OVER BEFORE IT EVER STARTED

By Ben Miller

“Greed is Good,” may be Gordon Gekko’s great contribution to popular culture, but his misquotation of Sun Tzu was far more profound: “Every battle is won before it is ever fought.”  It may not be a literal translation of that epic treatise of conflict, The Art of War, but it is apropos when discussing the demise of EliteXC.

EliteXC is dead, and it has nothing to do with Seth Petruzelli.  Nothing to do with Ken Shamrock and certainly nothing to do with CBS television executives.  EliteXC is dead because, to quote Dana White, “they built a fighting company around a guy who can’t fight.” 

The minute Gary Shaw made the decision to build the promotion around Kimbo Slice, the battle was lost.  EliteXC was doomed not only to failure, but to its place in history as the company that set back MMA’s reputation within the sporting world.  Now the curmudgeons of that world can add “corrupt” to “barbaric”, “bloodthirsty” and the other pejoratives they routinely toss around.  Yes, it’s quite the legacy.

It is true that Elite XC shouldn’t have crashed this suddenly.  If Seth hadn’t been hungover…  If Ken didn’t roll…  If Frank would’ve been picked…  If CBS would’ve been more patient…  It did take a near-mystical confluence of bad luck to drown EliteXC so soon after such a widely viewed show. 

The fall of EliteXC was, however, inevitable.  When you promote the wrong way, you die.  There are always going to be stories of short-term success, but in the end the only way to make money promoting MMA is to plan properly and promote the right way.

The actual quote from The Art of War that WALL STREET’s Mr. Gekko is referring to is rather instructive: “The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought.”  So too for promoters.  He who plans his business carefully wins.  He who tries to cash in loses.

A look at MMA’s promotional history reveals much about what works and what doesn’t.  Regional teams in a combat sport?  Bad idea.  Local fighters with a connection to their home city?  Good idea.  Curiosity-stoking gimmick fighters?  Bad idea.  Story-backed professional fighters?  Good idea.  And so on.

In the end, EliteXC may have been the rare victim of adopting the pro wrestling mentality in the real world of sports.  The storytelling surrounding sporting figures like Manny Ramirez and Terrell Owens often leads to great returns.  EliteXC took it too far, though.  While pro wrestling companies can survive – even frequently thrive – with mediocre workers in main event positions, real sports need real players.  Kimbo Slice, though an admirable student of the fight game from all accounts, is simply not a real player.  Promoting him as such could have no positive long-term effect.  This ain’t Terry Funk getting a bunch of indy workers over on guile in ECW.  This is Willie Mays stumbling around center field in the World Series.

So what now for MMA?  More importantly, what now for the non-UFC wing of MMA?  While UFC’s status as the top dog is hard-earned and well deserved, the situation at hand is that competing promotions are at a tremendous disadvantage.  Add to that the fact that EliteXC’s shoddy promotional skills are doubly damaging for the little guys because there are likely to be fewer widely viewed outlets willing to take a chance on second class MMA. 

The little guys – and this includes Strikeforce and Affliction – now must be especially prudent.  Good fights, great stories and something unique is what’s called for.  The pro wrestling mindset of pushing money fighters without enough regard for ability killed EliteXC.  It can kill others, too.

All of this is not to say that pro wrestling principles have no place in MMA.  A cursory look at UFC’s most successful fights prove otherwise.  But gleaning the right lessons from pro wrestling is important.  You can’t promote freaks, but you can promote personalities.  You can’t fix fights, but you can book interesting matchups.  You can’t beat the 800-pound gorilla when it’s on a roll, but you can survive as an alternative choice.

As with EliteXC, underdog promotions will ultimately choose their own destiny.  UFC appears indomitable today, but all powers hit peaks and valleys before their eventual sunset.  The UFC of 2008 promotes great fighters in interesting matchups.  That’s a recipe for success, but greed, hubris or stubbornness could eventually foul things up.  The EliteXC of 2008 promoted mediocre fighters in circus matchups.   That’s a recipe for failure, and media attention, television exposure and a forgiving MMA press could not save them.  MMA promoters, take heed.  The choices you make today will ultimately determine the result of your battle.

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