ProElite finally purchased?

After a number of deals falling through at the last minute, it appears Pro Elite has either been sold or is in the very final stages of being sold as of this morning. Under the terms of the sale, the buyer would likely return to CBS television with live events this year.

The most likely buyer is Strikeforce. The other leading contender was King of The Cage, but industry sources have suggested that Pro Elite fighters are much more willing to fight for Strikeforce than KoTC, and the ease of signing new contracts may have played a part in finalizing this deal. If the buyer is Strikeforce, the contracts are probably not transferrable, but the vast majority of fighters will likely be happy to just move over and fight there just to get on with their lives.

This is great news for fighters who are finally free from limbo to pursue their careers. If Strikeforce is the buyer, every fighter will have a choice to either move over to the new organization or pursue free agency. As the UFC learned when they bought Pride, personal service contracts are generally not transferrable, especially in a right to work state like California.

Source: BloodyElbow

Good news if true.

 

Strikeforce a legit contender after EXC deal

By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports

A deal negotiated over several months was finalized Thursday with contract signings that immediately makes the San Jose, Calif.-based Strikeforce promotion the leading competitor to the industry leading Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Strikeforce promoter and co-owner Scott Coker confirmed separate deals were signed Thursday to both buy certain assets from Pro Elite, Inc., which ran the now-defunct Elite XC promotion, as well as television deals with both CBS and Showtime.

The first show under this deal will be April 11 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, headlined by Frank Shamrock, 36, a legend from the early days of mixed martial arts in the U.S. and Japan.

Coker said the company is talking about several different opponents for Shamrock, a former UFC middleweight (now light heavyweight) champion, who lost his Strikeforce middleweight title to Cung Le on March 29, suffering a broken arm in the process.

Shamrock has proven to be one of the best non-UFC draws in the mixed martial arts business, headlining the two largest paid attendance shows ever in North America, both in his hometown of San Jose, as well as drawing two of the three largest ratings for MMA on the Showtime network, for matches with Renzo Gracie and Phil Baroni.

Coker said he did not purchase the contracts for all of the estimated 80 fighters under Elite XC deals, but that all the key names came with the deal, including Kimbo Slice, who still holds the record for the most-watched MMA match ever in North America in a CBS match last year.

Also confirmed as part of the deal were the country’s most popular female fighter, Gina Carano, lightweight stars Nick Diaz and Eddie Alvarez as well as Elite XC middleweight champion Robbie Lawler, and welterweight champion Jake Shields.

Elite XC’s heavyweight champion, Antonio Silva, would not be part of the deal because he is facing revocation of his fighting license for competing in a match in Japan on Jan. 4 while on suspension for failing a steroid test on July 26. In that match he won the vacant championship against the late ****** Eilers.

The promotion will use the Strikeforce name, and Coker said a decision regarding the status of the various championships recognized by Strikeforce and Elite XC would be forthcoming in about a week.

Coker said the deal would include 12 live events per year on Showtime, which would be split similar to the Elite XC contract. Roughly half will be live prime-time events featuring name fighters and held in major arenas, and the others will be developmental shows held in smaller arenas and on Native American reservations and airing later.

The CBS deal calls for up to four shows per year, airing on Saturday nights in prime time. Elite XC ran three events on CBS last year, two of which were considered ratings successes.

Strikeforce also has a television deal in place with NBC, airing a 30-minute show of taped matches from their video library in a late Saturday night/Sunday morning time slot that airs in most markets between 2 and 4 a.m.

The only official match for the debut show will pit Scott Smith, who had two shots at Lawler’s championship last year, against former IFL middleweight champion Benji Radach. Coker is also hopeful of putting together a match with Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson against K.J. Noons, who held the Elite XC version of the title before being stripped of it in October in a contract dispute with Elite XC management.

Strikeforce plans to line up match-ups this year from stars created on television and then go to the pay-per-view venue when ready.

“We’ll also be in the pay-per-view business, but not right away,” said Coker. “We’re looking at building Strikeforce fighters and Pro Elite fighters to make compelling matches. We’ll put those matches on pay-per-view when we’re ready.”

As far as the one potential superfight Elite XC left on the table – Carano against Brazilian Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos – Coker said Carano wants to do that match right away, but he wouldn’t commit to how soon.

Coker said Strikeforce would remain a private company owned by himself and Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment, which runs the HP Pavilion in San Jose, as well as the NHL’s San Jose Sharks.

Strikeforce’s roster of fighters includes Le, Shamrock, Thomson, Gilbert Melendez, Joe Riggs, Bobby Southworth and Kazuo Misaki. It also recognizes Renato “Babalu” Sobral as light heavyweight champion and Alistair Overeem as heavyweight champion.

While promoting its key events in San Jose, it has run successful shows in other markets including Seattle, Denver, and Los Angeles. With the new deal, it will expand to running shows across the U.S.

Strikeforce still holds the record for the highest paid attendance for an MMA event in the U.S. – a Shamrock vs. Cesar Gracie match which drew 17,465 paying fans and 18,265 total on March 10, 2006. The UFC’s largest paying crowd for a U.S. show was 17,358, although there were more than 19,000 in the arena, for the March 3, 2007 fight between Randy Couture and Tim Sylvia in Columbus, Ohio.

