(You do not want to mess with this man. Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle via myspace.com/kenpavia.)

Led by the always-outspoken Ken Pavia, a group of high-profile MMA agents have joined forces to block their fighters from being sold to the highest bidder during Showtime’s planned auction of Pro Elite’s corporate assets on November 17th. From a new press release drafted by the Pav, and signed by Monte Cox, Ed Soares, and Cesar Gracie, among others:

Individually we consummated promotional agreements with Pro Elite. These agreements were made based on a multiplicity of factors including but not limited to relationships with certain Pro Elite personnel, venues, television exposure, jurisdictional concerns, public relations support, and numerous other intangibles. These considerations are not readily transferable…

We intend to fight the lawful ability to transfer these assets, and as we believe these are personal services contracts, we do not believe there is an obligation to perform if transferred. With pooled resources we are prepared to fight this issue.

The unity of this effort is unprecedented and the message that is being sent is clear. Absent significant pre-established negotiated terms, do not bid on these contracts unless you are prepared to fight the challenge to their legality. It is our intention to honor our commitment to Pro Elite, but if Pro Elite is not able to perform in accordance with the contractual terms, the fighters should be granted unrestricted free agency with the unfettered ability to enter the marketplace.

It’s good to see business rivals uniting for the rights of their fighters, especially when they haven’t always been civil towards each other in the past. Hopefully Showtime will get the message that some of these “assets” they plan on auctioning actually represent the livelihoods of human beings.

Wilson Reis vs. Abel Cullum

David Douglas vs. Malaipet

Erik Apple vs. Matt Makowski

(Scott: “Come on gang, we gotta raise $55 million to save EliteXC! But…how?”
Gina: “Bikini car wash!”
Robbie: “Pirate treasure hunt!”
Kimbo: “Robbin’ ni**as!”)

Sherdog reports that Showtime Networks filed public notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, announcing their intention to negotiate for the purchase of Pro Elite Inc. Showtime, a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, already has a 20% ownership stake in the L.A.-based MMA organization.

What makes the sale likely is how broke-ass Pro Elite is at this point. It’s already been widely reported that the company racked up $55 million in debt during its two years of operation, and to make matters worse, Pro Elite is struggling to obtain enough capital to operate in the short term. According to a new SEC filing, the company has been hustling for $3.5 million in financing, and their failure to secure it in the immediate future “[would] have a material adverse effect on the Company’s liquidity and capital resources and ability to continue as a going concern.” And guess what:

The Company no longer believes that a successful closing of the $3.5 million secured debt (with a funded amount of $3.0 million) will occur. Although the Company has received $1 million pursuant to the Note [ed. note: this refers to a loan made to Pro Elite by Showtime]…the $1 million funding defers such consequences only for a brief period of time while the Company continues to evaluate its options on how to respond to its severe liquidity problem.

Known most for its EliteXC and ShoXC brands, Pro Elite has also acquired such mid-level outfits as King of the Cage, Icon Sport, Rumble on the Rock, and Cage Rage over the last two years — meaning that it would be a powerful asset in the hands of the right manager. And who’s the Showtime exec who would be qualified to run it all? Well, that’s the $55 million question. More to come…

Hits – Watch more free videos

This, believe it or not, is an actual ad for Elite XC and Showtime boxing put together by the clever jerks over at Showtime Sports. I like to think that the moment the song “Hits & Chicks” was written, somewhere Glenn Danzig suddenly felt like killing himself, even more than usual, and he didn’t know why. I also like to think that after the song was set to this video montage of both hits and chicks, one of the advertising executives at Showtime watched it and said, “I don’t know, you think it’s too subtle?”

That’s when they added the phrase “Jugs and Pugs.” Just because they wanted to make sure that they were reaching the all-important ‘morons aged 14-54′ demographic. And here we were thinking that Elite XC wasn’t doing enough to promote this event.

Is it too much to hope that “Busted Ears, Bodacious Boobs” will become Elite XC’s new tagline?

