Tuesday’s CBS Announcers’ Call Transcript: Gus Johnson, F. Shamrock, Doug DeLuca

Posted on | July 18, 2008 | No Comments

CBS TELEVISION NETWORK

Moderator: Mitch Graham

July 15, 2008

Operator: Good day and welcome to the press conference call for CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights. Today’s conference is being recorded (replay info at bottom of transcript).

At this time, I’d like to turn the conference over to Mr. Mitch Graham. Please go ahead, sir.

Mitch Graham: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today’s conference call for CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights.

We will have to two members from our announce team on the call today, Gus Johnson is on the call and Frank Shamrock is currently receiving a bone scan but will be joining us here on the call.

Just a couple of things. As you guys know, our second primetime MMA broadcast on CBS is happening on Saturday July 26th live from the Stockton Arena in Stockton, California. We have a – as I’m sure most of you have seen we have a little bit of a unique programming model for this – second broadcast. SHOWTIME’s going to kick off the night from 8-9 p.m. (ET/PT) with three fights and then followed by the primetime CBS broadcast with four fights from 9-11 p.m. (ET/PT) so it should be a fun, very exciting evening on both SHOWTIME and CBS. The four fights to CBS broadcast obviously going to be highlighted by the rematch between “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler and Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith, again, for the EliteXC middleweight title.

At this point, I’d like to turn it over to our Executive Chairman of ProElite, Mr. Doug DeLuca.

Doug DeLuca: Great. Thank you very much, Mitch. I appreciate it. And thanks, everyone, for coming on to the call. I want to thank the ladies and gentlemen of the press. As always, we appreciate your interest and we appreciate you writing about us. So thank you.

As Mitch said, we’re very excited to be doing our second installment of CBS EliteXC Saturday Night Fights (coming) on the heels of what we feel was a very, very successful first outing. We wanted to follow it up with just as much jam-packed action and a world-class fight card and we just wanted to keep the momentum going. As most of you know, the event on May 31st on CBS that we did was the first primetime event ever (and) was the most highly rated MMA television show in the U.S. We’re just very excited about that and what was done there.

One of the things that’s exciting to us is the fact that we gained – we think – in addition to the hardcore fans that came out to watch that night, a lot of new fans to the sport . This is a great sport, mixed martial arts, for those who sometimes get confused, but we think we gained a lot of new fans and the good part was they stuck around and they watched. I give kudos to the NFL. The NFL did a great job of teaching people how to watch football and that was important because it drew people in, it helped people understand what’s going on. (I think we did a great job of educating the newer fans the first show.)

Mixed martial arts is that kind of sport. It’s the kind of sport that anyone who has taken the time to actually watch it and accept it has immediately become a fan, (has) immediately been drawn into it and a lot of that comes with understanding what’s going on and it’s not just about two athletes in there kind of slugging it out — it’s about athletes that are very calculated, very disciplined — world-class athletes that are maneuvering and playing a big game of chess, one big beautiful dance, as Frank Shamrock likes to say, trying to get position and trying to beat their opponent. (MMA fighters are) true warriors.

It is important people understand what’s going on. The more they understand, the more into it they become and the better fan they become, and that starts and kind of ends with the announce team. Among the many things that we were thrilled with — and probably high up on the list — was the announce team that we put together with CBS and SHOWTIME for the May 31st event.

Gus Johnson, Frank Shamrock, Mauro Ranallo and Karyn Bryant were a fabulous mix of people and various experiences from various walks of life. They made an amazing announce team. And for the first time out of the gate, all you guys know – I mean the press — you guys attention to all different announcers and all different events — it’s tough for a team that’s working together for the first time to come out and be a cohesive unit. (But) these guys came out of the box and they just knocked it out of the park.

I was sitting ringside, but I was listening to the announcers. It was a pleasure; Frank being a legend, Gus being a world-class broadcaster, Karen being a premiere entertainment reporter and Mauro Ranallo just being an amazing fan and amazing book of knowledge of the sport of mixed martial arts. They all have a knack for speaking to everyone. They speak to the hardcore fan, they also speak very openly and very understandably to the new fan, and they’re very cognizant of it, they’re very, very good at it, the flow was amazing and I’m just thrilled to have them part of No. 2. We’re excited. We’re ready for July 26th (with a great card that includes) three title fights.

(The show is) 9-11 p.m. on CBS, 8-9 p.m. on SHOWTIME. That’s a first; the first time mixed martial arts starts on premium television, premium cable, and then moves to a broadcast network in primetime. So we’re really excited about that. We have a great fight card. We came back with a strong world-class fight card and we’re going to Stockton, Calif., which is a great MMA town, at the beautiful new Stockton arena and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

Once again, I want to thank you all for coming today.

Operator: Today’s question-and-answer session will be conducted electronically. We’ll go first to Neil Best with “Newsday”.

Neil Best: Gus, do you think in some ways this telecast will be even more important (than the last) and only because it’ll be an opportunity to kind of see who you’ve retained and what kind of audience you can build in the long term for this type of event?

