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- quoted from adiamondsoul on 11 Oct 2007, 11:54:10

 What do you foresee for EliteXC? If you were asked, what would your advice be to EXC?

EliteXC are doing a lot of things right but they aren't perfect. There are a bunch of things where I think they need to improve but it seems like they are on top of a lot of it and those things will be worked out.

The two biggest changes I see that need to be made:

1) Take care of brand identity issues - It's very confusing to the novice fan in regard to ProElite, Inc., ProElite.com, EliteXC, ShoXC, and Showtime. That's overload. From the inside, it's easy to understand that ProElite, Inc. is the parent company and EliteXC and ProElite.com and the twin-sibling companies and that both are separate business entities with different objectives. But not everyone can see things from the inside.

I'd re-brand ProElite.com to a name that didn't contain "Pro Elite" in it. If it's a separate play from the fight promotion, then a lot of people would perceive it differently if there was a clearer distinction.

I'd re-brand EliteXC into just three letters "EXC." I'd also keep the ShoXC concept and do away with the name. I realize they are trying to build off the ShoBox brand but a lot of MMA fans don't follow boxing so the correlation is lost on them. I'd have the big shows be EXC while the smaller shows contain the EXC letters in the title but have some sort of moniker attach to it. Something like "EXC: Elite Challenger Series."

2. Build more new stars. EliteXC has so many resources at it's disposal yet I feel there isn't enough synergy that exists between EliteXC and Showtime in promoting guys as new stars. I didn't see a promotional push for Nick Diaz's last fight until a week before his fight on 9/15. It seems like more if being done across the ProElite platform to get him more attention but I'd like to see them have Nick do even more interviews outside of ProElite. Whenever he talks people talk about it.

I like how ProElite.com has gone about promoting Mayhem Miller. I'd like to see EliteXC promote guys they have under contract in a similar manner. Let everyone know who these guys are. Aaron Rosa is a good example. He's got a lot of potential and is now also part of Team Punishment. Let's see the video of his first ShoXC fight made available on EliteXC.com and let's see some interviews. Maybe he's not a big enough star for the major media players but I know a lot of the blogs would jump at the chance to talk to him.  You've got to start somewhere. Maybe the blogs won't make him an instant star but it'll create some momentum and that momentum will only build over time.

I also think on the Showtime telecasts that there needs to be a better job of story-telling. Fighters are very unique and there have been some interesting personalities on the EliteXC cards. I'd like to see the Barker/Countdown shows and vignettes delve more into the human-interest side of the fighters and the lives they lead away from the cage. For example, Jake Shields was raised by hippies and was home schooled until he was in junior high school. He's been a lifelong vegetarian and growing up he had to hike 45 minutes to hang out with friends. I'd like to see something like that explored more.

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