Cooperation or Competition Between Affliction and Golden Boy Promotions?

by Michael Rome on Oct 30, 2008 8:09 PM EDT in News Comment 26 comments

A few months ago, Affliction announced its deal with Golden Boy Promotions and crowed that this would be a major challenge to the UFC. A few weeks ago, we heard that it would no longer be a mixed show, and instead would be a pure MMA show. Now it appears that Golden Boy is putting a boxing show on HBO on January 24, the same night as Affliction's PPV.

Dave Meltzer reports in the November 5 Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Golden Boy Promotions will feature Antonio Margarito vs. Shane Mosley on HBO on January 24, 2008. That is a pretty big fight and it will air opposite of Affliction, on (almost) free TV.

Here's the rub: I don't think there is any joint promotional deal between Affliction and Golden Boy. I heard a few weeks ago that nothing was signed, and it looks like all they have is a t-shirt deal, or a production deal at most. They announced it prematurely to distract people from the fact that they cancelled their October show because it sold about 700 tickets.

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Shouldn’t cut into their PPV sales too much. Venn Diagram of boxing and MMA fans: OO

by Ubernoober on Oct 30, 2008 7:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It’s not really the point.

by Michael Rome on Oct 30, 2008 7:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Interesting.

We go from the co-promotion of mixed Boxing/MMA events to a potential t-shirt deal?

Ridiculous how things get so blown out of proportion just via the internet hype machine. This isn’t an accusation towards anyone, just an interesting observation.

by KneeToTheFace on Oct 30, 2008 7:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

There wouldn’t be as much hype if there wasn’t as much hyperbole coming from the various companies touting their deals.

by Luke Thomas on Oct 30, 2008 7:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Exactly

They’ve gotten so carried away trying to find a back door that it’s gone from the ridiculous to, quite honestly, the embarrassing.

by Blackout612 on Oct 30, 2008 7:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ding Ding Ding

We have a winner!

by subo on Oct 30, 2008 7:39 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

There must have been some bad blood behind the scenes.
I for one AM a fan of both boxing and MMA and most of my friends are as well.
Margarito/Mosley will garner a lot of attention and could be a PPV.
Putting it on free feels like what UFC did for the last Affliction show…

by Evil-Uncle on Oct 30, 2008 7:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah but

I’ll just DVR it on HBO and watch Affliction. Had they put it on PPV then it would have been real competition for my money. Also public facitlities will show Affliction and not boxing. Boxing PPV’s get run in bars but VERY few bars pay subscription fees to HBO and Showtime so normal events aren’t broadcast.

Also there is some sort of deal in place. Before Pavlik Hopkins Michael Buffer announced the show was "brought to you by HBO and Affliction Clothing.

by skwirrl on Oct 31, 2008 8:30 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

“Affliction clothing” not “Affliction MMA”. Affliction clothing was a sponsor of all sorts of sports and athletes long before they started promoting MMA. That was similar to Harley or Bud Light “sponsoring” a UFC event not a partnership between Affliction and Golden Boy.

by who me on Oct 31, 2008 5:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

ICEBERG, RIGHT AHEAD!

so will todd beard threaten to fight oscar de la hoya now?

by woooburn on Oct 30, 2008 7:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Affliction should just wave the white flag and stop delaying the inevitable. Stop promoting and sign a clothing deal with the UFC. Obviously the UFC is still interested since they sat down with Affliction. Otherwise, kiss your clothing line goodbye. Without UFC fighters wearing their shirts, they are done.

by steveoc24 on Oct 30, 2008 7:48 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

i take that back...

I just remembered Beards comments towards Dana and the Fertitta’s. Yeah, Affliction will fold by the end of 09’.

by steveoc24 on Oct 30, 2008 7:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Haha

Yeah, I was going to say.. They’re too busy burning bridges to make good business decisions.

by Blackout612 on Oct 30, 2008 7:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

BUT DUDE!

Whoopi Goldberg was wearing an Affliction shirt on The View a couple weeks ago. Now they’ve opened up the purchasing to all the soccer moms in Range Rovers. :P

This company is a joke, the sad part is they won’t even last in the fight game as long as Pro Elite. :P

"Men like me are like comets, destined to be consumed by lighting up their century"

- Napolean

by Kris McKillop on Oct 31, 2008 8:40 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

How embarrassing

Remember when Attencio was cracking wise about Dana building hype towards really shitty announcements? I know he wants to top Dana, but not like this, one would think..

by Blackout612 on Oct 30, 2008 7:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah it just gets worse and worse for Affliction, especially when they have to resort to things like this (announcing giant deals when there aren’t any).

by pud333 on Oct 30, 2008 9:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Wow... 700 tickets?

