EliteXC's Demise: Bad for MMA

EliteXC is no more. This is a great loss for MMA fans. There are some fans and pundits out there who enjoyed seeing the company falter but others were greatly disappointed in the demise of EliteXC. You can count me as one of the fans who were disappointed and saddened by EliteXC going under.

Competition is good in sports and in business. Dana White said it was a great day for MMA when EliteXC went out of business. He is wrong. It might have been a great day personally for Mr. White and the UFC, but not for MMA fans and fighters.

Many fighters are now out of work, and so are the many employees that worked in the ProElite office in Los Angeles. You now have more people trying to find new jobs and work in a poor economy. A lot of the employees I talked to told me they did not see this coming.

One day the company is working on promoting their next scheduled show on November 8, and the next day the company is folding, and employees are told that they are being let go. This is very unfortunate.

EliteXC gave fans exciting fights and shows. What more could MMA fans have asked for? They entertained me with every show. Besides the shows they had on CBS, the ShoXC shows on Showtime were entertaining as well and was a great showcase for up and coming fighters. A lot of their shows were much more entertaining than the UFC pay-per-views. UFC fights usually end up being decided by the judges more than the EliteXC fights. There were more knockouts and submission wins on EliteXC broadcasts.


The UFC’s only competition now is Affliction. The question now is does Affliction have enough money to compete with the UFC? They are losing money now and it won’t get any better next year. It is a good thing they have the financial backing of Donald Trump. But how long will Trump continue to invest in Affliction? If he backs out, Affliction could be in big trouble.

Strikeforce, another MMA organization that is based in the West Coast, has a decent fan base and a network deal with NBC. Unlike Affliction and EliteXC, they are not trying to compete directly and against UFC. Strikeforce is very popular in the Bay Area, and they have also had shows in Washington and Colorado.

It is bad for the UFC to become a monopoly in this sport. The fans and fighters all lose out. Fighters like Tito Ortiz might have to grovel back to White in order to get back in the limelight.

Wrestling has never been the same since WWE bought WCW and there was only one major wrestling organization in the country. Fans stopped watching and going to the shows because the product was just not as entertaining as in the past because WWE owner Vince McMahon had less incentive to put on great shows without any competition.

Let's hope that the UFC won't become like WWE. With EliteXC gone, White can laugh and ridicule them all the way to the bank. The losers are the fans and fighters.