Back in 2000 the WWE king of hot air Vince McMahon announced the creation of the short lived 'professional' football league called the "XFL"( X-Football League). It included a partnership with NBC and a promise to deliver a no-holds-barred sport that would slam the sanitized NFL.  

The XFL distinguished itself from the NFL through gimmick and innovation using Sky Cams, Huddle Cams, Coach Cams, and Locker room Cams. It eliminated unnecessary roughness calls, added a 'no fair catch' rule, and substituted the opening coin toss with a fight for the ball scramble.  And in a classic McMahon touch, added televised trash talking and scantily clad cheerleaders to spice up the sidelines.

Despite being ridiculed as the fake NFL and an over sensationalized CFL, the Vince McMahon XFL managed respectable intial TV ratings in its first week in 2001. Additionally the media gave it tons of coverage(though some stations refused) and for a brief moment everything seemed like it got off to a good start.

But once the novelty wore off like a sugar-cereal high the regular TV season football audience realized the quality of play sucked and bailed out faster than you could say 'gimmick'. There just was no way the XFL could offer anything substantive to a wider football audience over the long term. The 80 + year old NFL was going to stay the dominate league. It had the organization, the tradition, and all the talent.      

Enter the Elite Extreme Combat in 2006, another start up sports league (this time on CBS) with the overused letter 'X' in it trying to compete with an established professional league by using innovations and novelty attractions. They tried to hit it big in February 2007 with its premiere "Destiny" fight on ShowTime that featured the busty Gina Carano and a main event starring Frank Shamrock vs Renzo Gracie. The fight ended with Shamrocks disqualification for illegal strikes to the head. (A common occurrence in Franks fights?) And I can't remember what happened in Caranos fight.

Since 07, EliteXC has promoted about 17 fights and is scheduled to have at least 3 more by 08's end. But despite some good match ups, the gimmicks are wearing thin on the regular MMA audience that would normally watch the UFC(The "F" in the middle must be the lucky letter.) 

And that leaves only a broader audience that isn't educated enough about MMA to be really devoted or want anything but quick WWE style entertainment. All of this translates into $44 million in debt, bad MMA press, and desperate fight cards like Shamrock vs Kimbo.

I'm not sure how much money an MMA organization can lose before it chokes out, but the UFC has the organization, the tradition, and most of the talent to be the last man standing in the ring. Meanwhile with tons of debt, canceled fights, and negative press the EliteXC is starting to look like the XFL.