Planet Tapout 3.04.08: EliteXC's Deal with CBS

Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 03.04.2008

Planet Tapout is back with a post-UFC 82 edition here at 411Mania.com! In the latest edition, 411Mania's Lotfi Sariahmed delves into the big news from before the PPV with EliteXC's TV deal with CBS! What does it mean for the sport? Lotfi examines all that plus Miscellaneous Musings and This Week in Fight Picks in the latest edition!

Welcome to the MMA column that bows down to Anderson Silva's greatness! It's Planet Tapout here at 411Mania.com and I am the man dubbed as Lotfi Sariahmed. My apologies to anyone who put money on the IFL based on my picks last week (I went 3-5) but I made it up to you with the UFC 82 picks (9-1). Either way no mailbag or comments this week because you're not on the IFL bandwagon for 2008. It's ok though. Just don't forget about the email or comments. Leave a comment at the bottom or send an email on anything and everything to [e-mail]. Check out my UFC 82 thoughts in Miscellaneous Musings but some other news before the event dominates this week's Planet Tapout!



Maybe it's because of lower ratings overall or maybe it's because CBS is afraid it's fallen into last place among the big networks. Or maybe it just wants to pick up on what's "hot" and "in." This is a network that just started showing Dexter, a show about a serial killer, on Sunday nights because of the success it had on Showtime. No matter the reasoning, CBS is going to be broadcasting MMA in primetime and with the move; the sport has made another giant step toward the ever-elusive "mainstream." But almost as big of a story as CBS broadcasting MMA on its network is what it's not broadcasting. After negotiations with the UFC seemingly fell through, CBS reached an agreement with EliteXC to broadcast its product trying to reach the coveted 18-34 year old demographic. Of course Showtime is a CBS company but there's obviously a big difference between the pay cable channels and network TV.

Its huge news that sent shockwaves through not just the MMA world but even received responses from "mainstream" sports journalism. It led off Pardon the Interruption the day the news broke.



Of course for those of you who prefer Around the Horn there's this little gem:



As for those within the MMA world, here's what some of them had to say about the move:

I think it is wonderful news. I don't know the deal terms; obviously I'm not a part of that so I don't know the details. But just based on that one announcement of a major broadcast network carrying live MMA, I'm overjoyed. I think it's a wonderful advancement. The fact that I've been told it will be on a regular schedule is wonderful. I think congratulations are due to EliteXC and Gary Shaw and I applaud CBS for taking that leap.

IFL President and CEO Jay Larkin*

I knew that was coming. Les Moonves from CBS and Ted Forstmann from IMG bought ProElite and now they have a press conference. A year ago it was the IFL, where's the IFL now? Last week it was Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban and HDNet don't look as scary anymore do they? It's another guy. It's just another guy and they're going to keep popping up left and right.

UFC President Dana White

As always the truth lies somewhere in between but this we do know. EliteXC now has the opportunity to put on four shows on Saturday nights for two hours over the course of the deal. Now it's just a matter of what it does with it.

This is a great opportunity for not only EliteXC but for MMA with this slot on Saturday nights on CBS. Like the PTI guys mentioned on their show, this represents an opportunity to take the place of boxing as the combat sport so many people sit down to watch. But to be fair to all parties involved, Dana White is right in the sense that at the end of this deal, probably sooner, CBS could have severed ties with this experiment and EliteXC might be back on Showtime. Who knows? It's a shot and now MMA fans, "pundits" and officials alike wait to see what's in store for MMA on CBS. And that is where the debate begins.

As soon as news broke this was hot cannon fodder on the 411 MMA Forums wondering just how this would impact the sport. The reason it turned into a heated debate was because of the rumored main event for EliteXC's first show.

Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson has made his way into MMA discussion once again. After disposing of Tank Abbott in his last "fight" for EliteXC, Kevin Ferguson is rumored to be part of the main event for that first show. Thus posing the question, is a fight between Kevin Ferguson and potentially Ken Shamrock, the way you want to bring MMA to the network stage?

I've already gone off at length about the allure of Kimbo in an earlier edition of Planet Tapout so I will spare the diatribe. Instead allow me to focus on the first impression that could not be undone with Kevin Ferguson as the main event.

Here's a guy that has made his name as that scary dude from the YouTube Street fighting videos. He's a man who's profited tremendously from his Internet success and EliteXC is, in turn, looking to milk this cash cow for all its worth. If Shamrock v. Ferguson does end up being the main event of that first show, then EliteXC is hoping that Internet audience will make its way to CBS to watch his fight against this "WWE" guy. If the fight goes as expected, Ferguson will knock out the over the hill Shamrock bringing those fans back for more fights with Ferguson down the road. But is this the way MMA should be going to network TV?

I understand Ferguson is training with all the right guys to become a better overall fighter. I understand Bas Rutten keeps saying he can do big things in the sport. But lets not kid around folks. What's being marketed here isn't the fighter training with the best to become a great heavyweight. What's being marketed here is the Internet Street Fighter. What EliteXC has done with Kevin Ferguson's career to this point is try to milk all the "Kimbo" buzz it can out of it. What EliteXC has done is keep the "freak show" moniker on "Kimbo Slice" putting him in bouts against Bo Cantrell and Tank Abbott (and potentially Ken Shamrock). And it's that freak show bout that will potentially headline MMA's first (and potentially only) go-around on network TV.

