It was announced at the press conference this past weekend for DREAM 3 that Pro Elite -- the parent company of Elite XC -- and DREAM have agreed to an alliance, if you will, and will work together to co-promote future events.
This news perhaps won't come as a surprise to most fans. Either because it was announced last week, or because we just saw three of Elite XC's biggest stars (Nick Diaz, Mayhem Miller and Eddie Alvarez) fight on the DREAM 3 card.
Here's a snip from ProElite executive William Kelly at the press conference via MMAWeekly.com:
"In the last year ProElite and EliteXC and other brands have made a lot of progress, and some of our progress is due in part to our relationship with FEG and now with Dream. We are sharing fighters. We are sharing referees. We intend to do co-promotions with Dream both in Japan and in the U.S."
This appears to be a win-win situation for both organizations. Elite XC gets more world class-caliber fighters to put together better match ups with its already growing cast of stars. And DREAM will get to possibly leverage Elite XC's television deals with CBS and Showtime as a platform to develop a bigger fan base in the United States and beyond.
There's already talk about Nick Diaz fighting for the DREAM welterweight belt against Mach Sakurai, we all know how well Eddie Alvarez is doing in the lightweight grand prix, and Mayhem Miller put on a show for the Japanese faithful at DREAM 3 -- he'll certainly be a crowd favorite over there.
Putting on my matchmaker cap for a minute, here's sort of a fantasy lineup of what an Elite XC and DREAM co-promoted event could look like:
Kimbo Slice vs. Mirko Cro Cop
Nick Diaz vs. Mach Sakurai
Denis Kang vs. Mayhem Miller II
Paul Daley vs. Joachim Hansen
Eddie Alvarez vs. JZ Calvancante
Sakaraba vs. Frank Shamrock
Jake Shields vs. Shinya Aoki (catchweight)
Jacare Souza vs. Ninja Rua
Yves Edwards vs. Caol Uno II
That was fun, but as you can see the possibilities (or is it fantasies?) are endless. Kudos to both organizations for joining forces -- it should be great for the fans and the sport.
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