The knives are out for Elite XC management
Published by on October 23rd, 2008 in Current Events

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By Zach Arnold

The only way things could get worse for Jeremy Lappen, Jared Shaw, Gary Shaw, and others associated with Elite XC is if they got sent to jail for ‘fixing’ a fight between Kimbo Slice & Seth Petruzelli on October 4th in Sunrise, Florida.

“I don’t have a smoking gun, (but) I’ve been around long enough, I’ve talked to enough people that were there, I won’t name names of executives in the company that I know—Seth was paid to stand up. I’m confident of that. If the commission wants to talk to me, I’ll tell them what I know.”

Those are the words of one T. Jay Thompson (in an interview with MMA Weekly), whose Icon Sport company was bought out by Pro Elite Inc. a year ago. Thompson is one of the most respected promoters and matchmakers in the MMA industry, as his long track record of success and accomplishment in the fight business is well-known. In other words, Thompson’s career is everything that Jeremy Lappen’s career hasn’t been.

When Icon Sport was bought out by Pro Elite, the idea was to create a worldwide talent feeder system for Elite XC. Pro Elite used stock and money to buy out Icon Sport, Cage Rage, Spirit MC, and King of the Cage. Each of these smaller MMA promotions had a track record of producing successful shows on a regional scale. Thompson’s Icon Sport promotion (he promoted Super Brawl before that) always did well in Hawaii. Before Pro Elite bought out Cage Rage, the promotion was drawing respectable crowds in Wembley and was clearly building something good for the UK MMA fans. Spirit MC was a growing promotion in South Korea that could have given Elite XC an ‘in’ into the Asian marketplace. King of the Cage, which is Terry Trebilcock’s set-up involving numerous licensed promoters, has always managed to run a boatload of MMA events in California, Nevada, and in Midwestern states. In other words, the crew of Thompson, Dave O’Donnell, Spirit MC, and Trebilcock all were bought out by Pro Elite. If you believe Thompson, then you will believe that Elite XC management choose to listen to everyone else but the regional promoters the company bought out in the first place. Brilliant.

Of course, Thompson is the only Elite XC official who is talking openly to the press these days. At Fight Opinion, we contacted a couple of Elite XC officials to come onto our radio show. They declined. You haven’t heard any public comments from “Smoothie King” Seth Petruzelli, Jeremy Lappen, Jared Shaw, or Gary Shaw. According to the Cage Potato web site, Jared Shaw has a voicemail message claiming that he won’t answer questions from the media. Gary Shaw, only a week after the LA Times described him as a consultant to Elite XC, denies that he was a consultant to the company and knows absolutely nothing about what is happening to Pro Elite Inc. right now. Lappen’s silence, however, is the most ironic given that it was his horrible attempts at damage control (along with the Smoothie King) that set the wheels in motion for public outcry in regards to the stand-up scandal.

History from past implosions in the fight business tells us that Thompson is not likely to be the only person speaking out about the mismanagement of Elite XC. However, Thompson raised the stakes higher by saying that he would be glad to talk to the Florida Boxing Commission in regards to the stand-up scandal. Sam Caplan, came out with an anonymously-sourced article stating that a source had approached him about a story regarding someone approaching Petruzelli to avoid giving Kimbo Slice thai-style kicks.

“For instance, separate sources informed Five Ounces of Pain last week that there was also a possibility that a deal had been struck preventing Petruzelli from using “Thai-style kicks on Slice, since he had not prepared for them leading up to the fight.”

What’s that all about? Somehow, I think a lot more individuals associated with Elite XC might be talking if the FBI was investigating this matter, which UFC President Dana White has called for.

The next big step for Pro Elite Inc. is bankruptcy court. Last September, CBS issued a secured loan of money to Pro Elite Inc. in exchange for first rights of purchasing the company’s assets should Pro Elite go bankrupt. Now that things are heading to bankruptcy court, what will CBS do? What will officials like Jeremy Lappen have to say for themselves? Lappen is a huge loser in this entire implosion of Elite XC. Dana White eviscerated Lappen in a recent Youtube video, in which White said that the implosion of Elite XC was Mr. Lappen’s third big bust in recent memory in the industry. (Lappen is a corporate lawyer who was an agent to fighters like Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, then became the boss of the now-defunct WFA, and now was at the helm for the implosion of Elite XC.) Will the media let Lappen quietly disappear into the background or will he receive further scrutiny from the press?

There’s also another interesting angle to the bankruptcy of Pro Elite Inc. that has not been addressed much at all in the media — the lawsuit filed by famous Brazilian fighter and promoter Wallid Ismail. Ismail sued Pro Elite Inc. after he claimed that Gary Shaw and those involved in the initial construction of Pro Elite Inc. stole production and business ideas that Ismail had been using for his Jungle Fight promotion. This includes the dragon-type entrance that Elite XC used for their Southaven, Mississippi event a couple of years ago. Ismail claimed in his lawsuit that he presented EXC officials with a plan on how to get into the MMA business and that all of his ideas were stolen without him. Will Ismail and his attorneys be able to get a lien attached to the proceeds from the bankruptcy court sale of Pro Elite’s assets?

Finally, think about the employees who worked for Elite XC tirelessly and put over the product to the best of their ability only to see everything blow up in their face. Both Turi Altavilla (office) and Mauro Ranallo (TV) worked for PRIDE and Elite XC, which happened to be the organizations with the two largest implosions in the history of Mixed Martial Arts. What about promoters like JD Penn, T. Jay Thompson, Dave O’Donnell, and Terry Trebilcock? How long will they be stuck in bankruptcy court before they can start promoting events again?

The only thing worse at this point for Elite XC is if a fighter stepped up and claimed that their paycheck bounced and that the money didn’t clear. The last thing you ever want to do is piss off a fighter by stiffing them on their paycheck. They’re the type of individuals that will come after you and get their money someway, somehow. Fighters are also very open to naming names in media interviews. Joey Villasenor was interviewed by Franklin McNeil of ESPN and said that he could have earned $60,000 USD ($30k to show + $30k to win) if he fought for Pro Elite on November 8th in Reno. Instead, Villasenor is stuck in limbo because his contract will be an asset in bankruptcy court. A lot of fighters are stuck in limbo. A lot of sad holiday moments coming up. A lot of angry fighters, who might be liable to make some statements and reveal some dark secrets about what really happened behind closed doors in Elite XC.