Found this articles on usatoday.com today:
UFC has fight on its hands against Elite XC - USATODAY.com
UFC has fight on its hands against Elite XC
By Beau Dure, USA TODAY
Eight years after mixed martial arts — a hybrid of kickboxing and aggressive wrestling styles such as jujitsu — seemed dead in the USA, a live fight card will be prime-time network fare Saturday. However, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the company that resuscitated the sport, has nothing to do with the broadcast.
The event (CBS, 9 p.m.), is being headlined by Kevin Ferguson, a former street fighter and YouTube phenom known as Kimbo Slice. He competes in Elite Xtreme Combat, which made its debut 15 months ago but has a multiyear deal to show four mixed martial arts (MMA) events a year on CBS.
Slice won't be fighting for a belt. At stake is something bigger in a sport that is growing quickly and has raked in hundreds of millions in pay-per-view sales.
UFC isn't interested in sharing supremacy.
"Whether they like it or not, they're the farm league," UFC President Dana White says.
UFC in particular doesn't want to see mixed martial arts replicate boxing, with its tangled web of sanctioning bodies and overlapping champions.
"When we have a big fight card, the public understands who's who and what they're fighting for," says UFC vice president Marc Ratner, former executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and one of many MMA executives with a boxing background. "The boxing model has been so fragmented that it's hard for the person on the street to know who's who."
UFC made its debut in 1993, a few years after various MMA promotions put down roots in Japan.
But when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) labeled the sport "human cockfighting" in 1998 and urged state governors and pay-per-view outlets to shut it down, UFC almost disappeared.
UFC sputtered until state sanctioning bodies, led by New Jersey in 2000, worked with the company to standardize rules and make the sport safer. The provisions formalized many of the changes UFC had made since the McCain outburst, such as a modified boxing-style glove, weight classes and prohibitions of particular kicks and strikes.
UFC events and some others use cages with chain-link fences. UFC co-founder Art Davie says the eight-sided Octagon, trademarked by the UFC and used since 1993, looks dramatic while keeping fighters from sliding or falling out of the ring, a safety feature.
One death has been reported in U.S. MMA promotions. Houston fighter Sam Vasquez died last year in the Texas promotion Renegades Extreme Fighting. An autopsy revealed cause of death as "complications from blunt trauma to the head."
A 2006 Johns Hopkins study found that the most common injuries are facial lacerations and hand and nose injuries. It concluded, "the lower knockout rates in MMA compared to boxing may help prevent brain injury in MMA events."
Boost from reality show
White and his partners, casino moguls Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III, formed the company Zuffa and bought UFC in 2001. They accelerated the sanctioning process, but progress was slow at first.
"My partners had invested $44 million into this thing, and there was no light at the end of the tunnel," White says. Lorenzo Fertitta is a former vice chairman of the Nevada commission.
The Fertittas put more money into a reality show called The Ultimate Fighter in 2005. They found a broadcast partner in Spike, the cable channel that had re-branded to focus on programs for men.
The first season finale, bringing live MMA fights to cable, drew 2.6 million viewers, according to Spike.
"(The show) allowed them to reach out to a different audience, just as prime time could do," says Deana Myers, a senior analyst with financial research firm SNL Kagan, who tracks the MMA and pay-per-view industries.
Myers' estimates show UFC's pay-per-view business ballooning from about $40 million in 2005 to $220 million in 2006.
In late 2006, UFC went on a buying spree, snapping up World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and World Fighting Alliance (WFA).
UFC had built a colossal business. Now others want in.
The competition
In 2006, established martial arts company Strikeforce sold out San Jose's HP Pavilion with the first sanctioned MMA card in California. The International Fight League (IFL) made its debut early in 2006 and landed TV deals with MyNetworkTV and Fox Sports Net. Then came EliteXC in 2007. Also popping into the MMA scene were broadcasters such as Mark Cuban's HDNet, which telecasts several circuits such as the IFL while putting on a few extra fights on its own.
"We see HDNet Fights as a complimentary organization that will focus on helping fighters develop their careers and putting together cards with the biggest possible fights as the opportunity arises," says Cuban, who also owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. "To that end we have partnered with just about everyone but the UFC."
Other companies such as EliteXC and Strikeforce are willing to work together, sharing fighters and occasionally co-promoting cards. UFC is not. White thinks UFC is synonymous with the sport, and is prepared to keep leading the way in sanctioning and building MMA.
Though 33 states have sanctioned the sport as of Wednesday, UFC hired a lobbying firm this week to promote the sport on Capitol Hill.
"There's so much work to do," White says. "And I'm the one out here doing all the work. Everybody else is riding in our wake."
White insists that he doesn't mind competitors.
EliteXC director Gary Shaw and IFL president Jay Larkin disagree with White's assessment that they're "a farm league." Each takes issue with independent rankings that give UFC fighters most of the top places. Both have extensive backgrounds in boxing: Shaw as a promoter and Larkin as a programming executive at Showtime.
Shaw is undeterred by his parent company's 2007 losses of $7.4 million on $5.3 million revenue, saying, "That's what start-ups do."
Larkin, who took over IFL a few months ago, says his organization is for sale. The company's stock dropped from $16.50 per share 16 months ago to less than 4 cents per share.
Modern-day gladiators
UFC does have most of the fighters rated highly in independent rankings, with a few notable exceptions in the heavyweight class. Fedor Emelianenkois a heavyweight White admits he'd like to sign if only to prove his fighters are better.
The EliteXC card airing Saturday on CBS has a headliner who may or may not be a gimmick — "He's not a professional athlete," White says of Slice — depending on who asks and answers.
Even within CBS, the idea of introducing a sport with a man who attracted attention with Internet video clips sponsored by a pornography company has its detractors. CEO Sumner Redstone told a conference in April the live show was not socially responsible.
Slice isn't just taking his bare-knuckle street skills to the EliteXC cage. He has been training with MMA pioneer Bas Rutten, and his two official bouts have been quick demolitions. On a publicity blitz that has seen him pop up on TV shows and magazine covers, Slice has come across as an eager student grateful for his shot.
"(People) love a battle like back in the days when the Romans just filled their buildings up with millions or hundreds of thousands of people to watch the Roman gladiators go at it," Slice says. "Now we're in the new millennium, this is a new era, and it's the same thing."
Rivals say they offer options
UFC's rivals are happy to give fighters — and fans — more options.
"Competition is, obviously, a good thing for the sport because it forces the promoters to make the best fights possible," says Mauro Ranallo, who worked for several years as a commentator in Japan and will be on the CBS broadcast team.
Cuban agrees: "Outside the UFC, the market and demand for fighters sets the price. Inside the UFC, the UFC sets the price."
Larkin and others may be willing to share fighters and perhaps join together. But Larkin knows the big dog, UFC, has little incentive to play.
"They don't need to co-promote, they don't need to cooperate, they don't need to fight other promotions' fighters for the sake of their company," Larkin says. "However, for the sake of the greater industry and the sport, they do.
"I do believe the MMA is a fractured world, and the way to make it a healthier, strong mainstream sport is through consolidation," Larkin says. "Too many little groups out there fighting over the same meatless bone."
White is more bullish.
"This is going to be the biggest sport in the world," White says.
UFC has fight on its hands against Elite XC
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