I had never heard that before and now that I am hearing it all I can say is WOW… The card in October was supposed to be headlined by Arlovski/Barnett. Barnett may not be the most popular fighter in the states but Arlovski is a big name. Plus the undercard was packed with talent. All that could only muster 700 sold tickets? Top top it off today I read, on BloddyElbow of course, that they are burning bridges with Couture.

I’m starting to agree with Dana White when he says these guys won’t last 3 shows. And realizing this is a damn shame. I like Tom Atencio. He has good intentions but things are just not clicking for Affliction. Honestly I think they would have done better starting off as a regional organization(with most of the fighters they have now, minus Fedor. Let the guy fight in Japan) and then when they get a really good fan base they couldve made the jump to the national spotlight. With the talent they lined up off the bat getting a strong following wouldn’t have taken very long. And then that would have been a good time to bring in Fedor. Once they got a strong following and semi deep divisions.

by Discman2 on Oct 30, 2008 8:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

They were trying to do business in Vegas

And the UFC went to all their little buddies behind the scenes to prevent them from doing any local advertising at all for the event.

by skwirrl on Oct 31, 2008 8:33 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That was Atencio’s excuse but I don’t remember any other sources on that.

by who me on Oct 31, 2008 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

This is the sort of thing that gets me labeled a UFC nuthugger. UFC haters get so smug about things like this, then it turns out to be nothing, and I laugh about it because it was so damn obvious.

I’m really going to enjoy the ugly decline and fall of Affliction, because I hate bad business. And that is bad business.

by Michaelthebox on Oct 30, 2008 8:28 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

To UFC Nuthuggers,

Affliction/Golden Boy has had a sponsorship deal before Golden Boy even thought about MMA.
That has always been set, and the production/marketing deal was the only thing that was for certain.

Everything else was just something they may plan on doing.
I don’t think the news good, but it is not the titanic at this moment.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Oct 30, 2008 8:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You really need to get over to Sherdog and tell the Contenders board that. Its the Affliction fanboys who think that Affliction is poised to crush all in their path with copromotions between Affliction, Golden Boy, M-1, and the smoking shell of EliteXC.

by Michaelthebox on Oct 30, 2008 8:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Oh, it’s the titanic…

http://mma4real.net/

by Tha Realness on Oct 30, 2008 9:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

They held a huge press conference to announce they were doing 4 hybrid mixed events together and the deal also included a t shirt deal for ring magazine. Now the hybrid events aren’t going to happen and people are saying that they announced the deal before it was even signed to start with. Affliction being a sponsor for Golden Boy fights is irrelevant to anything they announced at that press conference. For that matter has any actual production/marketing deal between the two actually been announced because all I ever saw was 4 hybrid events that fell through and a boxing t-shirt deal?

We were promised a announcement that would change the MMA world forever and all that seems to of come out of it was a deal to make ring magazine t-shirts, UFC nuthuggers should be laughing their asses off and the rest of us should be wondering what the hell is actually going on.

by who me on Oct 30, 2008 11:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

So let me get this straight not only is Affliction’s second show sandwiched between 2 big UFC PPV’s but it’s on the same night as a big boxing event?. Wow, looks like the end of Affliction is gonna be even sooner than I expected, that’s what happens when t-shirt guys think they can run an mma org.

by Raker on Oct 31, 2008 2:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

People say Boxing shows don’t Hurt UFC shows and vice versa… only partly true.

Even though it isn’t significant UFC shows hurt Boxing shows more than vice versa…

But the real important factor is there are many more boxing fans within the hardcore MMA base than in the casual UFC fan base.

Guess who Affliction caters to?

Now as far as the golden boy deal…

I said a while ago: HBO realized the stupidity and it would only be a matter of time before golden boy did as well.

The only question is whether they were playing dumb to get the sponsorship deal signed or did they realize it later… something tells me they wanted to get the deal done as no other apparel company is as stupid to sponsor boxing events… it’s not a lifestyle market.

at this time the only involvement Golden Boy has with the affliction shows is that affliction will be using golden boys promotor’s license and ppv.

by mmalogic on Oct 31, 2008 3:19 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs