought of the fighters, but this has just been a major problem.”

EliteXC “Primetime” sets it off Saturday May 31 from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The ground breaking show broadcasts live on CBS, making it on the first MMA show to debut on network TV.

EliteXC Primetime Main Card

• Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson
  Result: Kimbo Slice defeats James Thompson by TKO (punches) at 0:38 of R3.
• Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith
  Result: Robbie Lawler defeats Scott Smith by TKO (Thumb in the Eye) at 3:26 of R3.
• Phil Baroni vs. Joey Villasenor
  Result: Joey Villasenor defeats Phil Baroni by TKO (Punches) at 1:11 of R1.
• Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young
  Result: Gina Carano defeats Kaitlin Young by TKO (Doctor Stoppage) at the end of R2.
• Brett Rogers vs. Jon Murphy
  Result: Brett Rogers defeats Jon Murphy by TKO (Punch) at 1:01 of R1.

Preliminary Bouts

• Nick Serra vs. Matt Makowski
  Result: Matt Makowski defeats Nick Serra by TKO (Wouldn’t Get Up From Butt Scoot) at 3:57 of R2.
• Zach Makovsky vs. Andre Soares
  Result: Zach Makovsky defeats Andres Soares Unanimous Decision.
• Wilson Reis vs. Justin Robbins
  Result: Wilson Reis defeats Justin Robbins by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:06 of R1.
• James Jones vs. Calvin Kattar
  Result: James Jones defeats Calvin Kattar by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 4:49 of R1.
• Mike Groves vs. Joe Sampieri
  Result: Joe Sampieri defeats Mike Groves by TKO (Strikes) at 4:58 of R1.
• Carlton Haselrig vs. Carlos Moreno
  Result: Carlton Haselrig defeats Carlos Moreno by TKO (Corner Stoppage) end of R1.
• Jim Bova vs. Chris Liguori
  Result: Chris Liguori defeats Jim Bova by TKO (Cut) at 4:31 of R1.

EliteXC Primetime Links

EliteXC Primetime Videos

Kimbo Slice Presents at the CMA’S

TG: Fightlinker

PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)– ProElite.com, the world’s premier mixed martial arts (MMA) social networking and entertainment Web site, today unveiled its online offering of video-on-demand (VOD). Leveraging their industry-leading library of MMA events, ProElite.com’s VOD features high-quality streaming, top-notch competition, and world-class fight brands.

MMA fans will be able to purchase VOD at ProElite.com on a fight-by-fight and full-event basis starting as low as 99 cents and $4.95, respectively. Fighters include Kimbo Slice, Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, Gina Carano, Jake Shields and more going toe-to-toe in events produced by EliteXC, ShoXC, Cage Rage, ICON Sport and Rumble on the Rock. ShoXC’s undercard footage, featuring the up and comers of MMA, will be offered free of charge.

Additionally, ProElite is introducing the “ProElite Fight Pass,” which provides unlimited access to the entire VOD library and any future PPV event streams for an introductory price of $7.95 per month. Fight Pass is regularly priced at $12.95 per month.

“We have hand picked hours upon hours of high-quality MMA content and provided a compelling online product that is accessible to fans on a global scale,” said Douglas Deluca, executive chairman of ProElite, Inc. “With more than 50 hours of combat currently available and 20 hours added monthly, our Fight Pass offering allows MMA fans to gain instant access to all of the MMA action they can handle.”

For more info Click Here.

EliteXC has announced that it has negotiated contract extensions with key fighters Kimbo Slice, Robbie Lawler and Gina Carano. No further details were given regarding the terms of the contracts.

The franchise fighters will all appear on the CBS broadcast “Saturday Night Fights” on May 31.

EliteXC President Gary Shaw:

“I am proud and very excited to announce that Kimbo, Gina and Robbie have all re-signed with us…Fighters know EliteXC is the place to be and the organization to fight for, which is why we’ve always been able to sign or re-sign almost each and every one of our fighters.”

“You don’t see our guys leaving. With us, it’s family and all about the fighters. Every fighter who has fought on an EliteXC card has come away being ambassadors for EliteXC.”

Shaw on Kimbo:

Kimbo has already become an MMA star due to his incredible popularity on YouTube. His backyard street fights are legendary. No question Kimbo has made a successful transition from Street to Elite and is on his way to becoming a superstar and world champion.

Shaw on Carano:

“Gina became an instant star after her first fight for EliteXC and has gone on to gain even more national prominence. She truly is the face of women’s MMA, an inspiration to many up-and-coming athletes and is a perfect illustration as to why women do indeed have a place in this sport and with EliteXC.”

Shaw on Lawler:

“Robbie’s nicknamed ‘Ruthless’ – what more you need to know? He’s tough, hard-nosed and always been highly regarded. EliteXC is extremely proud to have Robbie as its world middleweight champion. Robbie has shown time and again that he’s one of the most thrilling fighters in any weight class in MMA.
..For sheer action and power, it doesn’t get better than ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler versus Scott ‘Hands Of Steel’ Smith.”

According to ProElite, Phil Baroni will return to action against former EliteXC welterweight champion Murilo “Ninja” Rua at the EliteXC debut show on CBS May 31.

ProElite.com confirmed with Baroni through text message that the match has been signed.

Baroni (10-9) is coming off a beating by Kala Hose at ICON Sports March 15 welterweight title bout in Hawaii. Baroni lost all but one of the five round title match, but showed his ability to take damage as he took the fight to the fifth round before losing by TKO.

Ninja Rua (15-8-1) brother of UFC fighter Shogun Rua is coming off a second round submission win over Xavier Pokam at Cage Rage 24 in December.

According to FiveOuncesOfPain, the entire EliteXC event slated for April 26 has been postponed till June 14. Still headlining the new card is the EliteXC lightweight tile bout between Yves Edwards and KJ Noons.

No reason for the cancellation was immediately given, but you can bet that EliteXC is focusing on its CBS broadcast “Saturday Night Fights” event on May 31.

Stay tune to CageToday for the latest rumored fights on EliteXC’s June 14 fight card.

According to FiveOuncesOfPain, the much anticipated EliteXC title fight between Jake Shields and Drew Fickett at the co-promoted Strikeforce-EliteXC has been cancelled, due to a back injury Shields suffered while training for the fight.

According to Shields, his son pulled a muscle in his back while training last week. He flew to Los Angeles in order to meet with a specialist. While he had experienced some improvement with the injury, it was determined that he would not be ready in time for Saturday’s fight. A decision was then made to postpone the bout.

A re-scheduled date for the bout has not been set, but Shields indicated that the title fight could take place within the next couple of months.