Todd Beard Resigns From Affliction
by mythbuster on Nov 14, 2008 12:57 PM EST
Email
Print
Fronted by Luke Thomas. This was an absolute must for Affliction.
MarketWatch.com has the news:
The board of directors of Affliction Inc. announced today that it received and accepted the resignation of Todd Beard as an employee of the company. Mr. Beard is one of the original founders of the clothing company based in Seal Beach, California. The resignation coincides with a public apology for comments made by Mr. Beard and directed toward Randy Couture and his wife Kim Couture regarding their business relationship.
Mr. Beard also disclosed that he will be seeking treatment for anger management and alcohol abuse.
According to Mr. Beard, "I would like to apologize for my comments that may have offended Kim and Randy Couture and Mr. Spira. I had a long-standing relationship with the Coutures and I was deeply and emotionally hurt by some of their recent business decisions. I have only the best of intentions for the success of the Affliction and Xtreme Couture clothing brands and understand that there are personal issues I must address."
According to the board of directors, "We are delighted Todd has decided to address these issues and wish Randy Couture well."
The Board of directors of Affliction Inc. also wanted to clarify that Affliction Entertainment Group LLC. (the promotion company) is not controlled by Affliction Inc. Mr. Beard to its knowledge, is nether an officer, director, or a shareholder of Affliction Entertainment Group LLC. as stated in several periodicals.
Good to hear. A bit late in the game, and I have no reason to believe that a guy with a history like Beards is going to get some anger management and turn his life around, but if nothing else this hopefully pulls a bit of the distraction off of Randy for tomorrows match.
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
33 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Drat...just noticed this and was a little late
Was searching for earnings data for Affliction Clothing and ran into this. Translation on the last part of the article:
“Please don’t leave us Mr. Trump, our resident felon was never associated with you, and we even forced him out just to make sure that your gaming license isn’t in danger!”.
Great!!!
An alcoholic, multiple convicted “fetus punching” (according to cagepotato) felon, who defrauded senior citizens is out of the MMA business. Good mother-F*cking riddance to this piece of trash. If you’re interested in the future of Todd Beard keep watching “To Catch A Predator”
good riddance baby puncher
amazing turnaround on this whole scenario. a few days ago, most people hadnt even heard of this guy. not trying to say it’s a “victory” for the mma blogs of the world, but the way this story spread (in a way similar to "standgate"), and the eventual, almost immediate result, is pretty remarkable. i’d like to see all of that energy continue to make positive changes for the sport… i.e. pestering the powers that be at zuffa to create a women’s division, etc.
obviously a step in the right direction for him to step down, but weren’t there additional issues in the lawsuit, with regard to sales records? i would imagine those will still be lingering, even after his departure.
Here today
Gone tomorrow. Like I said earlier, before the whole ‘Death to Randy’ situation I had never even heard a peep from Beard. Now he’s gone. Eh
Reading between the lines with the entire situation, I’d say Affliction is already completely and totally fucked. As Discman2 said, prior to this situation, none of us had ever heard about Beard. As soon as Couture went back to the UFC, guy basically flipped out and kept talking shit, and just now resigns.
What it says to me is, Affliction was in bad shape, and that incident sent Beard over the edge. He resigned now because the company is basically fucked anyway, and any chance they have at survival now relies on him not being there, so he loses nothing by resigning.
Beard is affiliated with Affliction Clothing Line, which is where the dispute happened with Xtreme Couture. Affliction Entertainment (which Atencio is in charge of) is a completely different entity.
This is a good move for Affliction, and does not imply in any way they are done.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Nov 14, 2008 1:42 PM EST up reply actions
I’d take that analysis a lot more seriously from anybody else. How is EliteXC doing these days?
by Michaelthebox on Nov 14, 2008 1:50 PM EST up reply actions
Good for you. Yet, I never doubted that that EliteXC was in trouble, yet, they are still kicking since Showtime is now trying to work something out with them.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Nov 14, 2008 2:18 PM EST up reply actions
I will eat my own foot if EXC ever puts on another show.
by Derek Suboticki on Nov 14, 2008 2:18 PM EST up reply actions
There you go, once again providing the best possible spin you can on a clusterfuck situation.
by Michaelthebox on Nov 14, 2008 4:37 PM EST up reply actions
The Entertainment branch is most likely losing money right now, based on many things that have been documented before. It is essentially a glorified commercial for Affliction Clothing.
The big thing for me is, how well is the expensive t-shirt market going to do in these economic times…
Walmart trimmed its profit outlook even though third quarter profits went up by 10%. If Walmart is starting to have downturns, chances are trying to sell shirts at $70 a pop (or whatever their inflated prices are) is gonna be tough.
