A Nov. 4 stock filing by Showtime states that the network, which Pro Elite is indebted to, intends to sell the company's "personal property, whether tangible or intangible, to the highest bidder at a public sale." This would seemingly include the contracts of fighters under contract to EliteXC, which announced its folding after canceling an event that was scheduled for this Saturday night. Showtime is not precluded from cutting another deal for Pro Elite’s assets before the auction date, though one of the biggest markets for MMA in the country appears closed to them. The California State Athletic Commission, due to the impending auction, has suspended the licenses of EliteXC and Pro Elite-owned King of the Cage to promote in the state, which is where Pro Elite is headquartered. The effect of this move is particularly vivid for King of the Cage, a staple in California that planned to continue putting on shows despite Pro Elite's financial woes.
Several reports emerged late in the week that Pro Elite officials are trying to block the auction. EliteXC claimed in correspondence sent to some fighters that the company was still planning to promote an event in 2009 and was hanging on to their contracts. Pro Elite elaborated on its intentions in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, saying it will look at raising additional capital, filing for bankruptcy, filing a lawsuit or working on a settlement with Showtime to prevent an auction.
Pro Elite and CBS/Showtime were close to a deal where the network would purchase the company after their Oct. 4 event, but those talks fell apart, leaving Pro Elite without capital to run future shows. EliteXC's top executives have never said publicly that Pro Elite has folded.
There are a lot questions about whether the contracts of EliteXC fighters can even be auctioned. Advertisements on Sherdog.com announced the selling of fight contracts for, among others, Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson, Gina Carano, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Frank Shamrock, Antonio Silva, Brett Rogers, Dave Herman, Scott Smith, Nick Diaz and Eddie Alvarez. The Pro Elite video library is also up for grabs. Lawler, Shields and Diaz have all been reported to have filed claims that give Pro Elite 30 days to prove it can fund their deals or they will be voided. Shields, EliteXC's first and only welterweight champion, told HDNet's "Inside MMA" this week that he intends to stash away his hardware and not relinquish it to any bidders.
• The latest high-profile steroids test failure in MMA raised several unprecedented questions, as the UFC announced Chris Leben tested positive for Stanazolol prior to his main event fight with Michael Bisping at UFC 89 on Oct. 18 in England. Leben, who generated buzz for how physically impressive he looked coming into the fight, atoned in a statement released by the UFC. Leben admitted that he counted on the steroid clearing his system before the fight. The situation was unique because it was the first steroid failure under testing administered by the UFC itself and not a separate regulatory body. Because there is no government-administered testing in England, the UFC conducts its own tests. The UFC suspended Leben for nine months, a penalty that falls in between what California and Nevada impose for first-time failures. Leben was also fined a third of his purse for the Bisping fight.
• The world lightweight rankings were shaken in the wake of the most recent offering from World Victory Road, "Sengoku: Sixth Battle" on Nov. 1 in Saitama, Japan. Top-five lightweight Takanori Gomi fell to a complete unknown in Sergey Golyaev via split decision in a fight "The Fireball Kid" was expected to take easily.
Gomi struggled to get inside the reach of the lanky Russian, and was ineffective on the ground though successful with takedowns. Though the performance was by all means a disappointment for such a highly regarded fighter, Gomi did appear to edge out Golyaev in two of the three rounds. Gomi did not protest the decision.
Despite the loss, Gomi, still seen as one of Japan's biggest MMA stars stemming from his impressive streak of wins under the Pride "Bushido" banner in 2005, will get a chance to become Sengoku's first lightweight champion. He faces Satoru Kitaoka, the winner of a lightweight tournament that also concluded on the Nov. 1 card, on the biggest Sengoku offering to date, set for Jan. 4 from the hallowed Tokyo Dome. Kitaoka, a stern-faced grappling specialist, used a heelhook against Eiji Mitsuoka and grinding wrestling technique against Kazunori Yokoto to win two fights on Nov. 1 and the lightweight tournament title.
Another tournament winner to emerge at Sengoku 6 was American Top Team prospect Jorge Santiago, who bested middleweights Siyar Bahadurzada and Kazuhiro Nakamura. The win earns Santiago, who won a four-man Strikeforce tournament in his weight class last year, a shot at Kazuo Misaki on Jan. 4 to crown the first Sengoku middleweight champion.
Other notable outcomes from the event included charismatic All-American wrestler Mohammed “King Mo” Lawal improving to 2-0 by defeating Fabio Silva via third-round TKO, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira picking up a win via decision over Moise Rimbon.
In another Sengoku note, the promotion is working to match rival Dream's signing of judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii. Sengoku is poised to sign 2004 judo silver medalist Hiroshi Izumi, according to The Wrestling Observer. Izumi is set to debut at the Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome event, and is expected to retire from judo after a Nov. 16 tournament. Ishii, who captured gold and Japanese media stardom at the Beijing Games this year, is expected to make an appearance, but not fight, on the K-1/Dream "Dynamite!" extravaganza on New Year's Eve. His first fight will be next year, for which he is reportedly being paid $5 million.
• Lightweight Anderson Silva or Georges St. Pierre, as he looked flawless against Kaplan and rendered Kaplan's coach Frank Mir speechless. After notching a dominating win to qualify for the show, Nover has to be considered a favorite to go all the way this season. This week’s show also featured both teams depositing bodily fluids on each other's food to get at each other. No more needs to be said about that. Mir and Nogueira face off in a soccer challenge next week.
• Word of a potentially game-changing deal to bring MMA fights to the ESPN family surfaced this week. Sherdog's Loretta Hunt reported that a new promotion called Bellator Fighting Championships has secured a deal to begin broadcasting on Spanish-language ESPN Deportes beginning in April. The channel reaches 4 million homes. The plan is for a 12-week series featuring four-man tournaments in the 145-, 155-, 170-, and 185-pound weight classes. Fighters Jorge Masvidal and Eddie Alvarez, as well as others, have been approached about participating.
BFC is being headed by a former CEO of Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing and the team includes producers with extensive experience in producing boxing for ESPN and USA. The group appears serious, as Dave Meltzer of Yahoo! Sports reported the group is offering fighters money "above industry standards."
The UFC has actively courted the Hispanic audience, which is in many ways has kept the sport of boxing alive for years, and has a weekly Spanish-language series called "Guerreros Del UFC" on Fox Sports Espanol.
• There were several significant signings, returns and new bouts announced in this busy seven-day period. Sherdog reported that the most iconic referee in MMA history, "Big" John McCarthy, will be returning to officiating at the Nov. 21 Strikeforce event. McCarthy, whose career dates back to UFC 2 in 1994, was not allowed to continue officiating while working as an analyst for The Fight Network, a job he recently left. Added this week to that Strikeforce card, which will air on HD-Net, was Kim Couture vs. Lina Kvokov, the second pro fight for the wife of UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture.
The UFC bolstered its middleweight ranks with addition of the well-traveled Denis Kang, who signed a four-fight contract. The promotion also announced a welterweight fight between Marcus Davis and Chris Lytle at UFC 93 in January from Dublin, Ireland, which the UFC announced this week has already sold out. And Inside MMA’s Ron Kruck reported that MMA legend Pat Miletich will fight again on Dec. 13 for Monte Cox’s “Adrenaline” promotion. Miletich will face Thomas “Wildman” Denny on the show.