Gus Johnson: Well, I think you may say that. I think this is going to be a show that really caters to the hardcore MMA fan because you’re going to see a lot of great jui-jitsu — you’re going to see Jake Shields and Jake is a black belt in Brazilian jui-jitsu and he is on a roll, won nine in a row. Nick Diaz, he’s another great Brazilian jui-jitsu guy.

On the SHOWTIME show, you’re going to see Antonio “Big Foot” Silva, who’s also a world-class jui-jitsu fighter. So we’re going to get an opportunity to see if people stick around. I think they will and I think they’re going to see a different kind of show, All in all, once Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith enter the cage, I think it’s going to be an opportunity for the world once again to see mixed martial arts at a very high level or the highest level and I really think it’s going to be exciting.

Operator: We’ll go next to Doug Jeffrey with “Ultimate Grappling”.

Doug Jeffrey: Gus, are you feeling any pressure as an announcer to present the sport to the mass group of viewers?

Gus Johnson: I think I feel the same pressure that I feel whenever I step in front of a microphone, whether it be pro football or college basketball or pro basketball. My job is to go out there and to try to know as much as I can about the great athletes that are performing and try to tell their stories and try to make a connection with the fans that are tuning in.

I think mixed martial arts is a great sport. What I’m excited about from a personal standpoint more than anything is that it’s new to network television and I’m getting an opportunity to introduce it to people that normally don’t watch mixed martial arts. I want to do my best and I want to make sure that I can scratch the surface as much as possible and that’s why in my preparation I just try to make sure that I’m doing everything that I can do to be able to tell the best stories regarding these incredible warriors.

Doug Jeffrey: Can you compare mixed martial arts to the other sports you announce? Is it harder to announce, is it easier, or is it not even a fair comparison?

Gus Johnson: No, you can compare. For me, I grew up playing football, I grew up playing basketball, I grew up playing baseball, and hockey, and all those different sports. I was a wrestler as a kid. The difference though with mixed martial arts is you’re combining five different styles: boxing, traditional western boxing, submission wrestling, jui-jitsu and Kung Fu. When you go out there and you watch one of these events you’re going to see guys that have different disciplines and they’re using these different disciplines so the challenge is to be able to explain what’s going on.

And especially from the jui-jitsu side; I think the jui-jitsu side is what makes it really, really wonderful. I also love the Muay Thai side as well with the cut kicks and the front kicks and the roundhouses and the spinning back fists and the elbows and all those kind of things.

And then you have clinch fighting and that’s a whole different dynamic as well. So it’s different for me. It’s challenging because the jui-jitsu side, the Muay Tai side, are new sports for me or new art forms for me that I’m trying to learn as I go on, but I think that in time, not only with me but with the people that watch on a regular basis and with the people that are new fans to mixed martial arts this is – these are going to be household terms and slogans. Watching a mixed martial arts fight is going it be a norm I believe in the upcoming future.

Doug Jeffrey: Gus, your bio indicates you’re now studying some of the ground fighting. Does that give you a greater appreciation of what those guys do inside the ring?

Gus Johnson: Oh, my goodness, I can’t even tell you. You’re absolutely . . .

Doug Jeffrey: Yes.

Gus Johnson: … right. I go to class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the Renzo Gracie Academy in Manhattan. My teacher is a black belt in Brazilian jui-jitsu and – like, for example, yesterday we were working on escaping rear naked chokes and also applying rear naked chokes. We’re also working on our backs and trying to escape side position, but at the same time when we have side position trying to establish the leverage to either get your knee on top of your opponent’s chest by grabbing his belt and grabbing the back of his (gi) and then getting your knee on his chest and either choking him out or setting him up for an arm bar.

So I really have a great appreciation for this art form. It’s the kind of art form that takes a lot of practice. I’m getting in incredible shape – better shape than I’ve probably been in my life and I’m going to be 41 years old on Aug. 10. It’s a wonderful sport and I would encourage all moms and dads to get their kids involved in jui-jitsu and in martial arts in general. This is a wonderful time for me in my career.

Doug Jeffrey: Now having done this, would you – could you – if you could go back in time, desire to participate in mixed martial arts because you have that sports background?

Gus Johnson: That’s very interesting. I wanted to box when I was a young – I was a wrestler as a kid among other sports. Mixed martial arts – to say whether or not I would like to compete, that’s a whole different mentality. I’ve never had that kind of warrior mentality from a professional standpoint. I don’t know. I mean, it’s a very interesting question because what I’m finding in terms of the jui-jitsu side, I’m good and I’m going to be much better. But would I want to go out there and risk my life or risk really getting hurt, I don’t know, but what I can say is I have a great appreciation for any man or woman that walks in that cage.

Operator: We’ll go next to Tom Hoffarth with “Los Angeles Daily News.”

Tom Hoffarth: Gus, from the feedback that you got from the first telecast did you get a feeling the average viewer figured out what was going on as well as the hardcore fan and if there was any negative feedback like, oh, this was too barbaric, I couldn’t watch, were you able to understand that and sort of tell the person just give it a little more time and you’ll get into it?

Gus Johnson: Oh, I got great feedback. A lot of people came to me and said they watched. I had guys come to me and say ‘I didn’t like that mixed martial arts stuff but I sat there not only by myself but I sat there with my entire family and we watched the entire show from the very beginning until the very end and it was barbaric, it was bloody, but for some reason, we all liked it. We saw the brilliance and the genius in it on a number of different levels.’

