Contracts of Kimbo Slice, Gina Carano Will Be Auctioned to the Highest Bidder

The mixed martial arts promotion EliteXC has gone belly-up, but it still has some valuable assets in the form of its fighters' contracts. And now the contracts for those fighters -- including Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano -- will be auctioned to the highest bidder as part of EliteXC's bankruptcy proceedings.

EliteXC has posted a notice of public sale saying its assets will be sold, including the following:

all contracts between any Debtor and mixed martial arts fighters (including, but not limited to, Kevin Ferguson a.k.a. "Kimbo Slice", Gina Carano, Jake Shields, Robbie Lawler, Frank Shamrock, Antonio Silva, Brett Rogers, Dave Herman, Scott Smith, Nick Diaz, Cristiane Venancio Justino a.k.a. "Chris Cyborg", Eddie Alvarez, Yves Edwards and Wilson Reis)

So who will buy these contracts?

The UFC isn't interested in Kimbo or Carano, and probably isn't interested in getting into a bidding war for any of EliteXC's other fighters, either. UFC might be interested in a guy like Jake Shields, but will probably just sit this auction out.

The two most valuable contracts in the lot are those of Carano and Cris Cyborg, who are the two highest-profile women in MMA, and I hope some promoter buys both of their contracts and puts them in the cage together. Aside from them, it's possible that Affliction, Strikeforce or Mark Cuban's HDNet fights will pick some up, but for the most part the situation is just a big mess, with the fighters caught in the middle. I bet they're regretting the day they signed with EliteXC.