HONOLULU, Sept. 13 -- At a press conference Thursday at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center, ProElite officially announced the purchase of longtime Hawaiian MMA promotion, ICON Sport.
"Last October … we came and invested in and bought Rumble World," said EliteXC Live Events President, Gary Shaw. "And today we're proud to announce that within the last hour, we just completed our deal and we bought ICON. So, we own the islands."
The announcement comes the same day as news of another long-rumored ProElite acquisition -- King of the Cage -- became official.
"Our goal is to form, and we are forming, a global MMA organization," stated ProElite CEO Douglas Deluca.
The acquisition of ICON Sport, which has been in some form of negotiations with ProElite since at least July, will allow former rival promoters Rumble on the Rock and ICON Sport to work together in the hopes of bringing bigger and better fights to Hawaii.
That partnership kicks off Saturday when the two promotions join with ProElite to put on EliteXC "Uprising," which airs on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Headlined by the title unification bout between ICON 185-pound ace Robbie Lawler (Pictures) and newly crowned EliteXC titleholder Murilo Rua (Pictures), the card, from top to bottom, is one of Hawaii's strongest.
"Lawler is going to be very dangerous, especially early," Rua said, "but he gets careless and leaves himself open at times."
For the ICON champ, trips to Hawaii have meant more liberal rules. Yet on Saturday, he'll compete in a cage with under the Unified Rules of MMA, which prohibit knees to the head of a grounded opponent as well as soccer kicks.
"The rules may be different than I am accustomed to, but a fight is a fight and I am ready to fight under any rules," Lawler said. "I can adapt to whatever I need to."
The event also marks the return of Nick Diaz (Pictures), who is coming off a six-month suspension after testing positive for marijuana following his fight with Takanori Gomi (Pictures) last February.
"I really can't do anything about the way people think," said Stockton, Calif.'s Diaz. Some may think I'm a bad guy, but I really am not. I am definitely not the monster some think I am. I don't want to say I'm misunderstood -- all I am is a fighter who loves MMA and tries to keep it real.
Diaz will make his EliteXC debut against B.J. Penn (Pictures)-trained fighter, "Iron" Mike Aina (Pictures).
"This is a chance of a lifetime for me," said the recently married Hawaiian. "Nick Diaz (Pictures) is a great fighter. This is my opportunity to show I'm a great fighter, too. I'm looking forward to a really good fight.''
Rounding out the main card are match-ups between Gina Carano (Pictures) and Tonya Evinger (Pictures), Joey Villasenor (Pictures) and Riki Fukuda (Pictures), and Jake Shields (Pictures) and Renato Verissimo (Pictures).
Showtime-televised card bout order
Jake Shields (Pictures) vs. Renato Verissimo (Pictures)
Joey Villasenor (Pictures) vs. Riki Fukuda (Pictures)
Gina Carano (Pictures) vs. Tonya Evinger (Pictures)
Nick Diaz (Pictures) vs. Mike Aina (Pictures)
Murilo Rua (Pictures) vs. Robbie Lawler (Pictures)