I mean, everybody’s talking about James “Colossus’’ Thompson and how Kimbo hit him in that ear and that’s probably one of the most passed around or downloaded pieces of video on YouTube. So the criticism was that it was too barbaric, that it was too violent, but at the same time, I think people understand that mixed martial arts — because it combines so many different styles — is a simulation. As a matter of fact, the New York Times after the show had an article about how the United States Army is starting to conduct mixed martial arts’ demonstrations and starting to allow their soldiers to train in mixed martial arts for combat purposes.

So this is a very important sport for us especially where we are right now in our country, and I think that mixed martial arts is a necessity. It’s important for us to see how men fight on the ground, how men not only use their hands but how they can use their legs, their knees, their elbows, So I think that the people watching it appreciate it. I think we got more positive responses – as a matter of fact, I know we got more positive responses. People said they actually had fun watching it. When the girls got in there, it showed the warrior spirit of the ladies as well with Gina Carano. All in all, I would say 80/20 thought that it was a great experience.

Operator: We’ll go next to Eddie Constantine with “Pro MMA”.

Eddie Constantine: Doug, what is EliteXC’s timeframe for implementing the new weight classes set forth by the ABC?

Doug DeLuca: We’re discussing it right now. We are happy with our weight classes at the moment, but yet, we, ProElite, understand the need for kind of a unified system. From day one, we’ve shown that we are about working with other organizations and we’re committed to creating a true world championship system. So, we know the only way to do that is to work together with everyone. We haven’t really made a final decision, but we expect to do so in the near future here.

Operator: We’ll go next to Nick Solomon with JabsNGrabs.com

Nick Solomon: How long have you been studying jui-jitsu?

Gus Johnson: I’ve been studying jui-jitsu probably since I got this assignment so I think it’s in the three-month range. I also studied Kung Fu. I’ve been doing that. I’m in my third year and I’ve been a western boxer for about seven years.

Nick Solomon: What motivated you to study each one of these disciplines?

Gus Johnson: Well, as a kid, as I said, I was a wrestler and a very good wrestler, a eastern conference second place which was one of the championships in AAU as a kid and had a chance to wrestle in the Junior Olympics in Omaha, Nebraska, but back then, my dad couldn’t get off from work to make the drive from Michigan. So I’ve always been interested in combat sports.

And as I got older after playing baseball in college I came to New York and I wanted to make sure that I stayed fit and I started boxing prior to that. I’d studied Aikido in Washington, D.C. and Tai Kwan Do. After boxing for a certain amount of years, I wanted another challenge so I started participating in Xingyi, which is one of the Chinese martial arts of Xingyi Kung Fu; Xingyi, Bagua, Tai Chi being the three internal martial arts. And then I received this assignment to participate in MMA through CBS and with ProElite and when I started watching the tapes I realized that there was no way in the world that I could give an accurate depiction of what was going on if I didn’t really understand what was going on from a fighter’s perspective — when the fight hit the ground. I literally live eight blocks away from the Renzo Gracie Academy which is one of the top Brazilian jui-jitsu academies in the world so I figured that for me personally because of the way I like to approach it that it would behoove me to go out there and start participating, and lo and behold, I didn’t realize how difficult it was, but at the same time, I didn’t realize how addictive it can become as well. So that’s kind of how I ended up here.

Nick Solomon: Doug, the last time with the CBS show it kind of ran over and some people that did not set their DDR or TiVo properly were not able to watch the show (in its entirety). What preparation have you or CBS taken to ensure that something like that won’t happen with this

Doug DeLuca: I’ll tell you a quick, funny story and then I’ll give you the real answer. Right after the fight I was talking to my friend, Adam Carolla, the radio talk show host. Adam’s an avid sports fan and Adam watched the fights and he felt very vindicated that he was able to TiVo the whole thing, and the lesson he imparted to me was that he didn’t understand why avid sports fans don’t realize that sporting events can go over, So when you TiVo a sporting event, TiVo the next program and maybe even the second program after that because then you’re going to be sure to get the whole program. So I thought those were very wise words for sport fans watching live events.

But on a serious note, look we know we went over and we were I think prepared to go a little bit over, but it did go excessively over and it’s not going to happen again. I mean, the one thing that I think we — CBS and the SHOWTIME production team and ProElite — did when we walked away from that is that we listened to what all the fans were saying, the hardcore and the casual and the new fan. And the main complaint I believe was the pacing.

I mean, everyone thought it could have moved much quicker, everyone wanted to get down to the business and get down to the fights much quicker, and that’s something that we’re just very, very cognizant of going into this one. So we put together again a world-class card, two title fights on the CBS show, one title fight on SHOWTIME show, and we’re just very, very aware of the pacing and you’re going to see a lot more action and a lot quicker..

Operator: Thank you. We’ll go next to Dann Stupp with MMAjunkie.com.

Dann Stupp: Doug, how are ticket sales and do you expect this event to be a sellout?

