Jeff Osbourne Has Ominous Predictions for Affliction

This promotion scares me the most. It's good to see a company care about the fighters as much as Affliction, but with their current business plan they'll probably die after one show. Without any TV exposure at all, how can you expect that they'll generate enough of a buy rate to recoup even 1/20th of the money that they spend? [Affliction headliner] Fedor is NOT a draw in North America. Fans are very disillusioned with "star fighters" or what MMA purists perceive as a "name". Fedor's BIGGEST buy rate on pay-per-view was 55,000 buys. That doesn't even bring in enough gross income to pay for him at his current price. Even with Bodog's monstrous marketing and huge ad budgets, we scored a whopping 12,000 buys on PPV with Fedor. I do think that he's one of the three best fighters on the planet, but he's truly the winner over the entire industry if he's getting someone to give him seven figures.

Q: What advice would you give an aspiring investor/promoter looking to get into the MMA game?

A: Start small and try to get big. The BEST way to make a small fortune in MMA is to start with a big one!

Q: In conclusion, what are your plans for the future as an MMA promoter?

A: My plans are to continue with business as usual. Even though I'm not perceived as an A-level promotion anymore, I continue to produce entertaining and compelling fights that sell tickets and generate tons of interest, be it through our TV show or by other means. I'll still be selling out events long after everyone with millions of dollars has been reduced to trying to sell DVDs of their failed shows thinking that they're going to get rich off of videos. Hook n Shoot was here at the very beginning and we'll be here until the end, because I've learned from my 15 years of experience and I'm smart enough to stick with the methods that work.