ProElite Chairman Doug DeLuca clarifies Gary Shaw’s current role

During a recent conference call to promote EliteXC’s return to CBS during “Saturday Night Fights” on July 26, ProElite Chairman Doug DeLuca was asked to clarify EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw’s role with the company. In recent months, several reports have leaked that indicated that Shaw was not working for the promotion in a reduced role.

Based on DeLuca’s comments, those reports appear to be accurate to some degree.

“Gary is still very involved with ProElite,” DeLuca stated, before continuing. “Gary and our team from day one at ProElite basically took MMA at our company from ground zero to a huge network success. So, Gary’s got a lot to be proud of in the MMA world. In the process of doing it, as you can imagine, Gary being from the East Coast and we being a West Coast company, took a lot of time from Gary. He was traveling non?stop. It took a toll on his boxing business, which is very successful and it took a toll on his family. To some degree, it took a toll on his health. We collectively made the decision that Gary was going to back off a little bit, kind of take a little bit of a relaxed role as far as being involved front and center, which is a good thing for all those three things, for his health, for his boxing business, and for his family. But Gary is still very much involved and I still talk to him almost every day. He’s still there. Gary’s interest still lies in EliteXC and ProElite, making it a top organization in the world. That’s the status with Gary.”

DeLuca was then asked a followup, in which a reporter wanted more definition of what Shaw’s current role with the company is.

“Gary is still, like I said, majorly involved,” DeLuca responded. “I would say he’s more or less consulting in terms of all his promoter abilities, all his contacts and everything Gary does. So Gary is kind of behind the scenes with us, kind of shaping the direction of the company, the way it’s going, pulling the strings in terms of how we’re going to promote, what we’re going to do. Again, his involvement is very much similar to what it’s always been. The difference is, he’s not going to be front and center, doing all the time?consuming stuff that he’s done in the past.”