Doug DeLuca: Yes, for sure. I mean, look, we went to Stockton for a number of important reasons, but one important reason is, Stockton’s a great MMA town and turns out great fighters from that area and from close by. On this card alone, you have three somewhat local favorites. You have Nick Diaz, who is almost legendary status in Stockton, and he’s from Stockton and he trains in Stockton; you have Jake Shields, of San Francisco, who’s also one of the best in the world in his weight class and trains with Jake in Stockton at times; and you have Scott Smith, who’s right around the corner from Elk Grove, near Sacramento, and another world-class fighter fighting in the main event of the evening for a belt. So you have three very, very strong local draws, .

You (also) have the power of the EliteXC brand that is gaining a lot of notoriety in the MMA space thanks to our last event and to all the events we do on SHOWTIME and around the world. So we expect it to be a sellout. It will be a sellout. That stadium will be full. It seats 10,000 people. We’ll probably have it scaled somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000 but it will be full and the ticket sales are going great. I mean, they’re right on track. We have a meeting about it today to get a report.

After the last two weekends ago, (right before the) holiday weekend, things were going as planned but not gangbusters and then right after the holiday weekend things picked up amazingly. So we’re really excited, and like I said, that stadium will be full and will be rocking.

Dann Stupp: Kind of given the fact that you do have so much talent and the sales apparently are going to well, could we see you guys returning (to Stockton), or are you ready to find new places to go to?

Doug DeLuca: I think it’s the mixture of both. I mean, if you go somewhere and it’s a successful event for you, you definitely want to go back. We do enough events. I mean, we do a minimum of one big TV event a month. With all the brands we own, King in the Cage, Cage Rage in London, SpiritMC in Korea, Icon Sport and Rumble on the Rock, in addition to EliteXC, so our organization does over 80 events a year. So that’s a lot of ground that we can cover. And with at least one, sometimes two, televised events a month if a – if a city is good to us, we will definitely go back to that city in the course of the following year, maybe twice in the course of that year.

But to your point, you want to spread it around, you want to grow the brand in different markets, you want to go to places that have only been able to watch the great sport of MMA on TV and want to witness it at a high, premium level in person. So you want to go to those different cities. So, we’ll see how Stockton does. I think it’s going to be great for us.

But Sacramento’s a great city. San Jose, which we’ve been to twice and practically sold out the HP Pavilion, has been a great city. So we’ll always go back and support cities that are good to us and we’ll also continue to add events and spread it around. That’s where our head’s at.

Operator: We’ll go next to Jack Bradcher with Promma.info.

Jack Bradcher: Can you give us an update on Kimbo? Is he in training right now and will he be on the next CBS Saturday Night fight against Brett Rogers? Has that fight been (set) yet?

Doug DeLuca: You asked a couple of questions, so, first, an update on Kimbo. He’s training hard. Kimbo is flying back and forth between Miami and California; he’s training with his team. The thing I will say about Kimbo is that I really don’t understand likes to give him a hard time. Why can’t somebody find the sport of MMA sort of like Gus did a few months ago.

In Kimbo’s case, it was a year or so ago, but he found the sport, he’s committed and he’s a natural, a great fighter, who, unlike other guys you see come up off the streets that don’t have the discipline and the focus, this guy is one of the most disciplined and focused guys I’ve ever seen.

So, to his credit, after that fight with James Thompson, Kimbo said (at the press conference), ‘I’m a baby in this sport and I know that.’ He said ‘I’m standing up here on this dais with world-class athletes that have been at this much longer than I have been.’ And he said, ‘I know I need to up my game in various places and at various levels and I will do that.’ Kimbo’s been committed and he’s doing that and he’s training real hard. You are going to see Kimbo fight again probably in late September, early to mid-October.

I definitely cannot confirm that he will be fighting Brett Rogers because we’re not sure that that’s the next fight for Kimbo, but we will keep you guys posted and you guys will be the first to know when we’ve figured out who Kimbo’s going to fight.

Operator: We’ll go next to John Navarro with Knockout TV.

John Navarro: Doug, CBS seems to be a company of firsts — the first company to start off on broadcast TV and now you guys are going to be on broadcast TV and (premium) TV. How do you see that developing your marketplace within this industry? Is that going to take you to a new level?

Doug DeLuca: CBS has been a great partner from day one. CBS owns SHOWTIME and SHOWTIME has been (with us since) when we first got into the game a little over two years ago. We made a strategic partnership with SHOWTIME and CBS, and they’ve been just perfect partners and this sport, as in any mainstream sport, is built around broadcast TV. That’s how people get to see it, that’s how people get to enjoy it, that’s how it grows it fan base and that’s how the sport just gets bigger and bigger. So from the standpoint of a partner and from a standpoint of what SHOWTIME and CBS are doing for the sport and doing for EliteXC, it is, I can’t even – I can’t speak enough about how great they have been for us. It’s been great and it’ll continue to grow. When you think about a May 31st show where at one point 6.5 or 6.7 million viewers were watching EliteXC and watching mixed martial arts, I mean, that’s pretty impressive. That’s a lot of eyeballs.

