K-1 ANNOUNCES SHOWTIME EVENT & NEW ALLIANCES

By Ken Pishna

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. – Officials from FEG (the parent company of K-1), EliteXC, and Showtime announced today, not only their plans for a ground breaking event on June 2nd, but also several new alliances around the world.

Doug DeLuca, EliteXC’s CEO, verified what MMAWeekly had reported last week, that the K-1/EliteXC co-promoted event on June 2nd will actually be two shows in one. The first portion, the EliteXC portion of the show, will consist of a one-hour special that will air on Showtime’s premium channel and will serve as a lead-up to the K-1 portion of the show, which will air on a pay-per-view broadcast that will be distributed by Showtime PPV.

As previously reported, the event will be held at the 92,000-seat capacity Los Angeles Coliseum.

In DeLuca’s own words, “There are many, many historic events that will happen on June 2nd. This will be the largest MMA event to ever take place on U.S. soil. It is taking place at the L.A. Coliseum.”

“We will be doing two separate shows out of this one event,” explained the EliteXC exec. “We will be doing a one-hour special Showtime presentation, which will be free to Showtime subscribers. It will be called EliteXC Dynamite USA. And then immediately following, Showtime will be pushing viewers to the pay-per-view event… called Pro Elite Presents Dynamite USA.”

The televised events of June 2nd, featuring a fight between Brock Lesnar and Hong-Man Choi as well fights involving MMA legend Royce Gracie and former NFL player Johnnie Morton, were only half of the focus of today’s press conference.

Perhaps just as interesting was the inclusion of various new collaborators in the Pro Elite movement to unite MMA forces in a stand against the UFC/Pride juggernaut.

DeLuca explained, “From the moment that Pro Elite was conceived, we’ve always said that in order to grow this sport, it will take collaborativeness, it will take inclusiveness, and it will take the willingness of other organizations to work together, to cross-promote, and to ultimately create a true world championship system. This is a major step in that direction. This is a major step in the continuation of the next generation of mixed martial arts.”

Following his words into the winds outside the L.A. Coliseum, several collaborators were announced. Adding to the conglomeration of Showtime/Pro Elite/EliteXC and FEG/K-1 were Strikeforce, BodogFight, Cage Rage, and Spirit XC.

Both Cage Rage, the most prominent fight brand in Europe, and Spirit XC, the largest promotion in South Korea, were represented at the press conference.

Andrew Geer and Dave O’Donnell, who head up Cage Rage, were enthusiastic about the collaboration: “Thank you so much to all the partners in the newly formed alliance for inviting us over here. We’re very proud to be part of this event… It’s a fantastic time.”

Also in attendance was Kwong Park from SpiritMC, who said, “I am really glad to be here to join the alliance.”

Summing up this new alliance, DeLuca said, “This sport will be an Olympic sport. This sport will have world cup champions. This sport will have true world champions… A collaboration means that we share fighters… This alliance speaks to everyone working together to make this a better place for the sport and a better place for the fighters… It’s a way to help other people succeed in the sport. It doesn’t need to be just one…”