The remains of ProElite — the parent company of Elite XC — will soon be for sale via public auction courtesy of Showtime Networks Inc., just one month after shutting its doors following its inability to secure additional funding to keep the promotion afloat.
After its biggest star, Kimbo Slice, lost in just 14 seconds to replacement journeyman Seth Petruzelli in front of 4.5 million people on CBS, Elite XC had apparently been hit with a knockout blow of its own.
The main event fight influencing controversy that surrounded the “Heat” CBS event scared away what few investors it had at CBS and Showtime. Left with the nearly $60 million in debt EliteXC had already piled up in the less than two years since the organization’s creation, ProElite was left with little choice but to declare bankruptcy.
Now Showtime is hoping to salvage what value still remains in the promotion by offering its tape library and fighter contracts to the highest bidder, as outlined in the public notice of its pending auction.
Notice is hereby given that the Collateral (as defined below) will be sold by Showtime Networks Inc. (“Showtime”) at a public sale on November 17, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. (Pacific Standard Time) at the offices of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, 350 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90071. The term “Collateral” means all of ProElite, Inc.’s (“ProElite”), Real Sport, Inc.’s (“Real Sport”), ProElite.com’s (“ProElite.com”), EliteXC Live’s (“EliteXC”) and King of the Cage, Inc.’s (“KOTC”; each of ProElite, Real Sport, ProElite.com, EliteXC and KOTC, a “Debtor” and collectively, the “Debtors”) right, title and interest in, to and under, whether now owned or hereafter acquired by such Debtor, all present and after acquired personal property of such Debtor, whether tangible or intangible, wherever located and of whatever nature. The Collateral includes all contracts between any Debtor and mixed martial arts fighters (including, but not limited to, Kevin Ferguson a.k.a. “Kimbo Slice”, Gina Carano, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Frank Shamrock, Antonio Silva, Brett Rogers, Dave Herman, Scott Smith, Nick Diaz, Cristiane Venancio Justino a.k.a. “Chris Cyborg”, Eddie Alvarez, Yves Edwards and Wilson Reis) and all of each Debtor’s video library, still photographs and home videos (e.g., DVDs and VHS tapes). The Collateral will be sold to the highest qualified bidder in public on November 17, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. (Pacific Standard Time) at the offices of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, 350 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90071. The Collateral will be sold on an “as-is, where-is” basis, without recourse, warranty or guarantee of any kind, express or implied, including as to title, possession, enforceability, validity, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Interested bidders who would like further information regarding the Collateral to be sold should contact Kent Sevener at (212) 708-3259. Showtime reserves its right to adjourn or cancel the sale at any time.
While unfortunate for the employees of ProElite, there is an upside to this from a fan’s perspective. There’s going to be a bunch of great fighters soon finding their way to other promotions and possibly ending up in fantasy or dream matches never before possible due to the lack of cooperation between entities.
It’s going to be interesting to see how many of these guys (and gals) end up in the UFC, Strikeforce, WEC, Affliction, or any of the other organizations out there.
Expect to see these guys beefing up their rosters with names like Jake Shields, Eddie Alvarez, Nick Diaz, Antonio Silva, Rafael Feijao, Paul Daley, KJ Noons, Wilson Reis, Cyrille Diabate, and countless others.
Who knows … maybe even Kimbo Slice.
In the end, the talent was there near the top … it just wasn’t enough to compensate for all the other shortcomings and struggles that upstart mixed martial arts promotions face attempting to get off the ground.
Elite XC joins Pride FC, International Fight League (IFL) and World Fighting Alliance (WFA) as recent MMA organizations that were forced to fold.
Hopefully, the list ends there.
71 Comments »
i wonder how much Kimbo’s contract will go for.
Hmm… wondering how much that video library will sell for and who’s going to bid?.. any guesses? starting bid 1 million?
are they selling gina’s panties?
Who would want a contract where they have to pay Kimbo ice cold 500 grands to fight?
How much for his beard?
I’m curious jesse, why would you want the “list to end there?” Don’t you want all the best fighters in one place and able to put on all the best fights?