(Props: Bloody Elbow)

(Backstage at ShoXC.)

KJ Noons thinks he has it bad in Elite XC, he should talk to some of the fighters on the last ShoXC card. The California State Athletic Commission released the full disclosed payout for the August 15 event, and there isn’t a fighter on there who cracked $10,000. The list of people not to try and borrow money from looks like this:

Jared Hamman ($8,000) def. Po’ai Suganuma ($5,000)
Fabricio Camoes ($6,000) def. Sammy Morgan ($4,000)
Rosi Sexton ($3,260) def. Debi Purcell ($4,000)
Ray Lizama ($6,000) def. Keith Berry ($2,000)
David Douglas ($3,000) def. William Jacobson ($800)
Lucas Gamaza ($3,000) def. Kenny Johnson ($2,000)
Jesse Brock ($3,000) def. Josh Rave ($1,000)
Robert Vargas ($2,000) def. Ralph Lopez ($1,000)
Katrina Alendale ($1,500) def. Melanie La’Croix ($1,000)

Underpaid: Pretty much everybody, though if we’re going to get specific we could point to Rosi Sexton, who made less than the opponent she defeated, or poor (literally) William Jacobson, who was the only fighter on the card pulling in less than four figures. Let’s hope Jacobson has another job and was just dabbling in MMA to make enough money to buy that really nice ping pong table he’s had his eye on.

Overpaid: There are no Rockefellers on this list, not even anyone who can reasonably afford Rocawear. Though I guess if it’s all relative, Ray Lizama’s six grand is pretty decent for a guy who is just over .500 for his career.

Kimbo Slice‘s new spot for EA Sports’s Facebreaker. I guess the ability to play as a female version of Kimbo is a selling point. Props to YouveBeenBlinded

Slice recalls the fateful hurricane that changed the course of his life, in this new promo for Showtime Sports. Props to FiveOuncesofPain.

(ShoXC weigh-ins become an impromptu beach party. Photo courtesy of Combat Lifestyle.)

Last night’s ShoXC card from Fresno, Calif. had its share of interesting bouts, but the big news coming out of the Pro Elite camp is that the company has canceled another show, this time in the form of one its smaller confederates across the pond. Contenders 11, scheduled to take place in the UK today, has been called off. Five Ounces of Pain also reports that Cage Rage — another Pro Elite organization — has suffered a rash of layoffs and is down to only three employees. Somehow during all of this, the Pro Elite stock price jumped from $2.50 to $8.00 a share on Friday, even amid reports that they were canceling their September 20 event. As they say on the internet, WTF!?!

Something is going on with Pro Elite, no doubt, but what? Could it be that Pro Elite executives have discovered oil underneath the grounds where their offices lie, and now they’re going to quit putting on MMA shows altogether and move their families to big mansions in Beverly Hills, complete with indoor plumbing and cement ponds? There is very little evidence for this hypothesis at the moment, but we’re going to go ahead and say yes, this is precisely what is happening. You heard it here first.

As for last night’s show, yeah, well, here you go:

Jared Hamman def. Po’ai Suganuma via TKO (strikes) at 2:34 of round 1
Fabricio Camoes def. Sammy Morgan via submission (rear naked choke) at 0:47 of round 1
Cyrille Dibate def. Jaime Fletcher via unanimous decision
Rosi Sexton def. Debi Purcell via split decision
Ray Lizama def. Keith Berry via TKO (strikes) at 2:15 of round 2
Katrina Alendale def. Melanie La’Croix via unanimous decision
Roberto Vargas def. Ralph Lopez via split decision
Jesse Brock def. Josh Rave via unanimous decision
Lucas Gumaza def. Kenny Johnson via split decision
David “Tarzan” Douglas def. William Jacobson via TKO (corner stoppage) at 1:12 of round 1

(Shayna Baszler: ready for battle.)