Thats an easy one, they will come out with a series of shirts that will be cheaper.
They make a good profit at the events. There were TONS of people buying fighter signature shirts at the last event in Anaheim.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Nov 14, 2008 2:19 PM EST up reply actions
Affliction needs to sell hundreds of thousands of pieces of clothing a year, a couple hundred shirts at a event don’t even make a dint. The whole economy is tanking, selling a $30 t shirt instead of a $50 dollar one isn’t going to save their business, when times are tough luxury designer clothing just doesn’t sell very well. There is only so much shelf life for designer clothing to start with before people move on to the next fad, even if the economy was strong there is only so far you can ride the skeletons and tribal tattoo t-shirt wave.
An absolutely necessary move to distance themselves…now hopefully someone in the blogosphere will write something positive about affliction.
Wags
Something else that just occurred to me, this could also be a start to Affliction trying to pave a way to getting their products back into the UFC. IIRC it was Todd Beard who was the one that got into a screaming match with Lorenzo when the possible deal was on the table a little while back.
If Beard wasn’t an officer in Affliction entertainment then why was he the one negotiating with the UFC to start with? It sounds like the whole “we are two different companies” bit was just a legal/business manuver, wonder when they put all that together and if it didn’t have to do with Beard’s past to start with? I also have to wonder how the Golden Boy deal worked because it contained the mixed content event agreement and the t-shirt deal, no one has ever mentioned that it was two separate deals with two separate companies? There is still a lot of odd stuff going on with all of this that we don’t know about.
It’s odd, but it might make sense.
I think the main purpose of that entire meeting was to see if they could work something out so that Randy could wear Xtreme Couture into the ring tomorrow night, so it makes sense that Beard was there, even if part of the discussions involved Affliction no longer promoting cards.
Exactly.
The point of that meeting for for the Xtreme Couture brand and fighters being sponsored by Affliction. The stoping MMA thing was Zuffas idea on a solution to working out a deal. A proposition that Affliction was obviously against.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Nov 14, 2008 3:43 PM EST up reply actions
The stoping MMA thing was Zuffas idea on a solution to working out a deal. A proposition that Affliction was obviously against.
According to Affliction. With the way the economy is working right now, it is definitely in their best interests to drop the money pit that is their MMA Promotion and focus on shoring up their clothing business to weather the difficulties. Right now keeping up the image that they are doing fine as far as MMA Promotion is the only bargaining chip they have to get back into the Octagon and in front of many more eyes.
Beard’s statements on the radio show were about the MMA promotion, which they are saying he had nothing at all to do with now. We don’t know who was at this meeting nor do we know what the meeting was about or what was actually said but what we do know is that Todd Beard made statements about Affliction MMA’s business model and them competing with the UFC. The whole situation is just very fishy and the bit about Affliction clothing and Affliction MMA being two completely separate companies is all legal BS.
It makes sense to me.
Thats why no one knew who Beard was before that incident.
Tom is who is associated with Affliction MMA.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Nov 14, 2008 4:21 PM EST up reply actions
I wonder if separating the companies was legal manuvering they did to keep anyone from finding out about Beard’s past or if they did it because they were worried that Affliction doing MMA could drag down the clothing company if MMA promotion failed or if it was so Trump could own an equity stake in the promotion without him getting part of the clothing company too? Either way we know that Beard was involved with all of it, Tom Beard was president of Affliction, Tom Atencio was the vice president, these two guys have been together from the very start.
Tom comments on The Situation:
We contacted Affliction Entertainment VP, Tom Atencio, about this sudden resignation and he had this to say:
“I have a lot of respect for Todd and he stepped up to the plate and did what he had to do. I will always have respect for him.”
Atencio also mentioned that this move has no bearing on his promotion because Beard had nothing to do with it. The press release announcing his resignation even mentions this fact. However, one has to think that this was a a much needed step in the right direction for Affliction if it were to succeed and thrive with its partners The Trump Organization and Golden Boy Promotions.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Nov 14, 2008 5:11 PM EST up reply actions
Too little, too late
It’s like Bush firing Rumsfeld – everyone realized he was a fucko before Affliction did.
by Derek Suboticki on Nov 14, 2008 2:18 PM EST reply actions
Wow...
good riddance.
It would be nice to find out that this was the first step to getting Affliction clothing and its contracted fighters into the UFC…could lead to a Fedor fight with various heavyweights.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bloody Elbow
Related FanShots on Bloody Elbow
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
MMA Rankings
