Just a few thoughts the week after Gina Carano was pounded out by Chris “Cyborg” Santos. Some people have been very critical of women in this brutal sport. I take exception to that.

Wow. Anything new in the MMA world? Seems like kind of a slow day. Last night EliteXC went away. The company that had some of the biggest ratings in the history of MMA ceased to exsist. The ripples are only now starting to be felt thoughout the fight community. We can not begin to fathom what effect this will have on the entire sport. This is a very critical time for a sport that seems like it is ready to expode. First the nitty gritty from wrestling nerd, Dave Meltzer. I have nothing against him, but I have no idea how a professional wrestling mark managed to break this story:

Elite XC, which produced seven of the 10 most-watched MMA matches in U.S. history on two CBS specials in recent months, will be closing its doors at the end of the week. This leaves a roster of fighters, including top draws Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano, looking for work in a constricted environment. Elite XC joins the International Fight League and Bodog Fight as high-profile competitors to the industry leader, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to fold during the past year.

With deals with CBS and Showtime, the latter a major shareholder, Elite XC had the exposure the other failed challengers lacked, but lost more than $55 million in its two years of operation. Its losses included having a bad television deal in the first year with Showtime, causing them to lose money on every show; losing millions on trying, and failing, to build a website that was designed to be a destination for the MMA community; and purchasing four promotions outright and putting money into a fifth.

From what I have learned from reading and the like, CBS was going to buy EliteXC. After the Seth Petruzelli knocked Kimbo Slice out, CBS had a rod for the press and for the ratings that the show provided. Then weird ass Petruzelli went on a hack morning morning show in Florida. Some would say he then single- handedly took down the company by saying thusly:

“The promoters kind of hinted to me and they gave me the money to stand and trade with him,” Petruzelli said two days after the fight on “The Monsters in Orlando” radio show. “They didn’t want me to take him down. “Let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try and stand up and punch with him.”

Those comments ended up causing a firestorm on the interweb. MMA bloggers were up in arms with the alledged tainting of their sport by a group of boxing charlatans. I guess CBS was not pleased and they pulled out, like I did with your mom. So what happens now? I made the case on my radio show today that CBS will not let this push them away from the sport entirely. Anybody that has any kind of sporting program knows how valuable the Male 18-34 demo is. EliteXC provided them those numbers. I think the logical choice is for CBS to partner with Affiction. If they like Kimbo Slice, bring him in. Give him some bruisers to fight, mid-card and have him slug it out. Affliction has some great fighters under it’s banner, and it can scoop up a bunch of these free agents left in the wake of the EliteXC disaster.

With Affliction/Golden Boy backed by CBS, there is stability there. That is something that every other MMA promotion not named the UFC has been lacking. I love free MMA on tv, so in that sense I am sad to see EliteXC go. It’s also exciting. Where is Jake Shields going to end up? Where do Carano and Slice fit in with other organizations? How will the mainstream media treat this development? That’s my main concern. The media needs to make sure they differentiate between what happened to this one company and the sport of mixed martial arts. Most certainly between EliteXC and The UFC. The wild card here is if CBS realizes that if they are going to do MMA the right way, Dana White deserves a phone call. Even if it’s a one off deal, if a deal can be brokered between those two it will lead this sport directly into the mainstream. How do you ignore something that is doing so well when so many other things are doing so poorly?