I'm not particularly fond of freak show bouts to begin with. I understand they serve some purpose in MMA for some people but the fight between Butterbean and Zuluzinho never really appealed to me. It still doesn't and I don't think it ever will. I think it takes away from the sport. So for a freak show MMA bout to serve as the headliner for MMA's foray onto network TV hurts my head. Is EliteXC's roster really that barren that it can't do any better? While the roster may be the problem, that's also not the prevalent issue at hand.

If you're EliteXC this move probably came too soon because the move to put Kimbo as the main event for the first network show is a matter of dollars and cents. Unfortunately KJ Noons v. Yves Edwards will not sell nearly as well as Kimbo v. "Fighter X." I'd rather see Jake Shields or any one of a number of fighters EliteXC has on its roster but the general public doesn't know about them yet. And its dollars and cents that matter at the end of the day. I don't know if EliteXC has anyone on its roster that will sell as well as Kimbo right now and that's unfortunate. Because since Kevin Ferguson has been marketed as "Kimbo" and not as Kevin Ferguson, why take MMA on network TV seriously? If you're a relatively young enough sports journalist (I'm not talking about Kornheiser or Mariotti or these older/stubborn writers), not familiar with MMA, who will be covering this sport now that it's on CBS, what impression do you get from the sport? You're not going to cover the best fight or the best fighters out there. You're going to be covering a makeshift MMA brand right now that, despite landing the network TV deal, has a lot of questions that need to be answered. Again I can't drive this point home enough. It's a great deal for EliteXC simply because of the viewers CBS will bring in. I just don't feel great that one of the first things those viewers are going to see is a main event featuring Kimbo Slice.


Miscellaneous Musings!
●Anderson Silva is a pimp at middleweight and now the UFC is a Yushin Okami fight away from having a titleholder without a contender. Look up and down the UFC's middleweight roster and tell me who besides Okami is even close to getting a sniff at the belt. Ricardo Almeida after beating Rob Yundt? Alan Belcher? Patrick Cote COULD be an option but Silva would just make him look ridiculous. Martin Kampmann after a couple of fights?

●As for Silva's opponent, Dan Henderson just fell victim to a great fighter who just keeps getting better. Henderson should move back up to light heavyweight where there are a lot more fights for him and it seems like he feels more comfortable there anyway. Henderson v. the winner of Machida/Ortiz possibly?

●It's amazing that with as much depth as the UFC's welterweight and light heavyweight division have, the heavyweight and middleweight divisions are just that thin.

●On the UFC's heavyweight division, could someone explain to me what that was between Heath Herring and Cheick Kongo? And they're going to let Andrei Arlovski go for that?

●Instead of trying to convince me that Mike Swick will test Marcus Davis, why couldn't Diego Sanchez fill that spot instead?

●Don't take too much from Jon Fitch's fight against Chris Wilson. He knew he was getting a title shot if he won so he fought not to lose.

●I know Josh Koscheck catches a lot of flak for not being the most exciting fighter in the world, but the UFC needs to resign him. Why let another organization profit over the work the UFC put into him? He's still a top 10 welterweight with a lot of potential.

●Brock Lesnar v. Mark Coleman…not exactly Lesnar v. Justin McCully now is it? Signing Coleman to a four-fight deal I think will be PAINFUL by the time the UFC gets to fights three and four, if not sooner. But the UFC is consistent in trying to develop stars through these veterans in the sport. They used Shamrock to build up Rich Franklin and Royce Gracie for Matt Hughes. Now they're hoping Coleman will do the same for Brock Lesnar. This fight should be over quickly with Lesnar beating up on the Hall of Famer on the ground in the 1st.


This Week in Fight Predictions!

World Victory Road: Sengoku!
Takanori Gomi over Duane "Bang" Ludwig
Siyar Bahadurzada over Kazuo Misaki
Josh Barnett over Hidehiko Yoshida
Nick Thompson over Fabricio Monteiro
Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos over Makoto Takimoto
Ryo Kawamura over Antonio Braga Neto
Kazuyuki Fujita over Peter Graham


Before I go, here's the UFC 82 recap from my favorite Headhunter and yours, Paul Buentello:







That's it for this week on Planet Tapout! Don't forget about the mailbag and comments. Send me your thoughts, loving, hateful and otherwise. The email address is [e-mail] .

Meehan is good people so go read his stuff…he made the banner.

Join the Planet Tapout Army on MySpace!

Make sure you come back next Tuesday for another edition of Planet Tapout! This week in MMA gives us World Victory Road's long awaited Sengoku card featuring Josh Barnett and Takanori Gomi. There's also a Cage Rage card featuring Masakazu Imanari and both Ken and Ryan Shamrock. Enjoy the fights everyone.


*Quote courtesy of FiveOuncesofPain.com