Gary Shaw is a self made American success story. This son of retail bakery business owner never graduated high school, but now runs one of the largest MMA organizations in the world. Shaw sat down exclusively with Fightline.com to discuss his story. A story that ultimately may become intimately connected to the fate of MMA in America as Shaw stewards the direction of MMA irrevocable for better or for worse.

In part one of Fightline.com's three part interview with EliteXC president and CEO Gary Shaw, we touch briefly on Shaw's landmark deal with CBS, his feud with UFC president Dana White and we go in depth on his thoughts regarding the UFC; including his interest in potential UFC castoffs Tito Ortiz and Andrei Arlovski.

Fightline.com: Your company recently made an historic, landmark deal with CBS marking MMA's entry into mainstream America. Do you feel that this deal will enable you to surpass the UFC in terms of exposure, popularity and ultimately revenue?

Gary Shaw: I don't know, we're not focused on that. They're a very fine competitor. So, I'm not sure about that because Pepsi hasn't been able to pass coke and Avis hasn't been able to pass Hertz. You know, being number 2 is not always so terrible.

Fightline.com: You and UFC president Dana White have had some words back and forth over the past year or so. Do you know Dana personally?

Gary Shaw: No.

Fightline.com: You've never met him?

Gary Shaw: Never met him; but if it wasn't for the Fertitta's and their money and their intelligence, he'd be a jazzercise instructor right now.

Fightline.com: Dana White has criticized you and the skill of some of your fighters in the past; he recently stated that he believes that his lightweight champion, B.J. Penn could defeat Kimbo Slice. What are your thoughts on those comments?

Gary Shaw: That proves what I just said. Without the Fertitta's money and without their intelligence, he'd be a jazzercise instructor because he's an idiot. What kind of an idiot would say something like that? First of all, I know B.J. Penn; B.J. himself would never say something like that nor would he think that. B.J. is a fan of Kimbo's and Kimbo happens to be a fan of B.J. and Jay Dee, the smarter of the two brothers works with us. So he may not be the best fighting [Penn], but he's the smart one cause he works with us instead of the UFC [laughs]. Yeah, so Jay Dee Penn is with us and he's a fine addition to our company, but yeah, I think that's idiotic. I mean, Kimbo can really punch. I just...it's so idiotic. It shows what an idiot Dana White is. If he cared about the sport he wouldn't say things like that. You see, the thing is, Dana is so insecure he wants to tear down every other competitor, every other fighter that's not with the UFC, so that his brand is the only one and then he can screw all the fighters like he did for years. We offer a legitimate place for fighters to go who are not in the UFC.