EliteXC Re-Signs Slice, Carano, and Lawler To Long-Term Contracts
Fans can continue to expect to see mixed martial arts standouts and fan favorites Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano and Robbie Lawler fighting for Los Angeles-based ProElite, Inc.’s live fight division, EliteXC, for a long, long time.
“I am proud and very excited to announce that Kimbo, Gina and Robbie have all re-signed with us,’’ EliteXC Live Events President Gary Shaw said today. Terms of the long-term, multi-year agreements were not disclosed.
Kimbo, Carano and Lawler are three of EliteXC’s most popular, talented and exciting fighters and all will be featured Saturday, May 31, in the first of four prime time events on the CBS Television Network in 2008.
Kimbo (2-0) of Perrine, Fla., and Carano (5-0) of Las Vegas will face fighters to be announced while the exciting Lawler (15-4) of St. Louis will defend his EliteXC middleweight title against hard-hitting Scott “Hands Of Steel’’ Smith (15-4) of Sacramento, Calif., in a slugfest that figures to be non-stop, toe-to-toe action.
The official lineup for the historic MMA card, the first on network television, will formally be announced in the next few days. The highly anticipated event will emanate from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
“We’re extremely happy to get these deals done with Kimbo, Gina and Robbie,’’ Shaw said. “Fighters know EliteXC is the place to be and the organization to fight for, which is why we’ve always been able to sign or re-sign almost each and every one of our fighters.
“You don’t see our guys leaving. With us, it’s family and all about the fighters. Every fighter who has fought on an EliteXC card has come away being ambassadors for EliteXC.
“Kimbo has already become an MMA star due to his incredible popularity on YouTube. His backyard street fights are legendary. No question Kimbo has made a successful transition from Street to Elite and is on his way to becoming a superstar and world champion.
“Gina became an instant star after her first fight for EliteXC and has gone on to gain even more national prominence. She truly is the face of women’s MMA, an inspiration to many up-and-coming athletes and is a perfect illustration as to why women do indeed have a place in this sport and with EliteXC.
“Robbie’s nicknamed ‘Ruthless’ – what more you need to know? He’s tough, hard-nosed and always been highly regarded. EliteXC is extremely proud to have Robbie as its world middleweight champion. Robbie has shown time and again that he’s one of the most thrilling fighters in any weight class in MMA.
For sheer action and power, it doesn’t get better than ‘Ruthless’ Robbie Lawler versus Scott ‘Hands Of Steel’ Smith.’’
Tags: gina carano, kimbo slice, Robbie Lawler
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Gary Shaw is such a poser!!! You used to be primarly a Boxing Promotor who thought MMA was a joke. Now he has jumped all over the MMA bang wagon boy. You hardly ever here of him promoting boxing matches anymore. All of his well known super star boxer jumped ship and went with other promoters. With all that said, even though he gets on my nerves, he still did a good job in signing all three of these guys back to organization!
Sticking with a smaller organisation that profiles them heavily is a smart move for the fighters. I don’t see either of the guys having an option to sign something meaningful in the UFC or elsewhere and with CBS recently jumping into bed with EliteXC, Gary Shaw had to prove that he can deliver. The undisclosed details of the contract can likely be summed up as middle-tier talent being paid main-event dollars.
So far so good from Gary Shaw. He has signed some of the best in the world. He treats the “mid level” fighters much better than the UFC would and pays them better as well. I also liked the way he backed Diaz. The fight cards are decent and don’t cost me 40 bucks either.
I don’t like Elite XC, Gary opportunist I go back on what I say Shaw, Kimbo still a joke to MMA Slice and still I watch. Something must be working right.
Kimbo is hands down the best heavyweight in the world right now. His ground game is world class and his standup attack is unbeatable.
With Kimbo, elite XC is unstoppable !!
MMA LORD,
If you are not joking, I am pointing and laughing at you right now. If you are serious, I suggest you go watch WWE. I can think of 10 HW right now off the top of my head who would destroy Kimbo. Kimbo is still yet to fight a DECENT MMA opponent. Gary Shaw is protecting Kimbo by having him fight old bums to build up his name. I see right through this boxing business model.
WOW that didn’t take long !
I was just kidding and couldn’t agree more with you guys.
I’m happy to be part of an MMA site where no non-sense is tolerated……..
Again I say… Give Kimbo time.
I agree, he is garbage right NOW but he is new to the sport. Keep an open mind and look for how his game changes or improves.
If we dont see any change, Ill jump on the band wagon. If he shows improvement, he might be enjoyable to watch. Some people cant get over the hump and rely on their “one trick” while others were just born for fight and pick up new skills like kids pick up profanity.
Kimbo is to the elite Xc as brock lesnar is to the ufc they are only there to make the org’s money plain and simply but if anything brock lesnar is far worse MMA fighter the kimbo because hes only fighting because of he fame from wwe he only fought 2 mma fights and his only win is over KimMin Soo Kim with a record of 3 – 6 – 0. in k-1 then with one win inder his belt its time for the big league the UFC where he faced of with Frank Mir and was easily submitted early in round one. and for his loss was paid more the twice the amount of frank Mir. and now for his SECOND Fight hes fighting Mark Coleman (don’t get me wrong i like mark his a good fighter) but is at the ripe age of 43 and his last fight was almost 3 years ago in witch he lost to Fedor Emelianenko is even if he wins that what does that prove he can take on old men and kick his ass. Now look at Kimbo his fame comes from the web from underground street fights. so hes know for fighting so thats good and hes fighting in elitexc which by all means is a small time promotion so so you could still get away with calling him a amature fighter, currently training under MMA LEGEND Bas Rutten so if he keeps with the training will not be a one trick pony forever. so if you look at it that way both are not proven vets yet but its who stay’s in it for the long run that makes him a Real MMA Fighter.
I think it is sick that gina carano re-signed with an organization because she was off doing american gladiator. but i would rather see her doing real fighting in the cage. and that is one thing that the UFC is lacking is a womens division. i have only seen a handful of women MMA fights but they have all been crazy wars. UFC needs to get ontop of that!
Hi all great information here and good thread to comment on.
Can I ask though – how did you get this picked up and into google news?
Very impressive that this blog is syndicated through Google and is it something that is just up to Google or you actively created?
Obviously this is a popular blog with great data so well done on your seo success..
Thanks for the compliments.
I submitted it to Google News once we met their criteria which include being a news site, primarily at least, and having multiple authors.