By Steve Sievert

It looked like something out of Land of the Lost, not a stage prop worthy of being part of the debut of America's newest mixed martial arts promotion. And, yet, there it was for fans at DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Miss., and for those tuning in on Showtime for EliteXC's premiere show, optimistically called "Destiny."

Fighters made their way to the cage by walking through the mouth of the dragon - destiny indeed.

It was, well, an interesting start back in February for EliteXC, which hoped to make a grand entrance into the consciousness of mixed martial arts fans with two legendary names in the sport headlining its first show. The upstart organization had the backing of a premium cable network in Showtime and the leadership, connections and bravado of longtime boxing promoter Gary Shaw.

However, with the promotion on the verge of its fourth show, which will be held Saturday at AmericanBank Center in Corpus Christi, EliteXC is still searching for an identity and a formula that clicks with the broad MMA fan base.

In its three major shows, EliteXC has been all over the map in its approach. It resurrected the Shamrock and Gracie names, embraced fights among women (as long as one of those women was Gina Carano), teamed with Strikeforce on a co-promotion, and took its show to Hawaii. Through its parent company, ProElite, EliteXC also was part of the circus that was the Dynamite USA show in Los Angeles in June.

Shaw admits that it's been quite a ride.

"One of the low points, I think, was the show we did in June with FEG (Dynamite USA), where we kind of lost control of it. And I wasn't happy with the product, wasn't happy with the production. And I thought it was a real bad co-promotion. To me, that was the low point, because I like to be proud of what we put on. As far as high points, yeah, there are several. I had a high and a low on the same night. On February 10th, our first show ever in Mississippi was a huge high that we pulled it off with Frank (Shamrock) and Renzo Gracie. And the low point was when I looked at that dragon they were walking out of. So, when we make mistakes, I stand up and say we made mistakes. That dragon sucked."

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