ProElite.com President Kelly Perdew Talks About His New Web Empire
Posted on | March 23, 2007 | No Comments
An Interview with Entrepreneur Kelly Perdew
ProElite.com President
Kelly Perdew has the kind of talent that simply can’t be contained. An exciting military career, a winning stint on The Apprentice, and a host of other amazing opportunities have not been enough for this amazing self starter. Each accomplishment he’s made so far led him to keep seeking something even greater and more challenging. He’s found that something as the president of ProElite.com which aims to bring the whole MMA scene together as one community under one major banner.
“We want to be where fans, fighters, and organizations go to find out about MMA, and we want to be the place they live online,” said Perdew about his new position. “We’re all about empowering the fight community and growing the sport. The sport’s on the front end of a big wave, and it’s really about the fighters, and also supporting some of the growing organizations out there. We’re also making a huge attempt to bring great fighting to fans everywhere. We’ll be streaming live events like the ICON sport fights on March 31.”
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Perdew’s approach is designed to bring all the different facets of the sport closer together. “We’re out to give fans, fighters, and organizations the tools to do everything they want to do in the sport,” he said. “Fans can find out about their favorite fighters, and organizations that want to recruit new fighters and new fans can all communicate with each other. Fighters can promote themselves and try to get sponsors and all that.”
The other part of the site’s mission is to put a spotlight on some of the fighters who need it most. “We provide more exposure for a lot of these fighters who have never been seen,” said Perdew. “On the undercard of the Showtime bouts, all the fighters had a phenomenal opportunity to be seen by thousands of new fans.”
Perdew has noticed that the Ultimate Fighter television show and the UFC in general has made the sport into the commodity it is today, but he also recognizes that they are not the only dog in the fight. “The mainstream exposure they’ve created is unbelievable. The great work the UFC and Dana White have done to grow the sport is fantastic,” said Perdew. “We want to do that by giving all brands and all fighters support, not just one division of mixed martial arts.” He explained that ProElite, inc. encompasses the site and EliteXC, but the site will promote all organizations. He added that EliteXC as a league of its own is “incredibly inclusive as well. Nick Diaz just fought in a Pride Fight.”
Perdew advocates a coordinated effort to produce some kind of regulations for matchmaking. “There needs to be one kind of consistent ranking system that allows people to see who’s fighting who and why,” he said. “With the UFC it’s sometimes a strange way to pick a champion. It’s like Dana decides who fights who. There needs to be some kind of brackets, and there has to be a ranking capability. Right now it’s not very objective. There should be some rhyme and reason. You could certainly have it be a popularity contest, but it should be based on something that’s more true to the sport like the fighters’ capability.”
Perdew’s incredible background has more than prepared him for the kind of work he’s doing now. “I was president of Eteamz, the largest amateur sports portal in the word,” he explained. “There are 3.1 million sports teams using the site. From professional teams to little leagues to bowling leagues, you name it. If it’s a team sport, we had it, so I understand the dynamics of growing a community. I also have a lot of respect for all the disciplines involved in this sport. The individuals who participate are Olympic in character, and they should be highlighted. That’s what we’re gonna do with Pro Elite.com, and we’ll even highlight the ring girls, too.”
Having been involved in a bit of fighting himself, Perdew can hold his own but still won’t ever battle in the cage. “From the martial arts side, I trained in Judo and Tae Kwon Do, but I’d never step into the cage. In the military and before that I wrestled, I boxed, and I trained in close-quarters combat, but what I enjoy most about this sport is how real it is,” he said. “There’s nothing held back, and it’s you against one other person. It’s just real. People watch it and think what would I do in the ring or in the cage.”
He is also impressed with the complete package each fighter brings to the table for each fight. “You have to look at the fighters as athletes. It’s pretty phenomenal to me to earn any degree of black belt in any of the disciplines and then cross train effectively,” he said. “They have my complete respect and admiration just looking at the amount of training in order to be able to get in that cage. I’ve taken hits in the boxing ring, and I’ve done wrestling, and Tae Kwon Doe, but to have it be MMA, full contact, and almost anything goes, I respect anyone who would do that.”
Perdew spent three years as an active duty soldier in the Army before going through law school and business school at UCLA. He then developed a habit of thinking big and producing results, which makes him a perfect fit at ProElite. “I’m very much the entrepreneur, and the team I work with at Pro Elite is world class. Everyone understands the marketplace, and they all know you need to be credible with whatever you’re doing,” he said. “That’s why we went to Showtime. In six months from having no name, no Web-site, no distribution channel, no nothing we’ve come so far. We’re now a live event company, we have a full social network site, and we’re doing a whole bunch of great things. That’s how fast this team works, and it’s a great challenge to come in and do this.”
The keys to the ProElite.com site are the ease of use, continuous improvement, and the fight streaming service. “I don’t know how familiar a lot of people are with the internet, and what we want to create is a very easy to use system,” Perdew said. “There’s so many things we can offer, and it’s all a matter of getting it to be exactly what they want. All your readers, and anyone who uses the site can personally contact me by going to Kellyperdew.proelite.com, which is my personal fan site. Anybody there can personal message me about what they want to see on site, or even what they don’t want to see. They’ll also be able to see Trigg and Lawler fight, and we’ll show other events they want to see streamed live.”
Perdew explained that all organizations can come together at the site and he even mentioned that he would love to be able to broadcast those UFC fights that don’t get to be seen by Pay-Per-View buyers. “I would love Dana to let us stream live his undercard fights that nobody ever sees,” he said. “Why not charge $39.99 or something to stream the undercard. Also for local smaller promoters who are not on TV and not doing Pay-Per-View this would be great for them. It’s about growing the sport of MMA, growing the fan base, and giving fighters exposure, and it’s also about helping out the organizations out there.”
He noted that the Showtime inaugural event scored rave reviews despite the disappointing final moments. “We had great feedback on the EliteXC fight, and the Showtime subscribers who saw it liked it a lot. Thousands of people tuned in to watch the undercard as well. Unfortunately, we can’t control the fighters, and obviously we can never tell what kind of fights we’re going to get, but even that last fight was pretty exciting,” he said. “Krazy Horse and KJ Noons was a fantastic fight, and Julie Kedzie and Gina Carano were just amazing. They really went at it, and there were so many times Julie could have thrown in the towel, but she just fought back with ferocious heart.”
Although there were some deals in the works he couldn’t talk about, Perdew did point out that the site will run a ring girl contest that starts March 30. Otherwise there will be constant development strengthened by the constant feedback of users.
To learn more about Kelly Perdew please read his biography here: http://unlimitedfightnews.com/KellyPerdewBio.doc