EliteXC sent out a press release yesterday announcing the full televised card for their second “Saturday Night Fights” event, which will be held in Stockton, CA, on July 26th. The most notable addition is a 140-pound bout between Shayna Baszler and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, which will open the CBS broadcast. Baszler (9-4, all wins by submission) last fought at a ShoXC event in April, where she finished Keiko “Tama Chan” Tamai via first-round neck crank; she also holds notable wins over Julie Kedzie, Roxanne Modafferi, and Jennifer Tate. Santos, the wife of Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos, is 4-0, though her last three wins came against opponents with pro records of 0-0.

The other notable bit of information in the press release is that the match between Antonio “Big Foot” Silva and Justin Eilers will indeed be for EliteXC’s heavyweight title, and it will headline the live three-fight Showtime broadcast that will immediately precede the CBS card. The Showtime card will also feature a featherweight bout between Brian Caraway — who defeated Alvin Cacdac just 12 days ago at Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson — against up-and-coming submission specialist Wilson Reis. The full televised lineup is below:

Saturday Night Fights on CBS, 9-11 p.m. ET/PT
Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith (for EliteXC middleweight title)
Jake Shields vs. Nick Thompson (for EliteXC welterweight title)
Nick Diaz vs. Thomas Denny (lightweights)
Shayna Baszler vs. Cristiane Santos (140 lbs.)

Showtime undercard broadcast, 8-9 p.m. ET/PT
Antonio Silva vs. Justin Eilers (for EliteXC heavyweight title)
Wilson Reis vs. Brian Caraway (140 lbs.)
Rafael Feijao vs. TBD (light-heavyweights)

(The Good, the Bad, and the Leathery.)

Cyborg, Shields, and Mean Mr. Munchies may be M.I.A., but tomorrow night’s EliteXC/Strikeforce show still has some very compelling match-ups going for it, including a main event that will pit the fan-hyped Cung Le against the self-hyped Frank Shamrock in a middleweight championship bout. You can catch the action on Showtime starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Here’s what the televised lineup looks like…

Shamrock vs. Le (for Strikeforce middleweight title)
Frank (24-8-1) has talked his usual trash about how he’s going to spank the relatively inexperienced Le (5-0), but trust us, it’s only for promotional purposes; Shamrock isn’t dumb enough to actually believe he’ll be cruising through an easy one tomorrow, and unlike his brother Ken, he’s not dumb enough to stand and trade with a superior striker. Le has the most devastating kicks in MMA right now, and he ended his last fight — against Sam Morgan last November — via the ultra-rare body-kick KO. But like other fighters who come from a kickboxing background, Le’s long-range kicks often leave him open for single-leg takedowns, and Shamrock could capitalize. He’ll certainly be looking to take the fight to the ground when the moment is right and finish Le by submission, and we think Shammy will succeed in the second or third round. If they really wanted to make this one interesting, the loser would have to accept eternal banishment from San Jose.

Drew Fickett vs. Jae Suk Lim (welterweights)
A.k.a., “The Battle of the Guys Who Were Supposed to Be Fighting Other Guys.” Rage in the Cage/UFC vet Drew Fickett (32-5) has choked out fighters like Josh Koscheck, Kurt Pellegrino, and Carlo Prater, and has generally faced much tougher competition than “The Korean Icepick” (9-3), who spent most of his career in Spirit MC. We’re loving Lim’s nickname, but it’s not going to help him much against the far-more-experienced Arizona native. Both men hadn’t been preparing to face each other, so it’s a bit of a wash, but judging from how Fickett’s done against guys with Lim’s skill level, we’d say a first-round submission victory is nearly inevitable.

Frank Shamrock‘s battle with Cung Le is on Saturday, so expect to see a lot of Frank around the web this week promoting the hell out of the thing. Already, there’s several Frank-related stories/vids out there today. Here’s a few to check out:

15 Rounds has an interview posted where Shamrock talks yet again about fighters controlling their own brand and promoting their own events. He goes into a lot of detail about the different models and how the MMA model could improve — depending on how you look at it. He also dishes about a possible upcoming duel with Tito Ortiz. It looks like something is in the works and the two fighters’ companies would co-promote it and hire out for someone to actually run the show. We’ll see if a rematch shapes up soon.