And then when you think of all the people that were grouped up making a Saturday night of it, with their friends and family and watching the fights, I mean, it’s phenomenal. They’re helping create a phenomenon. So it’s exciting and they will continue to help the sport grow. They have a lot of vision. They have a lot of guts to take the first step of all the networks. Everyone else wanted to do it but nobody stepped up. CBS did and I think it’s paying off for everybody. So we’re happy to be partners with them.

John Navarro: What’s the next big step we’re going to see from CBS and SHOWTIME?

Doug DeLuca: Well, look, I don’t think everything has to be a big step. Things can be baby steps as long as you are making forward progress and I think the big thing from CBS and SHOWTIME is that they are committed to the sport of mixed martial arts. SHOWTIME was the first premium cable channel to ever do mixed martial arts. And if you look at SHOWTIME and what they did in the boxing world — I mean, they are a much smaller organization than HBO yet they compete head-to-head with them and they are synonymous with great boxing. And they saw the opportunity in martial arts so they wanted to be the first and they jumped in and now they’re very supportive of that. I think CBS takes the same approach, They saw the opportunity, They believed in the sport and they said we’re going to be first and we’re going to do it right and we’re going to continue to improve. I don’t know what the next big thing will be, but I know we will continue to build on what we’ve started already and it’ll just be great for the sport, the fans and the athletes.

John Navarro: When do you anticipate seeing a rematch between Cung Le and Frank Shamrock?

Doug DeLuca: Well, Frank … I don’t even know if Frank’s joined yet and if he …

Frank Shamrock: I’m here.

Doug DeLuca: Hey, Frank. How are you?

Frank Shamrock: I’m good, fantastic, very excited. I’m sorry I’m late, everybody, and I apologize for stepping on your question, but I want to thank everyone for coming out. I was at the hospital getting my bone density scans for my arm, and I’ll let everybody here be the first to know I’m cleared for combat so Cung Le or Scott Smith or whoever comes out as the victor, or Kimbo Slice, or whoever’s been eating their Wheaties, they better keep eating them.

Doug DeLuca: So there you have it. I mean, in answer to your question. There will definitely be a Frank Shamrock-Cung Le rematch. I think we have to sit down with Frank. This is great news that we just got now and we’ll have to figure out when that might be.

John Navarro: Frank, after watching that last battle between Scott Smith and Robbie Lawler, how do you expect this one to come out?

Frank Shamrock: I think Lawler really has Smith’s number when it comes to the standup game and when it comes to dictating pressure and positioning in the game. I think it’s going to be a similar fight. I really think Lawler can control that striking game to do the most amount of power punching and damage. I see him coming out on this, and yes, I just think he’s too strong, too big, and too in his zone with his new standup skills and his wrestling combination. He’s got a flow about him that’s really going to be tough to beat for a while.

John Navarro: And how do you see the Jake Shields’ match with ‘The Goat’?

Frank Shamrock: I don’t know. That’s a tricky fight to call. Shields has so much skill and I think he’s just really underrated and, underappreciated as a technician. I think that is going to be a very intense technical battle, but I think it can go either way.

John Navarro: What can you tell us Antonio ‘Big Foot’ Silva?

Frank Shamrock: All I know is he’s a giant and his technique improves every single time. His new game is standup with flying knees, and for a man of this size to be throwing flying knees and head kicks it’s very exciting and very damaging. I just think he’s a young man in the sport with a lot of potential and I think he’s going to knock some fools out.

Operator: We’ll go next to Greg Delong with 1450 FOX Sports Radio.

Greg Delong: Doug, was CBS able to increase the price of advertising for this show because of the success of the first one?

Doug DeLuca: I think they definitely could have. I think the name of the game again is slow and steady. We want long-term partners. Nobody’s looking to make a quick hit. I don’t know for sure, but from what I’ve been told in the discussions I’ve had, the advertising went as well as it did the first time and we’re going to be full slate. The advertisers all came back, and everyone was very, very happy with the first event. I don’t believe prices were raised, but I don’t know for sure.

But I think that, again, it’s about bringing in — we knew that the hurdle with the advertisers was breaking in to the mainstream realm for this sport. And we did a great job and we’re pleased with what happened on the 31st and I think the advertisers were pleased so now let’s continue to do good by them, let’s grow their loyalty, and let’s expand the business. I mean, that’s what we’re working on.

Greg Delong: (With your different brands and fact you promote about 80 shows a year, do you see a time that MMA could be like it was back in the day of boxing when you could see Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton fight on free TV on something like a weekly, one- or two-hour-mixed martial arts show?) Have there been any discussions with anything like that or is that too far down the road?

Doug DeLuca: No, no, not at all. You’re actually a visionary. I can’t talk too much about it now, but we’re probably going to announce another broadcast deal pretty soon with a cable network that will do similar to what you’re saying — where you’ll see all our brands in action. Our exclusive partner in reality TV, Mark Burnett, a reality show guru, and ProElite are constantly working and developing reality shows around the sport.

We’re actually working with Frank on some stuff as well. Frank’s got a great, brilliant mind for MMA and for reality TV so we’re constantly working on that and weekly shows that bring great MMA from around the world and around the country to fans and just grow the sport, the fan base, and keep a great venue for the fighters. That’s what we’re doing constantly. It’s what we do at ProElite.