Anyone else think that the ufc might buy them out like they did pride? I think it would make business sense…
thats a good question. they bought out pride to kill them off (dumb b/c they were dying anyway), but elite is already dead. prides contracts, for the most part, were not transferable, but it looks like elite’s are. kimbo’s is way overpriced and we know they dont want gina’s. they may not want to pay alot of elites fighters what elite was paying them, but then again they may not want them to go elsewhere. i do think it’s a $hitty move on elite’s part, but it will be interesting to see what happens.
Well, the contracts are not exclusive so the UFC doesn’t have any use for them. Unless they buy a few of them and try to hold them hostage but without knowledge of all the clauses, it’s impossible to tell. Mark Cuban will buy the video tape library and some other assets (maybe the cage, and that shitty dragon) to bolster up HDnet. Even after death, Elite continues fucking up the MMA world.
The fans of Mixed Martial Arts can thank Pro Elite for absolutely ruining mma’s chances to ever be on network television. It looks like every big mma fight will be on pay per view from now on.
All popular mainstream sports are on free network television. MMA will never be a mainstream sport as long as its biggest events are relagated to PPV broadcasts. Just imagine if the Super Bowl and the World Series were available only on PPV.
ive been readng rumors that strikeforce might get on primetime with nbc b/c there late night 2am sat show is doing so well in the ratings. it’s been a while, so id say it’s still just a rumor. if ufc 91 can get the big #s and do well all the way through 94 with gsp/penn, then i stilll think it could be possible for them to get a network deal. geting the right deal is the biggest hurdle.
That brings up a great point. I wonder if Zuffa has considered the idea of “Fight Season” for some of it’s up and coming fighters. Sort of like “Saturday Night Fights” with boxing. The summer is such a slow season for TV sports (unless you are a serious BaseBall fan) Snore… I could see a Sat Night weekly event in a smaller UFC owned arena in Vegas. Espn2 or Fox maybe, who knows?
is the WEC not considered network television? what about spike? fight nights? those are both successful
why would they? all contracts will be null and void in due time, why take em all on, when they can just pick up the half dozen or so guys worth it in a month!
Off topic, but I can only hope Obama turns out to be a good president, call me what you want, but he’s half and half, I see a dark white man elected. Blacks in my area are so excited and ignorant! I was just walking the dog, I heard one lady say to her friend “look how much Obama is winning by”…he was already giving his speech and she was oblivious to that. I don’t understand it, but to me, blacks have no excuse anymore about being held down by the white man, no oppressive excuses anymore!!!
Agree
Told you guys that ProElite was dead and was just acting like they were still in business so that they can sell off fighters contracts as assets!
Us Bloggers should all chip in and buy the contracts of Diaz and Alvarez and we can just make them fight in Violentmike’s back yard! lol
In that case, I’ll be attending this auction!
JOHN. i agree. we could tape it and put it on you tube and it would be an overnight sensation. bigger than kimbo!
it says they will be selling select items. It could be office furniture and pens and pencils. You guys have terrible reading comprehension! Nick Diaz’s contract didn’t say he has to fight within 30 days, it said he has to have a fight SCHEDULED and part of his purse (probably around 20%) secured in escrow within 30 days. If elite plans a show in march, puts 50k in escrow, they could hold up all the fighters that the UFC wants for that time period. No where does it say they have to put the show on. Basically, if the show were to be cancelled, they pay the fighters 20% of their purse, and basically stalled their careers. It sucks for the fighters to have to go through this, but it’s actually a smart move on elite’s part, it gives them time to find investors!
How cool would it be if a couple of us owned the contract to Nick Diaz? that would be so bad ass!
by the way, I see the mention of the contracts, just not convinced this is actually happening! does showtime have more invested than CBS? Pro elite?
seems so
Yes, Showtime has more invested in that they were the only secured creditor and Elite defaulted on a loan from Showtime.
you always have great business info jeff, thanks! Do they really think anyone will buy the contracts when they are null after 30 days of inactivity??
It would depend if the contracts could be amended or renegotiated. For example, no org. that I can think of is willing to pay Kimbo $500k per fight. However, if Kimbo was willing to renegotiate for a smaller purse and to nullify the 30 day clause (assuming it is in his contract), then you might get some takers.
