In response to recent reports of EliteXC President Gary Shaw’s possible departure from the promotion, MMARated conducted an interview with VP Jared Shaw. When asked whether Gary Shaw would be relieved of his EliteXC duties, Jared replied:

All the reports I have read have been absolutely erroneous. There’s no truth to CBS pushing Gary Shaw out or anything like that. Gary might not be as much in the limelight because of his other business, which is boxing. He’s also spending a little more time at home with the rest of his family. You’re going to see Jared Shaw everyday so you don’t have to think that Gary Shaw is gone. I don’t know why they would keep one Shaw and not another. We’re both here and Gary is still a major force. He’s still spoken to everyday…He’s a major part of this company and everything he’s done as a promoter we’ll continue to utilize and continue to follow his lead.

Among other things, Jared Shaw also addresses the rumors of CBS pressuring EliteXC to include Gina Carano on the July 26 card. Click on the link above to check out the interview in its entirety. Thanks to MMAPayout for the assist.

Earlier today, MMAPayout posted an article stating that Gary Shaw may have a very limited amount of time with ProElite:

Speculation within the MMA industry suggests that Gary Shaw’s days at ProElite may be numbered. Rumors suggest that Shaw may be out by the end of the summer, possibly soon after the July 26 CBS event. Multiple sources have told MMAPayout.com that the expected move is another example of CBS’s growing influence on the company. Santa Monica Capital Partners, the largest shareholder in the company, is also believed to have taken a more active role in the company of late.

As more news develops, Five Ounces of Pain will be on top of it. Special thanks to MMA Mania for the assist.

I’ve read numerous posts on message forums from some people that haver a problem with the underground that has been put together for “EliteXC: Primetime.” And that is understandable, considering that a lot of the names on the card are not yet well known nationally. However, that’s going to change, as fighters such as Matt Makowski, Wilson Reis, Jim Bova, Zach Makovsky, and James “Binky” Jones are all stars in the making. And regular readers of this site will know that they are all fighters that we’ve been talking about for quite some time.

The undercard you will see on Saturday was not put together for a national audience. With 12,000 seats to fill inside Newark’s Prudential Center, this undercard was clearly put together with the idea to sell tickets locally. And as far as regional cards go, this undercard is an All-Star lineup of most of the top fighters available in the New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia regions.

For the casual fan, there might not be a lot that appeals to you. However, if you are a hardcore fan, I strongly recommend you check out this show (starting at 7 p.m. ET on ProElite.com and CBSSports.com) because you are going to see some strong performances from some future stars.

Here’s my preview of the event and what I should you should look for:

(more…)

While this next piece of news will not interest the average fight fan, we do have a lot of people within the MMA industry that read this blog, and this blog post will certainly be of interest to them.

According to an SEC filing available on ProElite, Inc.’s corporate web site, Kelly Perdew has resigned as the president of ProElite.com.

The filing indicates that Perdew’s resignation will be effective May 20. No additional information pertaining to his departure has been made available.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the 41-year old Perdew was the winner of the second season of Donald Trump’s “Apprentice” reality television show on NBC.

During a post-fight press conference following Cage Rage 25 last Saturday night in London, EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw revealed that an announcement concerning a change with parent company ProElite’s Chief Executive Officer was about to be made by the company.

According to a recent SEC filing obtained by FiveOuncesOfPain.com (www.FiveOuncesOfPain.com) through ProElite’s corporate website, former Youbet.com CEO Charles Champion has been named ProElite’s new chief executive, replacing former CEO Doug DeLuca. DeLuca has been elevated to the position of Executive Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors and also its Chief Strategy Officer.