Operator: We’ll go next to Randy Harrison with Nokaut.com.

Randy Harrison: Doug, you spoke about the pacing of the first CBS show. There are going to be only four fights (on CBS this time). Was that a plan even before the second show had been announced with SHOWTIME and CBS, or did that come about more with the pacing issues of the first show?

Doug DeLuca: It’s just simple mathematics, right. I mean, you just have a two-hour time block. But then you have a number of commercial spots that eat up time from that two hours. You look at the fights and with two title fights, right, you’ve got five rounds of five minutes each. And then you have the female fight at three threes, and you have Diaz and Denny at three fives. So if you just do the math — four fights with some commentating and announcing in-between — you’re hitting the brink, right? (And) you have to really plan for all them going the distance. We all know that’s not the norm in MMA, but it certainly could happen. So, it wasn’t planned that way. It was just (with two title fights), we said that this is what we have to do to be safe.

Now, what you may see, and this is undecided as of yet, is a swing bout, which means there may be another great fight that night just in case all the fights go short. So you may see five, but right now four is what we’re going with. We have a great, strong card on CBS and on SHOWTIME.

Randy Harrison: Gus, with your experience in combat sports, when you heard about the opportunity for CBS and EliteXC, did you lobby for it or was it assigned to you as a luck-of-the-raw kind of thing?

Gus Johnson: I think it was a combination of both. I’ve been calling basketball and football and college basketball and pro basketball and a lot of the traditional sports for a long time and I was looking for something different. I needed something new, fresh. See, the great thing about mixed martial arts that you have to understand — and I think it’s a fascinating aspect of this sport — is that these athletes, they are literally assassins in a certain way. They can do with their bodies things that other human beings can’t do, but at the same time, they’re the nicest, sweetest, kindest, gentlest and humblest people that you’re going to see when it comes to professional athletics. .

They came to me, and once they came to me and felt that I was the person for the job, it’s like a kid being in the back of the room sprinting to the chalkboard to do the assignment. It’s something I wanted to do, something that I want to continue to do and it’s something that I want to be a part of for the rest of my career, not only as a broadcaster but, as you see, also as a person that trains in the various disciplines. So it’s wonderful.

I mean, really, I can’t tell you how excited I am and how fortunate I feel to be able to be chosen by CBS and ProElite and SHOWTIME to have an opportunity to serve as a play-by-play man or the blow-by-blow man or the submission-by-submission man of mixed martial Arts.

Doug DeLuca: If I can just add a quick, funny anecdote to that. When we got into this and we wanted to do this with CBS, I was the one I think that brought up Gus Johnson to everybody because I had known Gus’ work from his other sports, but the funny thing is, a friend of mine, Bill Simmons, who writes for ESPN and who I know through Jimmy Kimmel Live, the television show, had always been talking Gus in MMA, that Gus is the type of person and announcer who could bring the energy and the knowledge and the professionalism to the sport and Bill was just a huge proponent of Gus, and he even wrote I think a blog about it or he might have written about Gus in one of his articles. So Bill really turned me on to the fact that Gus would be great for MMA, and I looked at him and from that standpoint after Bill just hammered me on it and here we are and happy to have Gus onboard.

Operator: We’ll now take a follow-up from Eddie Constantine with Pro MMA.

Eddie Constantine: Doug, (do you foresee Nick Diaz having problems getting licensed to fight in California and have you spoken to the commission about him)?

Doug DeLuca: Absolutely, we have. It was the first of two things we did when we put Nick on the card. First, we sat down and talked to Nick. I think Nick kind of got the short end of the stick last time. He was scheduled to fight for us in San Jose (but) he was unable to. So a couple of things happened there that were not very fair to Nick and he was disappointed that he didn’t get the fight. So what we made sure we did with this one is that we – the EliteXC fight team, Jeremy Lappen and our Chief Executive Officer, Chuck Champion, reached out to Armando (Garcia), went and talked to him and made sure that we were all on the right page and that we were going to do everything by the book and make sure that everyone’s happy.

But we’re all really working with Nick and with ProElite and with the Commission to make sure that it goes without a hitch. I mean, there are a number of fans out there that love Nick. (But) love Nick or hate Nick, everybody out there likes to watch Nick fight and people shouldn’t be deprived of that. So we’re going to make sure that the fight comes off and that we’re starting a turnover-a-new-leaf for everybody, so to speak.

Eddie Constantine: (Would a Frank Shamrock-Cung Le rematch) be a joint promotion with Strikeforce or would that be an EliteXC solo project?

Doug DeLuca: We work well with those guys. I like Scott Coker a great deal and they are very, very strong in the San Jose market and Frank Shamrock owns the town of San Jose and Cung is from San Jose so if we’re going to do a rematch, it’s going to be in San Jose and it’s going to be with Strikeforce. So yes, we would definitely do that as a co-promote.

Eddie Constantine: Doug, is there any truth to the rumor about the IFL acquisition?

Doug DeLuca: No, no truth to the rumor at the moment.

Operator: We’ll go next to a follow-up with Nick Solomon with JabsNGrabs.com.

