EliteXC plans for heavyweight title

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By Damon Martin, MMAWeekly.com

The championship title picture in Elite XC is starting to come clear as on Thursday, Elite XC Live Events President Gary Shaw, confirmed the promotion is close to crowning their first ever heavyweight champion.

With the main event between Elite XC superstar Kimbo Slice and British heavy hitter James Thompson headlining the upcoming debut show on CBS, the heavyweight division looks to receive a lot of attention following this show.

"Right now, we're close to doing a heavyweight title," said Shaw during a media conference call on Thursday. "We'll probably do the heavyweight title in 2008."

The roster of top free agent heavyweights seems to be thinning lately as upstart promotion, Affliction, seems content to snatch up anyone over 205lbs with a viable name in the sport. The organization has already announced fights featuring top heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, Tim Sylvia, and Ben Rothwell.

Affliction is also rumored to be the leading candidate to land former UFC heavyweight champion, Andrei Arlovski, but nothing official has been announced yet.

That said, Shaw believes they have a great heavyweight division and mentioned American Top Team stand-out, Antonio "Big Foot" Silva, as the top fighter in the weight class.

"Kimbo's there, James Thompson's there, and obviously (Antonio) Junior Silva is right there at the top," Shaw stated about potential contenders to the heavyweight title.

While Silva is still waiting for his next fight, Kimbo and Thompson will do battle on May 31 as the main event for the CBS/Elite XC Saturday Night Fights card taking place in New Jersey.

More information about the Elite XC heavyweight title will surely follow in the coming months.

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