Granted, I see this happening more with the top talent than with Kimbo. Assume, Diaz would keep his same purse or enven increase his purse, would he be willing to drop the 30 day inactivity clause? For Zuffa, maybe.
What I see happening with Kimbo is no org makes a bid for his contract. Elite is not able to escrow enough money for his “future” fight, the contract either runs out (most of these contracts have a fight and year limit) or is null per the 30 day inactivity clause. Kimbo is a free agent w/o a contract.
yeah, no one will pay kimbo more than 10k/10k to start.
well except Japan or wwe.
what do you do Jeff?
Thanks for dropping some knowledge onto us Jeff!
I’m an office/operations manager and paralegal for a small corp. bankruptcy firm.
lol, exactly what I figured, you seem to have some great insight on this elite debacle! I wish stinky were here, we could all chip in, buy elite and try to get 1 show going!! lol I’m joking by the way!
I still like the idea of Kimbo in the WWE. While, I can’t stand the WWE, unless I want to drink a beer and kill some brain cells; the WWE works well for Kimbo financially. He will have greater longevity and marketability with WWE Entertainment.
Kevin,
You get stinky. I’ll see if Mark Cuban is interested, as I’m in the Dallas area.j/k
KEVIN. i agree with your satement as well. no more excuses. i think alot of black peole will be surprised at what little difference obama will make if all they are looking for is a hand-out.
good post BW and Kevin. Totally agree! People are treating Obama’s victory like he is the new Messaih. Give me a break, very little will change. Obama is the least Black person I know. He tricked Black America into backing him when most of the black voters didnt even know the issues. If a black person listened to the issues and voted for Obama because they felt he would be the best candidate, then Kool with me. But for people to Vote for him just cause they wanted a black president is despicable!
Even if Barak is commited to all this change that he has been preaching, I dont think he will have the power to implement any of his plans. Our Gov’t is based on Checks and Balances and I dont think he has the juice in the Senate to affect change. Senate is a bunch of old rich guys, when it comes down to it, I dont see them helping the middle class very much.
actually John, his power will be felt, look at how many senate seats the democrats won…like 56 or 57, majority is 51
All true, for either side of the spectrum. We put way too much stock in one man. You still gotta get up and go to work, pay bills, raise your kids and so on. Sure it matters, but I take full responsibilty for my family’s safety and happiness. Reality will suck, for people that think otherwise.
KEVIN. did you think we had ” terrible reading comprehension” before or after you read about the contracts were for sell as well. it looks like you were the one who didnt read the whole document before lashing out. you went from a very intelligent statement (about obama) to a completly idiotic one in just a span of a few minutes. i think we can read and comprehend what we are reading just fine. john and vm were just joking as i was, wich seemed to go completley over your head.
I wasn’t even talking to you guys, I realize your not going to buy Nick Diaz’s contract, and look at the times, I wrote it a couple minutes after, I just forgot it in the previous post. I spoke wrong, I apologize, a better way to put it would be don’t be naive to think the contracts are actually for sale, me questioning reading comprehension was wrong in this instance!
KEVIN. right on. good response. sometimes things can get a little blurred when commenting over the net. it’s all good.
thanks, believe me, you, john and VM are a few of the guys I like and respect, and believe me, if we had the money, I’d buy Diaz’s contract with you guys! I jump the gun sometimes, because you can tell what the trolls are going to write before they write it.
where’s stinky??? he could buy a few contracts Diaz and noons and then force them to fight in stockton (in Nick’s backyard!!) lol
lol! yeah where is stinky through all this, and what the hell happened to the mexicutioner?
Dude this morning I saw on the Dallas news all the reports of Obama’s greatness and such but what killed me is in the middle of all these Obama is a hero to the black man pieces, they decide to show the interview with the most ignorant stupid black woman I have ever seen in my life. At one point she actually said “Now we can make the white house the black house woo woo woo woo woo (makes motion of pumping fist)”
Shut up!
I do not think Dana would bid on the contracts of fighters he has let go from the UFC….
i bid $1….