Oh yeah. And the little subject of Kimbo Slice comes up. Frank’s not a fan.

Q: What do you think of the fact that Kimbo Slice is being pushed as the biggest star fighting on the show?

FS: Kimbo has a weird aura about him. Personally, I think it’s a step back to where we were ten years ago which is the big, tough scary guy fighting, but he’s very, very popular with the young generation. His story is very interesting and appealing to people, but I also think they will quickly grow tired of it because it is kind of that gimmick story. The problem with Kimbo is the more he learns – the worse he’s going to get. He’s going to lose that raw, crazy, angry power that he is using to beat people.

Q: Do you think that Kimbo is a bad role model for kids considering how he made himself popular – through backyard fights? Could there potentially be a problem with the younger generation trying to copy Kimbo in order to get noticed?

FS: 100%. I think he is the absolute worst role model we could have for our events. This is coming from someone who has been here since the beginning. Having Kimbo as a representative as a face for the first big event on CBS is a step back.

Q: If you saw your own kids watching Kimbo Slice fights on the Internet, would you let them watch it?

FS: I don’t know. That’s a tough one. I’d probably let them watch it, but then I’d make them go to the martial arts class that night. It’s like I wouldn’t stop my son from watching car racing, but I wouldn’t let my son go race. But I would let him go to a racing school and learn about it.

But role models don’t sell tickets, now do they? Naturally, a discussion of Ken Shamrock’s recent crap showing happened and Frank expressed his disappointment because his brother’s diminished skills could stick a fork in their bad blood match next year. However, Frank is banking on the EliteXC/CBS deal to still be able to sell the fight — and to a wider audience. He’ll be selling a shitty fight, but he’s probably right because the general populace will buy anything. Frank then goes on to discuss how he’d love to fight Anderson Silva. On that note, FightNetwork has some interesting comparison numbers on Frank and Anderson Silva. Check them out after the jump.

(Malaipet delivers an elbow to the back of “Wildman” Denny’s head.)

The highly anticipated match of the night turned into a DQ win for the “Wildman”. Malaipet nailed Thomas Denny with an elbow to the back of the head and with downward motion last night to get himself disqualified in the main event of the ShoXC: Elite Challenger Series which aired on SHOWTIME.

Denny took the fight to the mat early, where the fight stayed for almost the entire first round. Malaipet escaped being submitted and was able to get to his feet. Denny then attempted to get things to the ground again when the Muay Thai kickboxer committed the disqualifying elbows. Denny was unable to recover after being given time to shake off the blows. The official call was DQ at 4:51 of the first. Malaipet dropped to 3-2 in MMA after a successful kickboxing career and Denny’s record went to 26-16.

Post fight quotes from the press release:

“I’m sorry because I came here to fight, but this is MMA and you have to follow the rules,” said Denny, who could not continue
after he was nailed by three blatant elbows to the back of the head. “I may have been dazed but I wasn’t knocked out. One thing I could not do, however, was move my neck.”

“I definitely want to fight him again,” Malaipet said. “If he wants to do it at 150 pounds, I’ll fight him any time, any place. This wasn’t my type of fight. But there was no way I was ever going to tap out.”

In other action, Conor Heun went to 7-2 when he earned a unanimous decision — one that didn’t sit well with the crowd — over Marlon Mathias. While it was a back-and-forth battle, the judges still scored it 30-27 on each card. Mathias clearly hurt Heun more and landed the most blows — Heun had a gash above his left eye and possibly has a broken jaw. Mathias expressed his disappointment afterwards with the decision, stating he knows he won at least two rounds.

