Apparently EliteXC is going to announce a deal with CBS. Pretty big deal for them, and for MMA in general. Kimbo Slice goes from fighting in backyards to network television. Who would've guessed that? Here's the story:
EliteXC expected to air on CBS By Kevin Iole Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008 5:21 pm EST
Thursday will be an historic day for mixed martial arts, when CBS and Elite XC announce a deal that will bring the sport to network television for the first time.
Details of the deal, first reported by MMAjunkie.com, are sketchy, but is believed to be a four-fight deal that will begin in April.
Kevin Ferguson, the Internet street-fighting sensation known as Kimbo Slice, is expected to headline the first fight card on CBS from either Atlantic City, N.J. or the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
Elite XC president Gary Shaw declined comment on Wednesday, but he has been bullish on the company's future despite the fact it lives in the vast shadow created by the UFC.
The UFC had been attempting during the writer's guild to reach a deal with CBS to put fights on, but had been unable to finalize a contract.
Elite XC already had a relationship with Viacom, which owns CBS, because Showtime is an investor in the company and has been broadcasting its fights since February 2007.
Viacom also owns Showtime.
The cards on CBS are expected to be two-hour shows broadcast on Saturday nights. The exact time slot is unknown, though it is likely to be something like 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the Eastern time zone and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Pacific.
Lloyd: When I met Mary, I got that old fashioned romantic feeling, where I'd do anything to bone her. Harry: That's a special feeling.
I guess the big sticking point was that UFC wanted its own announcers and control of the broadcast if it was going to be on primetime. It would basically look like any other UFC show except it would just happen to be on a different channel. EliteXC were willing to let CBS present the event with the usual CBS Sports presentation. I wonder if this means Bill Goldberg is out of a commentating job (hopefully). We want Gus Johnson!
“How is it that I am a good actor? What I do is I... pretend to be the person I’m portraying. You’re confused. Case in point: in Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson comes to me and says ‘I would like you to be Gandalf the Wizard,’ and I said ‘You are aware that I am not really a wizard?’ and Peter Jackson said ‘I would like you to use your acting skills to portray a wizard for the duration of the show.’ So I said ‘Okay’ and then I said to myself ‘Mmm.. How do I do that?’ And this is what I did: I imagined that I was a wizard, and then I pretended, and acted, in that way on the stage. How did I know what to say? The words were written down for me in a script. How did I know where to stand? People told me where to stand." -- Sir Ian McKellen, Extras
Originally posted by Big BadI guess the big sticking point was that UFC wanted its own announcers and control of the broadcast if it was going to be on primetime. It would basically look like any other UFC show except it would just happen to be on a different channel. EliteXC were willing to let CBS present the event with the usual CBS Sports presentation. I wonder if this means Bill Goldberg is out of a commentating job (hopefully). We want Gus Johnson!
The first lightning fast KO or submission might make Gus explode.
Holy shit, that Napa commerical with Martin Truex Jr. singing is just awful. Anyway, my last minute picks are Mark Martin finally breaking through to win with the Busch bros., Johnson, and Dale Jr. finishing in the top 5.