Most of the fighters who had signed with Elite XC had been in a deep freeze since the company closed up shop in October. By not actually declaring bankruptcy, and attempting to sell what was left of the company, stalled negotiations meant most had not been able to fight for months.

A deal between Pro Elite, Inc. and Strikeforce was on the table ready to be signed in December, but it fell apart at the last minute.

Agents representing the key fighters were ready to serve Elite XC with legal papers, attempting to get the fighters declared free agents because they had to sit out months without being paid. In recent days, the agents had been informed that a deal was about to be completed with Strikeforce, and had held off on the legal process.

“It’s the best possible situation,” said Ken Pavia, who represents a number of fighters who had been under Elite XC contracts.

 

Strikeforce CEO Ready To Go To Work
By Tom Hamlin/MMAWeekly.com

In many ways, Scott Coker’s work has just begun.

The CEO of Strikeforce is in Los Angeles to negotiate with several managers who's clients were until recently signed with ProElite, Inc. Last Thursday, he acquired 42 athletes from the troubled company, and wants to put them to work.

If there was a virtue that proved to be a commodity in his last three months as a promoter, it was patience.

“This is something that truly tested my character,” Coker told MMAWeekly.com about negotiations with ProElite, Showtime, and CBS. “I don’t think I’ve ever run across a deal that’s been this complicated, and had this many roller coaster rides. Because one minute I thought this was going to close, and the next minute, it’s not going to happen. For three months, it’s been a wild ride.”

Strikeforce’s new television deals could position it to become the sport’s next big player. The San Jose, Calif.-based promotion is set for aggressive expansion in 2009, chairing 16 fights on premium cable channel Showtime over the next year. CBS has also inked an option to produce four live event specials, though airdates haven’t been finalized.

That’s a lot of work for veterans and newcomers alike.

Coker himself plans on hiring three or four more employees, and says there’s a possibility that Strikeforce will open an office in the City of Angels. But the rule of the day will be to keep the promotion “lean and mean,” even as it undergoes its biggest growth spurt.

Next week, Coker will meet with Showtime’s New York executives to map out the promotion’s schedule for 2009. Strikeforce’s first Showtime-aired event is set for April 11 and will feature Frank Shamrock in the main event. Middleweights Benji Radach and Scott Smith are confirmed for the main card.

“Frank wants to fight Tito Ortiz,” Coker said of Shamrock’s potential opponent, though he wasn’t aware of Ortiz’s contractual status with longtime employer UFC. Prior to his debut as a color commentator for Affliction Entertainment, Ortiz called Shamrock out in a video interview with MMAWeekly.com.

Though Ortiz has said he is eyeing a July return to fighting following back surgery, he was clear about his take on Shamrock.

"As a warm up fight – this is a warm-up fight – since I’m getting off a huge back surgery and so forth: Frank Shamrock. Frank Shamrock, step up. Yeah, he’s a little smaller than me, but he’s said a lot of things, he’s beat me the last time he was a smaller man. Step up or shut up.”

According to Coker, there has been "dialogue" about Shamrock facing Nick Diaz, but the main event is still a question mark.

For the co-main event of the April card, Coker has offered former EliteXC lightweight champion KJ Noons a fight with Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson. A re-match between EliteXC middleweight champion Robbie Lawler and Joey Villasenor is a possibility, as well as a second meeting for Gilbert Melendez and Mitsuhiro Ishida.

This week, Coker will meet with Gina Carano’s representatives to shore up a deal with Strikeforce and offer a spot on the first event. If negotiations go well, a much-anticipated fight between the star and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos may come to fruition.

“(Santos) has already sent me an email saying she wants to fight Gina and she’s ready to go, so we’ll offer her that fight,” said Coker.

Santos has already agreed to a four-fight, exclusive contract with Strikeforce, according to a report by Sherdog.com.

A second Showtime event is planned for May at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Wash., site of Strikeforce’s first foray outside California. Ed Soares and Jorge Guimaraes, representatives for former EliteXC fighter Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante, have already cleared him for a bout with Strikeforce light heavyweight Renato “Babalu” Sobral on the card. Sobral is expected to be offered the fight this week, though nothing is set in stone at this point.

Coker says his relationship with Japanese promoters from Dream and Sengoku will be essential for filling 2009’s calendar. In September, he gave standouts Kazuo Misaki and Ishida their first fights for an American promotion, and sees many exciting match-ups possible for as early as May. Among his “dream” fights: Melvin Manhoef vs. Robbie Lawler, Joachim Hansen vs. Josh Thomson, and Shinya Aoki vs. Gilbert Melendez.

“We’re going to continue to expand on that relationship,” he said. “We’d like to have some of their top guys come and fight some of our top guys.”

In a fight sure to agree with Japanese fans, Coker says he’s considering a main card bout – though not a headliner – between Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson and Bob Sapp, possibly as soon as the Tacoma event.

“I would say by the second week of March, we’ll have the next 12 months laid out,” said Coker, adding he’ll pitch the return of 8-man tournaments to Showtime and CBS. “We’ll map out three or four main events and co-main events, months out.”

While he’s about to get very busy in the coming months, the 25-year veteran of kickboxing, Sanshou, and MMA events is happy to have cleared the major hurdle to expansion.

“It’s been very emotionally draining,” he said. “I’m glad it’s over with so we can go to work.”


Sounds promising, I hope they do well and continue to grow. I guess this means Dana won't be saying good things about Strikeforce anymore. :yep