Champion, 53, began working with Youbet as its President in March of 2002 and was elevated to the position of CEO in December of that same year. He added the responsibilities of Chief Operating Officer in August of 2005. He resigned from the company on November 28, 2007.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

I became violently ill yesterday and still feel like dirt. Then I woke up this morning to find an article on the Southern Poverty Law Center website that reports that “White Nationalist” Melvin Costa competed for the King of the Cage promotion as recently as December:

Last Oct. 18, shortly after Costa’s comments and pictures of his tattoos were republished widely on MMA fan websites, Gary Shaw, the live events president of the parent company that owns King of the Cage, issued this statement: “I try not to allow anyone to fight in the cage or the ring that has anything inappropriate either on their gear or tattooed permanently on their body. And that means either ethnic, or racial, or anything offensive to the general public. I was unaware of the situation but I’m in the process of handling it now. Hopefully, it will never happen again.”

But it did, less than two months later. Costa fought in a King of the Cage event held last Dec. 18. For the first time, though, he lost. Davis, for his part, did not return two E-mails seeking clarification on his league’s regulation of fighters with “inappropriate” tattoos.

In light of what EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw told me back then, I can honestly say I feel even more sick than I already did.

Here’s what Shaw told me on the record when I interviewed him about the Costa situation last October:

“I was unaware of the situation (but) I’m in the process of handling it now,” he said. “Hopefully, it will never happen again.”

Yet even after being made aware of the situation ProElite chose to allow Costa to fight again for King of the Cage. In addition to the Southern Poverty Law Center report, a simple search of Sherdog.com’s Fight Finder shows that Costa competed on December 2 for King of the Cage, losing to Jason Jones when he submitted to an armbar at 4:18 of round 1.

Let me make it clear; I hold no ill will towards Costa (CLICK HERE to read my October interview with him). He’s entitled to his beliefs and is entitled to a right to fight so long as he’s licensed. However, I question ProElite’s judgment of allowing someone with a Swatiska on their chest to represent the company.

From a moral aspect, I think it’s wrong and it disgusts me. But I don’t want to make this about me because people are going to refer to my last name and somehow claim that I am biased (I can’t wait for the lovely Zionist references!). So let’s look at this from an aspect of corporate accountability. ProElite has major business relationships with both CBS and SHOWTIME. If King of the Cage was still an independent organization, I’d have no beef with the decision to allow Costa to fight, so long as he’s good enough. But KOTC is no longer an independent organization and falls under the corporate umbrella of ProElite.

Anytime you allow someone with a tattoo of a Swastika to represent your company, it comes with some major risks. Is allowing Costa to continue to compete for the promotion worth the potential backlash? Is Costa worth the possibility of losing deals with SHOWTIME and CBS? And don’t tell me I’m being melodramatic, if civil rights groups get a hold of the Costa situation you better believe SHOWTIME and CBS are going to hear about the situation and they could be pressured into doing something. If this story gains any traction whatsoever with the mainstream media, you better believe it’s going to cause damage to the company. ProElite had a chance to nip the situation in the bud, and they didn’t.

If you look at the decision to use Costa again after all of the original controversy ensued from a pure business perspective, it’s unacceptable. When you have a major corporate partner such as CBS, situations like this CAN’T HAPPEN.

I’ve asked the question before and I will ask it again, why would you allow someone with a Swastika tattooed to their chest to represent your company? Maybe I’ll get some answers during the course of the day.

Thursday’s announcement by ProElite that it had reached an agreement with CBS to televise four EliteXC events garnered a great deal of coverage in the mainstream press. And while we know a little more than we did when the initial report of the deal surfaced Wednesday, there still has not been a lot reported in regard to details pertaining to the deal.

On that note, I was able to speak with ProElite CEO Doug DeLuca, one of the main architects behind the deal, in an exclusive interview for ProElite.com (SamCaplan.ProElite.com).

Sam Caplan: How long has this deal been in the works?

Doug DeLuca: I would say it was in the works for a couple of months, somewhere in that neighborhood. We’ve been talking on and off for awhile. You have to remember that CBS was the second group to invest in ProElite, almost a year and a half ago. They believed in us as they believed in MMA all the way back then. They made the investment in us and they decided to put us on their SHOWTIME networks. I think they were very smart and I think that both SHOWTIME and CBS were both very visionary in the sense they were interested in the sport, they were bullish on the sport, and they wanted to see how it would go. They liked what we had to say but we were unproven at the time but they believed enough to stick their toe in the water and invest in the company and puts us on SHOWTIME. We all know that has been a big success, and now this. I think they were very smart and calculated in their approach to it and it has worked out well.

