Another UFC Fighter Gleeful In EliteXC Demise, Plus: Kimbo Slice As Tiger Woods?

In what is becoming an almost daily occurrence, we have yet another figure in the MMA world taking a big shit on the business model of EliteXC and its parent company ProElite, which for a hot minute had been considered a strong competitor to the UFC juggernaut.
Today it’s Jorge Gurgel, who will square off against Aaron Riley Saturday night at UFC 91 in Las Vegas. In a wide-ranging interview, Gurgel discusses the logic of building a company around a guy like Kimbo Slice, who went from fighting at barbecues to headlining nationally-televised cards in a matter of months.
As you can imagine, he’s against it.

Yeah, but there’s a big difference between the two. And, I do not want to be misquoted here. EliteXC is literally doing wrong and shady things in the sport of mixed martial arts on live television. But, the TUF show is just a TV show. Just a reality television show. They are two different things completely.

Now, that’s reality television. And, for the average American or whatever, that appeals to them, I guess. But, at EliteXC there’s nothing worse than the joke of Kimbo Slice. A guy that got famous fighting in the streets of Miami for money, beating up people on the Internet, and he becomes huge, huge MMA figure. A figure of mixed martial arts? A representative of our sport? Selling fights and making sponsorship money from Tapout and getting paid $500,000 to fight? And, with no real training? Come on, I have been fighting for fifteen years.

Gurgel goes on to state that EliteXC was “living off the myth of Kimbo Slice.” It might seem pretty damn mean of the entire MMA world to celebrate the ProElite demise in the manner they are, but hey, it’s not like EliteXC wasn’t asking for it. Take, for example, this video unearthed by the people at FanHouse, in which ProElite’s Gary Shaw compares the very green Slice, who at this point had only fought professionally once, to Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan.

Well, the Chicago Bulls didn’t go out of business after a loss to Golden State. Given the unbridled hubris here, is it any wonder that the MMA world is giddy at EliteXC’s destruction?
UFC’s Gurgel: If I had to corner myself, I would have a heart attack. [Fighters.com]
EliteXC: Gary Shaw Compared Kimbo Slice to Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan [FanHouse]
Image [Cage Potato]