Wow. In a surprise move that has potential to shake up the MMA industry, ProElite and EliteXC will soon be announcing a TV deal with Showtime owner, CBS. Kid Nate of Bloody Elbow beat me to punch by asking how did Gary Shaw beat Dana White to a television deal? I get a lot of flack for publicly denouncing White’s means of running the UFC (along with many many others, I might add), but this only solidifies my standpoint. Will White come out and publicly say that he had the ability to sign with CBS but he didn’t due to some outrageous comment? My guess is that he says they wanted too much control. Thanks to MMA Junkie for breaking the news! Sam Caplan, a ProElite writer who runs Five Ounces of Pain, has more commentary. It seems that everyone beat me to the good talking points already!

Does this mean that UFC will be going over to HBO? Well, if talks broke down in the past, White better hope he can revive them or risk being stuck with Spike TV for a little while. I’m sure he’s not a huge fan of HDNet right now.