(‘Pet and the Wildman, L.A.’s wackiest drive-time talk radio team. Image courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

If you’re feeling bloodlustful this evening, we suggest setting the DVR for Showtime at 11 p.m. ET/PT, when the ShoXC Elite Challenger Series kicks off from the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, CA. Headlining the event is explosive former Muay Thai world champion Malaipet Sitprapom (3-1 MMA), who faces King of the Cage vet Thomas “Wildman” Denny (25-16). Also on the main card is undefeated bantamweight Chris Cariaso, as well as 205′er Aaron Rosa, who took his first career loss in his last ShoXC appearance in October against Jared Hamman. The weigh-in results are below. It looks like a few guys went over, but hey, it’s ShoXC, so whatever.

Televised Card
Malaipet Sitprapom (154.75 lbs.) vs. Thomas Denny (160 lbs.)
Marlon Mathias (159.5 lbs.) vs. Conor Heun (159.5 lbs.)
Aaron Rosa (203.25 lbs.) vs. Jaime Fletcher (205 lbs.)
Shane Del Rosario (231 lbs.) vs. Analu Brash (256.5 lbs.)
Mark Oshiro (138.75 lbs.) vs. Chris Cariaso (139.5 lbs.)

Preliminary Card
Brandon Tarn (250.5 lbs.) vs. Jason Williams (257.25 lbs.)
Devin Howard (172.5 lbs.) vs. Mark Kempthorne (170.75 lbs.)
Vince Guzman (161 lbs.) vs. Lyle Beerbohm (160.75 lbs.)
Kenny Johnson (170 lbs.) vs. Michael Penafiel (168.25 lbs.)
Steve Gable (169.75 lbs.) vs. Eric Jones (168.5 lbs.)

Bonus: Malaipet highlight reel…

(Kimbo posing with Tappy McTapsalot.)

Alright, so that may be a bit of a stretch. But Variety reports that Showtime subscriptions jumped 11% in the fourth quarter of 2007; parent company CBS Corp.’s profit fell 19% in the same period. We’d imagine that many of those new subscribers were people who signed up just to see Kimbo Slice destroy Bo Cantrell at EliteXC: Renegade. It sure as hell wasn’t for The Tudors.

In other dollar-related news…

— “Strikeforce at the Dome” took in more money than any other combat-sport event ever held in Washington state. 7,089 disappointed fans packed the Tacoma Dome and gave up $300,000 of their money, which they immediately regretted.

— Rich Franklin has put the Hummer H2 he was given for being a coach on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter up for auction on eBay. The starting bid is 80 grand, and you can “Buy It Now” for $125,000. The auction ends on March 2nd, and 10% of the proceeds will go to the Keep it in the Ring Foundation, which channels youthful aggression through after-school sports and martial arts programs. We hope Franklin is more successful at this eBay thing than Ricco Rodriguez, who eventually settled for $250, a dozen Krispy Kremes, and a pack of smokes.

It’s Friday, and past 5 p.m. (hint, hint), so you might be interested in watching Kimbo Slice try to sing a Kelly Clarkson song in this new Showtime promo. And if not, hey, no worries.

For those of you who fall into one of the following categories:

a) I Love Tank Abbott.
b) I Love “Jimmy Kimmel Live”.
c) I stay up late to catch whatever is on against Letterman or Leno.
d) I am Kimbo Slice.

…the following is for you.

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)

This just in: The always colorful, entertaining and unpredictable David “Tank” Abbott will be a special guest on the nationally televised Jimmy Kimmel Live show tonight/Thursday at 12:05 a.m. ET/PT on ABC.

Tank (tankabbott.proelite.com), one of the original Mixed Martial Arts bad boys and most ferocious knockout artists in history, will discuss, among other things, his eagerly anticipated, long-awaited grudge fight with Kimbo Slice (kimboslice.proelite.com) set for Saturday, Feb. 16, at the BankUnited Center at the University of Miami on SHOWTIME.

Other guests Thursday will include reality show star Heidi Montague of the “The Hills.”