ELITEXC Conference call: 05/13/08
EliteXC live events president Gary Shaw announced the intention of creating a women’s title later this year, as well as possibly putting together an all women’s fight card to air on television in 2009.
“We’re talking about doing two things. We’re talking about doing a women’s title and we’re also talking about an all women’s show where we feature one night of all women’s fights,” said Shaw. “That’s something that I’d like to present to the public, a night of women’s fights. I think that would be a major milestone. I think it would be good for the sport, and good for women.”
Shaw also confirmed that the first title would be at 140-pounds, although he didn’t rule out possibly creating titles for women in different weight classes in the future. He also mentioned the winner of the fight between Gina Carano and Kaitlin Young as one of the likely participants in the first EliteXC women’s title bout.
“I think we would look to fight the winner of this fight for the title in the fall,” Shaw stated. “So we would give the first women’s title out sometime in the fall. Other titles will depend on how many different weight classes we end up with.”
More notes from Tuesday's conference call:
• Shaw addressed recent rumblings that Pro Elite has spent much more than it could ever recoup and is in danger of going under. A publicly traded company, Pro Elite has posted losses of $31.3 million through 2007. "Are we losing money? Yes, we're losing money," Shaw said. "Are we going to be here long term? Yes, we're going to be here long term. We're the only company out there that has a Showtime-type deal and a CBS deal. Nobody else has that to offer any athlete.
We're number two behind the UFC. We're Pepsi to Coke. We're Avis to Hertz. But that's not always a bad place to be. We were far away from them 16 months ago … but they better look in their rearview mirror, because we're on their right bumper."
• Burger King and Rockstar energy drink are among the main sponsors of EliteXC's foray into broadcast television on May 31. Both have sponsored UFC events in the past.
• On EliteXC's move into the pay-per-view market, Shaw said the company was not in a hurry. I do pay-per-views when they're worthy of pay-per-views and I'm not embarrassed to ask the fans for their money. I don't think you should be asking the fans for their money every single month: ‘Pay me to see my fighters.' I don't believe in that. We'll do a pay-per-view when we feel we have a fight that's worthy of pay-per-view, but not until then.
"There's a big misnomer out there about pay-per-view, that if you become a pay-per-view fighter, you've really arrived. A good pay-per-view today does a good 200 to 300,000 buys. This fight on May 31, has the ability to draw 100 million eyeballs. Live TV is the place to be. That's where the notoriety comes from, not pay-per-view. The pay-per-view model is for when you have the two right fighters and they can increase both the revenue for both the company and the fighters."
• On the recent announcement to exchange talent with the Japanese promotion Dream: "We loaned them Nick Diaz (Pictures) this past week," Shaw said. "They want to do more with us. They're starting to realize that we have athletes that can really fight. We're one of the few organizations that's willing to go out there and work with other organizations. I am hoping that they will allow us to bring to them some of our greatest women fighters."
• Shaw verified that fighters in EliteXC events will not be allowed to wear Affliction-branded clothing due to the clothing giant's decision to promote its own rival event on July 19. "I think they're gonna find out that they're better off in the clothing business," Shaw said. "Stick with what you know, stick with what you do best and don't try and be somewhere that maybe you shouldn't be. Maybe they'll do one or two fights. My prediction will be that they'll be back in the clothing business."
If Affliction leaves the promotional realm, Shaw said EliteXC fighters would be cleared to wear the popular sponsor's garb once again.