Nick Solomon: Doug, are there any plans for shows featuring King of the Cage, or Icon or Cage Rage because earlier this year Cage Rage had a show on SHOWTIME and we haven’t seen or really heard much about any of them on TV?

Doug DeLuca: Yes. Like I said, we are working and focusing on different brands all the time. Take Icon, for instance. Icon is a Hawaii-based promotion, remains very strong in Hawaii and has had some great fighters, legends of the sport kind of run through that promotion. So Icon continues to operate in Hawaii, but when we go to Hawaii, we do an EliteXC show on SHOWTIME like we did last month. But it’s really sort of an Icon promotion. I mean, TJ Thompson’s front and center. He’s helping us put that together and we’re working that angle from there. So I know that isn’t really the answer to your question.

(But) to specifically answer your question, yes, we are working on TV deals for various fight promotions and I think you will see those fight promotions in the near future on TV.

Nick Solomon: Frank, are you still looking at the possibility of a fight with your (half-) brother, (Ken)?

Frank Shamrock: Oh, yes, most definitely.

Nick Solomon: Would you want to fight Ken first, or Cung le?

Frank Shamrock: Well, I think the Ken fight is really important to get done as soon as possible not only because we’re both getting older, but I think now is the time to tell the story of the sport and the families and the brothers and stuff that were involved at the beginning of the sport and how it came to be what it is. I think it’s an educational opportunity and it’s great television so I’d love to get that fight in first. And Cung’s a great martial artist and we do really well here in San Jose. But I want the world to see that fight and a promotion like “Blood Brothers” would really kick that fight to the next level.

But yes, I mean, that’s kind of my general plan. I would like to get a fight in at the end of this year just because my hand feels better and I’ve got to keep fighting. So we might try to sneak that in, but haven’t really figured out the logistics of it because, of course, I just found out about an hour ago.

Nick Solomon: Doug, what is your response to what Frank said about the fight between him and Ken?

Doug DeLuca: Absolutely. It’s something Frank and I have been talking about for quite some time. I agree with Frank wholeheartedly. It’s an important fight, one the two brothers will want to have and have wanted to have for a long time. It just hasn’t been the right time to put it together, but I think now is the time to put it together. Frank and I are still kind of working on some of the details, but I think it’s a fight that the MMA community definitely wants to see.

With both of their very rich backgrounds in the sport and because of their personalities and their characters, I mean, you have two legions of the sport and guys that have been there from the very beginning and have kind of grown up with the sport and are now both successful in different ways in the sport. It’s a compelling story and stories are what is going to make the mainstream public watch as well. So I think it’s an interesting fight that new fans, old fans, casual fans, any fan of a combat sport will want to see. So , we’re excited to make it happen and we’re going to work towards that with Frank and Ken.

Nick Solomon: Doug, so which of the options are you looking at more closely? Putting Ken first for Frank? Or Cung Le?

Doug DeLuca:”It’s an interesting question and I don’t have an answer for it at this point in time. Frank and I have gone back and forth with it a number of times. I kind of lean towards Frank. I mean, maybe it’s the Ken fight first, but, in promoting, everything is timing and it’s about where, when, what the platform for promoting it is … so , we have a lot of unanswered questions, but we’re trying to answer them real quickly.

Frank Shamrock: Yes, Doug, if I could interject there. What’s unique about ProElite, CBS, SHOWTIME relationship is they’re thinking on long term. They’re not thinking to the next fight. I’d love to say, yes, I’m going to fight that guy next, but what has made good entertainment good entertainment is that the stories intertwine and they last for a long time.

Those are the type of compelling stories and talent we’re trying to generate through ProElite and the CBS and SHOWTIME concept is (that) stories drive the sport and we’re only going to get one shot at two brothers who are legends in one sport that’s brand new fighting each other. It’s got to be done right.

And like Doug said, the timing’s got to be right, the platform has got to be right. We think it’s right very soon but the public will tell at the end of the day what they want. The fans will tell us what they want and, of course, we’ll give it to them.

Operator: We’ll take another follow-up from Doug Jeffrey with Ultimate Grappling.

Doug Jeffrey: Frank, do guys are on a pretty big stage. Do you feel any pressure being part of the announcing team?

Frank Shamrock: I do, personally. The pressure I feel truthfully is from within. I feel a huge burden to present mixed martial arts, MMA in its modern format as a martial art. I feel I have a duty to kind of educate and support the values and principles of the martial arts. I really think that’s why it’s important. The funny thing is, it’s cool and all that but I really think that’s what’s important. So I feel a responsibility to do that.

I also feel a professional responsibility to be as good as I can at my job. We went to primetime. It was totally untested water. I mean, this was as monumental as we could make it and we nailed it. That was a lot of stress, but I certainly feel better going into the second event. But I still 100 percent feel the responsibility to educate and involve the community in martial arts and then to call it like I see it.

Doug Jeffrey: Frank, when the idea to fight Ken was first presented to you, what crossed your mind?

