EliteXC’s Attempt and the Future

We recently learned that EliteXC has solidified themselves as a frontrunner in the race to get MMA on prime time television. Already, many are forecasting clouds and thunderstorms even before the MMA organization rounds the final turn as Adam Swift from MMA Payout releases some of the details of the agreement. Sure, it’s easy to predict doom on the organization that has used former street brawler Kimbo Slice, rappers, and cheerleaders during their latest Showtime event, but there’s much more to be excited about. There’s more than setting a live gate record and helping Showtime gain 11% in viewership. There’s the future of the sport.

Forget the ignorant viewers who already wrote off MMA. Forget the financing issues and matchmaking problems. Forget about Kimbo. Just drop all of the worries for a few minutes and hear me out.

This move by EliteXC and their parent company, Pro Elite, to move MMA to the mainstream can’t make things any worse for the people who have already written off the sport. Even if we manage to witness four amazing fights with technical submissions, mutual respect, and amazing well rounded fights, the anti-MMA crowd isn’t going to care. We need to worry about backing EliteXC and help them lobby themselves and CBS into making the right decisions. I don’t want to see rappers and cheerleaders on TV so I’m going to let it be known to EliteXC and CBS. I also don’t want Bill Goldberg within 500 miles of the event. Even though SpikeTV wrote off the efforts of Fightlinker to set up a three hour UFC Fight Night 13 broadcast, the MMA community came together and helped make a change for the good. Spike TV, although not quite as large as CBS, still listened to what we, the fans, wanted.

Not only can we do something good for the sport, we need to understand that EliteXC’s move to the mainstream is going to force other organizations to re-think their current strategies. The UFC needs to get a television deal, at least in the mind of Dana White. Getting a sponsorship deal with another alcohol brand isn’t going to force viewers to turn off their free MMA to pay $45 ($55 for us oh so fortunate HD viewers).

This leads me to my next point. Will free EliteXC try to go head to head with UFC PPV? I certainly doubt that. This sort of “friendly competition”, if you will, can help the sport move into homes where PPV isn’t an affordable option. These are the homes are younger wrestling fans who are becoming bored with fake fighting and are looking for a real hobby to pursue throughout the rest of their 18-35 year old lives.

Kimbo Slice had a past which led him through boat yards, parking lots, and other questionable venues, but once people see that a real fighter, not some street thug, is dominating on television, they may take the time to understand the sport a little bit more. I don’t care if you think Kimbo is dumb or if you think he is the next big thing, there’s a bigger picture to look at. EliteXC is piggybacking on the success of their latest show to sign this agreement and their attempt to bring MMA to everyone was the next big step for MMA. Let’s hope they do the right thing by providing our intelligent input. After all, our failure to help will ultimately be their failure – and there’s always the change of watching sport get sent back 10 years.