….for gina’s contract.:)
it will be an exlusive contract. exclusive only to my bedroom.
lol.
youll have to by one of those octagon beds to get her in it though
Where is Kevin at to tell us how not hot Gina is.
Hey, I dont see why Dana doesnt try to get Gina’s contract and put her in the WEC? She was just as big a draw as Kimbo and was only making 20K! With the higher weight classes coming to the UFC. It would be good to have the womans division in the WEC! They would certainly get alot more viewers.
I think Gina in WEC is a great idea.
i bid $4 for jared shaw’s mental picture from the weigh ins
I’d do her BW, just don’t go nuts over women! I’ve done 100’s of womens with a vast majority being very hot (I’ve also landed some pigs while drunk). Sorry if it takes more than an overweight, ok looking woman who just cut 40 pounds to get me going!
KEVIN. to each thier own. it’s just joking over then net, dont put more into it than what it is.
oh, I get the joke BW, and like I said, I’d let her ride me, just trying to explain my stance on women. My wife and I were walking through a casino in vegas, my wife said “look, look at that…look up” I literally looked at the ceiling, she was pointing out 3 hotties on a stripper pole. It takes a lot to catch my eye these days, which is good because I used to cheat and do lots of bad things. I’m harder on girls than most when it comes to judging them, but I’m honest!
KEVIN. it sounds like you are happy and comfortable with your personal life, instead of being arrrogant (wich you come off as sometimes) wich probably explains why you dont notice hot chicks as much as you used to. thats cool.
Some of the pigs while drunk I bet were some of the funnest!
Thick girls are like mopeds. Fun to ride but you wouldnt want your freinds to see you riding one.
yeah I’m sure it sounds arrogant, not trying to be! I’m happy. I’ve been around the block, done lots of shit! all my stories I’ve written and told, are 100% true, so you get the idea. I notice, but it has to be like WOW to impress me is all. It’s a bad thing, but it’s me!
lol my buddies dad always said fat chicks are better than hot chicks! hot chicks get it whenever they want and can just lay there, fat chicks want to do their best because they never know when they’ll get it again, and want you to come back for more. I remember one time I passed out from quite a bender, I woke up and this big girl was riding me…a few days later a girl I knew said she heard I was great in bed. I didn’t even remember, yet this fat girl was bragging, it was funny!
fat chicks do try harder. im picky in my own way, i prefer a pretty face over a hard-body, but there does come a point, like when you have to use flour to find the wet-spots), that even i wont cross. he.he.
I have a fistful of $1 bills for Gina lol.
Showtime, I got a bucket of Chicken…
original or extra crispy?
So how does this figure in with the rumor that EliteXC was vowing to put on another show early 2009, and that it wasn’t bankrupt and scaling back their staff? Was that just complete BS?
See the news item at graciefighter.com for reference.
it was indeed complete B.S.
I got a Gina contract who gives me 3 who gives me 3 K , over there to the hairy man in the coat, we got 3 how about 4 give me 4. 4K to the horny teenager in the back room. i got 5, give me 5 whose got 5. Skala comes up and shouts, “I’ll give you 10K, thats 10K.” Dealer responds, “Alright 10K to SKALA.” Skala, “All right, Skala gonna get some boobies tonight”.
i’ll take gina in my bedroom
ufc buying pride was a great deal… as pride tape library was massive and forced a lot of the top fighters to ufc as otherwise thered be no footage of them to promote future fights at other organisations
i bet the pride dvds are selling well , and will over time easily pay back the cash that ufc invested in them
elitexcs tape library on the other hand really isnt worth that much as they dont really have any top fighters
there are several like shields lawler diaz who could go on to make a mark in ufc , but at present they have 3 or 4 fighters who are probably just outside the top 10 in their weightclass… that footage really wont be worth much… id be suprised if they get more than a couple of million for it… the rest of the stuff they seem to want to auction off is almost worthless… as im pretty sure they cant just go selling fighters contracts..
Anyone else think Dana White may bid a dollar for Kimbo’s contract just to be a dick?
That dollar could go to better use.