Frank Shamrock: Well, I mean, it was my idea so for me, it came from a negative place. Ken and I were in a bad way, we’ve had a challenging relationship, and for me the first thought was, boy, I’d love to just kick the crap out Ken. It evolved into a much more mature idea. For me, it’s about paying penance to the – to my mentor who brought me up, who is my brother, for bringing our family back together and for standing for something that’s really, really important, whether he believes or I believe it or whatever it is. That’s why I think the fight was so important and that’s what it’s turned into. Before, I just wanted to kick his butt because he was mean to me and he’s a bully.

Doug Jeffrey: Doug, if the UFC is able to get a network television deal, how does that impact MMA and your role with CBS?

Doug DeLuca: I mean, it’s great for the sport. It just gives a bigger platform for more fighters and for more MMA to be seen around the country. Look at the sport of professional football — it’s on what, five different networks? You can see it in various places. ProElite is behind what’s good for the sport, what’s good for the fighters, and ultimately what’s good for the fans. So, I think that’s fine. It’s competition. I welcome competition. Like in a sport or in business, competition is good. We’re not going anywhere, they’re not going anywhere, and, again, as long as it’s good for the sport I think it’s great.

Operator: We’ll go next to Scott Linesburgh with the “Stockton Record”.

Scott Linesburgh: Frank, you and Ken grew up pretty close to Stockton, right?

Frank Shamrock: Yes, yes. We actually lived in Lockeford for several years. I actually began my fighting career in Lockeford, Calif., which is right next to Lodi, which of course is right outside of Stockton. We’d go to Stockton all the time. It was kind of the big city next to our little city. But I grew up all in northern California from 12 years old on.

Scott Linesburgh: When did you stop living in the Lockeford area?

Frank Shamrock: Well, let me see, I lived there from about 20 till I was 24, I want to say. That was kind of my Stockton, Lodi time.

Scott Linesburgh: Did you start to fight then, or were you already fighting at that time?

Frank Shamrock: No, no. I was dropping out of college and Bob Shamrock, my adoptive father and Ken’s father – I wanted to move back and he said I could if I got a job or did the wrestling thing my brother was doing. So I literally walked into the gym one day and had never done any combative sports or martial art, anything. I fought Ken for 20 minutes and learned about martial arts.

Scott Linesburgh: What years did you live around Stockton?

Frank Shamrock: I would have been there from ’93 till I moved to San Jose in 1997.

Scott Linesburgh: Do you think the Stockton area is built for this sport?

Frank Shamrock: It’s built for it. This sport is a community type social activity. It takes a lot of people. You need a good group, you need partners. It takes a community to do this and support one person or two people or three people. So the more rural your area or the more community-based your area the faster this catches on because it’s something where my daughter’s going to go do MMA. She’s only three months old, but all my kids – all my friends’ kids — everybody does it because that’s our lifestyle. And when you get a nice, settled rural community or a slower community that stuff multiplies quickly.

Scott Linesburgh: If you did fight Ken, would it have to be in northern California, like San Jose, Stockton? Would that be the place to do it? Or do you not have a preference?

Frank Shamrock: Well, there’s certainly a preference there just for locals, but I really think this is a story that is bigger than any region, and I really think, like Doug, this is a television-based product and once you get to that level it doesn’t really matter so much where you go as long as a lot people are watching it.

Scott Linesburgh: Frank, what do you think of the Diaz-Denny fight?

Frank Shamrock: It’s compelling. I know Diaz . Denny’s a kind of wild card – he’s a wild man. I definitely think Nick’s probably picked to come through that fight. But Denny he could change a fight in two seconds and he’s got a lot of experience.

My concern is that he gets into a tie up match and somebody’s bleeding and it’s not a pretty fight. But when it comes to technique, they’re both good technicians. It should be a good technical fight. I just hope it’s a pretty one.

Scott Linesburgh: Doug, what does someone like Frank bring to your shows as kind of a color guy?

Doug DeLuca: He brings a lot. As I said before, we’re just thrilled to have the team that we have. With Frank, in particular, and not just because he’s a legend in the sport, a good-looking guy on camera — and I’m not hitting on you, Frank – but because he is so good on camera. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting and talking with Frank as I’ve done on a number of occasions — we’ve sat around and talked and strategized and talked about the sport – you’ll find that this is a guy that has — and this is kind of an odd way to say it – college professor knowledge of MMA.

I mean, a philosopher’s knowledge of MMA and when you hear Frank talk about the sport, and the passion and the love he has for it and the understanding of it, I mean, Frank’s understanding of the sport goes far deeper than the moves and what’s going on in the cage. It goes to the core and to the psyche of the fighter and why the sport is important to the United States and to the community and to the world. And, I mean, (it is) really just eloquent stuff when Frank talks about mixed martial arts. He’s really great at it, but imparting that kind of knowledge and passion and understanding of a sport to a fan or to new fans or to growing fans, I mean, it’s just – you just can’t come close to that. That’s what Frank brings. I’m thrilled that Frank is part of the team.

Scott Linesburgh: Thank you very much.

Operator: That is all the questions that we have in the queue today. I’ll go ahead and turn the call back over to Mitch Graham for any additional or closing remarks.

Mitch Graham: Thank you, everyone. Thanks to all the press for the great questions. Thank you to our participants, Gus and Frank and Doug.

So thanks, everyone. Appreciate all the questions and see you on July 26th.

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