Elite XC Partners with ICON, ROTR

Yesterday at the Blaisdell Center in Hawaii, EliteXC’s Gary Shaw, ICON’s T. Jay Thompson, and Rumble on the Rock’s JD Penn officially announced their new partnership.

Their first card will be September 15th’s "Uprising," which will take place at Honolulu's Blaisdell Arena and will be broadcast live on Showtime.

The televised portion of the card will feature the following:

Murilo "Ninja" Rua vs. Robbie Lawler (middleweight championship match)
Nick Diaz vs. Mike Aina
Jake Shields vs. Renato "Cheruto" Verissimo
Joey Villasenor vs. Riki Fukuda
Gina Carano vs. Tonya Evinger

This is a good-looking roster. Rua and Lawler both hold the middleweight belts for their respective organizations, Nick Diaz returns as a lightweight, and Jake Shields - who holds wins over Yushin Okami, Hayato Sakurai, and WEC 170-lb. champ Carlos Condit - might be the best welterweight you've never seen fight.

Shaw explained that Nick Diaz had signed with EliteXC before he traveled to Japan to fight Takanori Gomi, which turned out to be a smart move. Nick Diaz, having beaten Gomi in such stunning fashion on the Pride stage, has certainly earned plenty of new fans and curious observers, which is a boon for EliteXC.

EliteXC will also be sponsoring the August 25 ShoXC Elite Challenger Series card (headlined by Krazy Horse vs. Joe Boxer), as well as Cage Rage 23 on September 22.

For a video clip of the press conference, as well as more about the September 15 card, click here.