Sam Caplan: You mentioned that these negotiations had gone on for several months. Was there a specific turning point in the negotiations that possibly made CBS even more interested in doing a deal?

Doug DeLuca: There’s all kind of speculation. I would say the writers strike had a good hand in accelerating their idea to put it on the air. I think they see mixed martial arts and they get mixed martial arts. They’re bullish on it. I think the opportunity arose to do the deal with us. They were talking to other people and were looking around and from what I understand were in talks with our competitor and that obviously didn’t work out.

Sam Caplan: I know you can’t divulge too many details because ProElite is a publicly traded company, but there are some conflicting reports I wanted to ask you about. MMAPayout.com reported that it is rumored the deal with CBS will be a time buy while Dave Meltzer reported on Yahoo! that there will be a rights fee involved. Is EliteXC getting a rights fee for the CBS telecasts?

Doug DeLuca: The latter was incorrect. This is a license-fee deal. We’re getting a license-fee in order to put the show on the air. It’s a typical TV license-fee deal.

Sam Caplan: Who controls the selling of the advertising and sponsorships?

Doug DeLuca: CBS ad sales will be controlling that for the most part. There is some carve out in there where we will control some of the sponsorships, but for the most part, CBS ad sales.

Sam Caplan: In December, MediaPost reported that CBS and the UFC were close to a deal. You’ve had an insider’s perspective on these negotiations, do you feel those reports were accurate?

Doug DeLuca: Close is relative and I wasn’t involved in the discussions so it’s hard for me to say, but I believe they could be accurate, yes.

Sam Caplan: Some critics — and I’ve been one of them — have raised issues with EliteXC’s use of a DJ, dancers, and some other aspects if the shows. Has CBS asked EliteXC to make any modifications to the product they will be presenting on network TV?

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

The fighters for the EliteXC: “Street Certified” card successfully made weight last night at a Coral Gables, FL Holiday Inn.  The event itself will take place at Miami’s BankUnited Center with a main event featuring internet-star Kimbo Slice squaring off against MMA vet “Tank” Abbott. ProElite.com will be airing the preliminary card starting at 7:30pm ET, the main card will be aired on Showtime at 10:00pm ET/PT.

Weigh-ins for the 11-fight card went as follows:

MAIN CARD

Kimbo Slice (234) vs. Tank Abbott (263)
Antonio Silva (259.75) vs. Ricco Rodriguez (262.75)
Scott Smith (184) vs. Kyle Noke (184.75)
James Thompson (253) vs. Brett Rogers (264)
Edson Berto (158.25) vs. Yves Edwards (160)

PRELIMINARY CARD

Rafael Feijao (204.5) vs. John Doyle (203.25)
Jon Kirk (183) vs. Yosmany Cabezas (184.25)
Mario Rinaldi (260.5) vs. Dave Herman (242.5)
Eric Bradley (169.75) vs. Mikey Gomez (170)
Lorenzo Borgameo (170) vs. Mike Bernhard (169.5)
Moyses Gabin (203.75) vs. Jirka Hlavaty (210)

***Mikey Gomez and Kyle Noke both made their final weights on a second attempt.

Click here for fight results for EliteXC: Street Certified

After contacting EliteXC live events president Gary Shaw earlier in the day, FiveOuncesOfPain.com was able to reach ProElite CEO Doug DeLuca to get his public response to the recent controversy surrounding King of the Cage fighter Melvin Costa.

Photographs have surfaced online within the last 24 hours that depict a fighter believed to be Costa with a swastika tattooed to his chest.

DeLuca was quick to state that ProElite does not support neo-nazi ideology.

“ProElite as a company at the highest level condemns racism, antisemitism, Nazism, or any group that advocates hate,” said DeLuca. “The company condemns racism in any fashion.”

DeLuca also explained why pictures of Costa that showed him with the swastika tattoo on his chest were removed from ProElite.com.

