ProElite and Fox Sports Net Nearing Deal?

MMAPayout connects the dots using a couple clues dropped by FSN and ProElite brass last week:

George Greenburg, VP of Programming for FSN, dropped a hint at the final Affliction: Banned press conference about the a possible EliteXC deal ….stating "We are about to show ProElite…", check out the clip here:

This echoes a statement made by ProElite Executive Doug DeLuca during last week’s conference call that EliteXC was negotiating a deal to increase their programming outlets:

Doug DeLuca: No, no, not at all. You’re actually a visionary. I can’t talk too much about it now, but we’re probably going to announce another broadcast deal pretty soon with a cable network that will do similar to what you’re saying — where you’ll see all our brands in action.

Considering the mess FSN ran into with various markets bumping their coverage of the "Affliction: Banned" prelims and the fact that their current MMA partership with the IFL will most likely die with the league, this is a huge get for the network and should go a considerable way in raising their cache with fans. My inital hunch is that this will not be a deal for any type of live programming -- ProElite's got plenty of those already -- but rather a Wrekage type highlight program with a mix of high-profile past bouts and unaired prelims. The biggest thing ProElite has going for it over a promotion like WEC in this situation is its ability to mix and match across multiple brands - between EliteXC, ShoXC, Cage Rage, ICON Sport and their Strikeforce co-promotions, they've already built up a small but impressive cache of fights to draw from.