Golden Boy CEO: 'I Don't Want To Talk About [Affliction] Right Now'

by subo on Dec 2, 2008 9:16 AM EST Comment 13 comments

MMAFanhouse has the scoop via a reporter who was in on Golden Boy's conference call hyping this weekend's De La Hoya-Pacquio fight. His question about the timing of Affliction's second card, currently scheduled for the same night as Antonio Margarito-Shane Mosley fight, was met with this response:

"I don't want to talk about it right now," Schaefer said. "We're still trying to finalize it. The one thing I know for sure is that Antonio Margarito and Sugar Shane Mosley will be fighting on January 24."

So on one hand, Mr Schaefer shows (or at least feigns) disinterest in the subject itself. That's followed up, in the next breath, with a doubt-instilling 'we're still trying to finalize it,' and topped off with an explicit mention of a fight that IS actually happening that night, that Golden Boy DOES actually give a shit about, and THAT is a fight he'd be happy to talk about. No mention of Fedor/Andrei, Affliction or MMA.

One could argue (as the reporter points out) that Schaefer was simply more focused on this weekend's fights than the ones several weeks away. That doesn't explain mentioning one of those far off fights, putting a solid date on it, and then treating the whole MMA thing as an afterthought.

Golden Boy is clearly saying that they don't need Affliction, whereas Affliction desperately needs Golden Boy. And yes, you can swap out 'CBS' for 'Golden Boy' and 'Affliction' with 'EliteXC' and that sentence still makes sense.

This sounds like another boxing promoter more interested in making a quick buck than building up MMA to me.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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by Luke Thomas on Dec 1, 2008 4:37 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

This is hilarious honestly. All the hardcores jumped at this “partnership” just because of their hatred for the UFC. Now it is going to be part of Afflictions undoing.

So, to sum it up…

We have UFC 93 with hendo/franklyn and shogun/coleman January 17th

We have Mosley/Margarito on January 24th… the same day as Affliction 2

We have WEC Faber/Pulver for free on January 25

We have penn/gsp on July 31

We have a horrible economy

We have affliction still not even sure who is going to be on the freaking card

And what are the chances the WEC card stays on day after affliction? A death blow to affliction could be putting it on the 24 and hyping it up some. Or, by giving a free ufc card (ufc 91 maybe????) on spike.

Stick a fork in this joke of a organization

by dbcb on Dec 1, 2008 4:43 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Not all the hardcores, mon ami.

by Luke Thomas on Dec 1, 2008 4:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

“Hardcores” when used as an epithet like that generally refers to the anti-UFC crowd. You know, the same kind of people who get upset when other non-scene types start listening to “their” music.

Intentional Blog on Balls

by Richard Wade on Dec 1, 2008 6:19 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

I

listened to N*Sync when they were underground…

by B Money on Dec 2, 2008 7:21 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs

We’re still trying to finalize it.

Craziness.

by Eugene Schelfaut on Dec 1, 2008 4:46 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

"One could argue (as the reporter points out) that Schaefer was simply more focused on this weekend’s fights than the ones several weeks away. "

You should’ve stopped there instead of trying to read into it so much and drawing conclusions that aren’t necessarily true. Why would he want to discuss Affliction 2 on the DLH-Pacquio with a bunch of boxing writers?

by smoogy on Dec 1, 2008 5:14 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Fair enough, he wouldn’t. But executives pick their words carefully and he could have at least offered a short quick statement that GB is committed to Affliction’s success, but right now the focus is on DLH vs. Pac. That would’ve at least offered a tip of the hat to Affliction.

by Luke Thomas on Dec 1, 2008 5:22 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Perhaps, and maybe in hindsight he would go back and offer a token gesture like that . But given it was a boxing call with boxing writers, I’d probably have said the same thing. Just move on as quickly as possible, because these folks do not want to discuss Affliction or MMA.

by smoogy on Dec 1, 2008 5:39 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

And he also..

likely doesn’t want the story shifted if the wrong thing is said. Keep the focus where you want it and leave it at that.

Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.

by Brent Brookhouse on Dec 1, 2008 5:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

What does he mean that they are still trying to finalize it? It sounds like Affliction has jumped the gun on something (yet again). there has been a lot of statements out of Atencio about all sorts of things but has their ever been any statement out of anyone at Golden Boy about this event? Something just seems fishy here.

It’s really odd that when asked about why the boxing fight and the MMA event were both on the same date he said he didn’t want to talk about Affliction but he made a point of confirming the boxing was going to happen on that date. If it was just that he didn’t want to talk about future events he wouldn’t of dodged talking about one event while making a point of confirming the other in the same answer.

by who me on Dec 1, 2008 5:39 PM EST reply actions 0 recs