Good Night, EliteXC

EliteXC, home of Kimbo Slice and little else (so basically nothing), has finally shut down today, according to Josh Gross at SI.com. Good riddance. It was the first MMA promotion on regular cable, and though this should have been great for the sport, they found a way to ruin the integrity Dana White's UFC has worked so hard to achieve.  Using Kimbo Slice and his youtube bumfights as viral video that brought a lot of attention to the CBS telecasts, bringing new viewers to an otherwise usually hard to watch sport.  UFC has the Ultimate Fighter reality show and the odd live event on Spike, Fox Sports occasionally airs an old Pride event, and Versus airs World Extreme Cagefighting, but the average fan isn't going to stumble across these while channel surfing, and they're not very well marketed.

This is where EliteXC had a chance to show that mixed martial arts is actually a sport, complete with skilled athletes who train hard for fights, battling each other to determine who is the best all-around fighter at his or, in EliteXC's case, her weight class.  However, after the recent Slice fight, real name Kevin Ferguson, the sport took a bad turn after Seth Petruzelli told a radio station that EliteXC offered to pay him more if he stood up with Slice rather than take it the ground, where he surely would win.  Petruzelli, however, beat Slice with a jab that looked like it wouldn't have knocked out anyone reading this blog.

Once Petruzelli showed the world what a chump Slice was, being a no-name and capitalizing on his new-found fame, he did the interview enough about him getting paid more to stand up enough that the Florida State Athletic Commission decided to look into the promotion, which immediately hurt the sport's reputation.  UFC president Dana White explains why best:

Hopefully the sport doesn't take too much heat from the stupidity of EliteXC.  It's turning into a top-3 most popular sport among guys my age. The UFC and it's partners are making plenty of money off MMA with clothing company Affliction shirts showing up everywhere, bringing the sport mainstream.  If EliteXC didn't ruin it permanently, White would be smart to work out a deal with a broadcast cable company, because if it's promoted right, MMA could be plenty more popular than it already is.