“The pictures were taken off ProElite.com because we have a strict policy on the website that we do not put up any racist or antisemitic rhetoric of any kind.”

Also addressed was why Costa was even allowed to compete for King of the Cage in the first place after the promotion had been acquired by ProElite. DeLuca believes that Costa’s choice in body art slipped the cracks.

“From a standpoint of a public company, when we make acquisitions of organizations, we undertake a deep due-diligence process,” DeLuca said. “One of the things we don’t do, because it’s not common practice, is inspect tattoos on the body parts of independent contractors that work for organizations as fighters.

“We were as surprised as anybody else when this came out. We found out the same way as most everyone else did and it was shocking to us.”

DeLuca was asked whether Costa would be allowed to compete for ProElite-owned promotion again. He declined to go into great detail, citing the fact that the company was in the process of seeking legal counsel in regard to the matter.

“It terms of further action, we are consulting with various people and legal representatives right now to figure out what we’re going to do,” he said. “It all happened so quickly that we’re still formulating things.

“I don’t know Melvin Costa as a person. He’s entitled to do whatever he wants to do. Our affiliation with him is as an athlete and we are an athletic organization. We want this to be about athletics. We’re definitely not in the business of putting anything out to the public that’s offensive and we condemn racism in any form. We’re talking internally and we’ll see what the options are.”

Hat’s off to Fight Linker for coming across the above image and calling it to the public’s attention.

The image you are seeing above is believed to be of fighter Melvin Costa and that is indeed a swastika on his chest. I’m not even going to comment on the tattoo on his stomach.

According to Sherdog’s fight finder, Costa is 4-0 with all four fights having taken place in the last six months. He’s fought as recently as Oct. 7.

Do I know for a fact that Costa is a racist? No, I’ve never met the man and had a conversation about his thought on race relations in America but why else would someone have a tattoo of a swastika on their chest?

Free speech is protected in the United States under the first amendment of the constitution so Costa is entitled to his opinion, no matter how ignorant it might be. However, King of the Cage is now owned by ProElite, Inc. , which is a publicly traded company. A company has to be held accountable for the actions of their employees and the manner in which they represent the company. For PE to choose someone with a neo-nazi tattoo on his chest to represent them is both inexcusable and unacceptable.

Hopefully PE will respond to the massive amount of e-mail it’s receiving and choose not to allow Costa to continue to represent its company while also issuing a statement denouncing what his tattoo represents.

After a brutal TKO loss to Robbie Lawler last month, former EliteXC middleweight champ Murilo “Ninja” Rua, is looking to return to winning form against Frenchman Xavier Foupa-Pokam at Cage Rage 24 on December 1 in London, MMAWeekly reports.

“That wasn’t me,” who fans saw lose the EliteXC middleweight title to Lawler, Rua said. The Chute Boxe middleweight says that his stamina wasn’t what it should have been against Lawler and promises to be in the best shape of his life for Cage Rage 24.

“I know that Xavier Foupa-Pokam likes to stand up and punch,” Ninja told MMAWeekly. “It will be an electric fight for sure, the crowd will see a real war because I am going to war for this fight.”

Cage Rage 24 will be the promotion’s first event under the Pro Elite Inc. banner.

For more on this fight, as well as the rest of the Cage Rage 24 fight card, click here.

Dear Readers:

You may recall that I teased a big announcement last week on FiveOuncesOfPain.com. That announcement is that I’ve been hired by ProElite.com as their lead writer and editor on a full-time basis.

This was a huge move for me to make both on a personal and professional level, but it is one that I am very excited about. I was already very satisfied with where I was at and then out of nowhere I was presented with an opportunity to do some big things for one of the fastest growing companies in MMA. This is a an announcement that I am very happy about and I’m very appreciative of the fact that ProElite thought highly enough of me to want to bring me into the family.

I also realize that this announcement will no doubt raise valid concerns about my continued objectivity in regard to my coverage of MMA. In case you aren’t already aware, ProElite is the parent company of EliteXC. I wanted to take some time here and address some of the concerns that you may or may not have.

To read the rest of this story, click here.