Affliction Should Focus on Heavyweights
by Michael Rome on Jul 23, 2008 8:10 PM EDT
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Affliction's first show was unquestionably more successful than anyone expected. They built stars in their three main events, did well at the gate, and may have done very well on PPV. The question going forward is how they can grow and maintain a solid fanbase that remains interested in the fighters. I think the key is to focus on the one division where they have a distinct advantage over the UFC: The heavyweight division.
The UFC needs multiple champions in multiple divisions because it runs shows once or twice a month, and title matches have to headline the shows to sell them. This will not be a problem for Affliction. They cannot run that often given the way they pay, and seeing as a major aspect of this league is to promote Affliction's clothing brand, I don't see them really needing to run any more than 4 to 5 times a year.
Without running often, and without television, it will be nearly impossible to establish multiple divisions. A fight like Babalu vs. Whitehead is utterly meaningless if there is no champion in the division, and there are no other fights in the division on the card. The same goes for a fight like Lindland vs. Negao. It is little more than an exhibition, and they just aren't going to be able to run enough shows to get all of these divisions going. How much money did they spend on Lindland vs. Negao, and for what return?
Affliction should try to lock down the world's beat heavyweights outside the UFC. They should go after Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Mirko Crocop, and many others they did not bring in for their first show. With only one title, Affliction would feel more like other pro sports leagues where every team in the league is aiming at the same goal.
This isn't to say they shouldn't ever have a fight in a lower weight class. By all means, a swing fight at 155 or 170 to entertain fans between big heavyweight fights makes a lot of sense. But it makes no sense to simultaneously try to promote three or four top tier divisions with guys like Matt Lindland, Babalu, and Tito Ortiz while also trying to maintain the heavyweight division. It's a big waste of money without upside for a promotion running every four months exclusively on PPV.
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“Affliction’s first show was unquestionably more successful than anyone expected. They built stars in their three main events, did well at the gate, and may have done very well on PPV.”
They did not build these stars. They were stars before in UFC and Pride. EliteXC and Affliction are waiting at the UFC exit gate to build their organizations.
by steveoc24 on Jul 23, 2008 9:15 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I don’t think hanging their hat on heavyweights is that marketable over the long run, even with big stars.
Agree
Although the HW division in MMA has some good fighters, I do not think it’s one division that you want to focus on to make your organization successful. IMO, it’s one of the most lack luster divisions out there. People love the WW’s and LHW’s. The UFC has a great portion of the talent in those divisions and that is why I don’t think any other promotion will ever go head to head with the UFC.
Tito Ortiz
I thought Affliction grabbing Ortiz could help them with PPV’s. But Afflictions last event did not allow elbows. So I’m not sure what Tito would do after taking a man down and not allowed to drop elbows.
Are you sure?
I remember correctly they were using elbows and i just double checked and elbows on the ground were allowed.
by poundnground on Jul 24, 2008 2:04 AM EDT up reply actions
Heavyweights are historically the biggest draws in fighting. UFC tends to be an exception because they have such horrible heavyweights and always have, but with Fedor, Barnett, Mirko, Arlovski, and numerous others they could even try to recruit away from UFC, the heavyweights are the best to focus on. How can they focus on WW’s when all the best are in the UFC? Who is going to be their champion, Drew Fickett?
Also, it doesn’t matter if they were stars before. Quinton Jackson was a “star” before coming to the UFC, but the vast majority of the people who know him now didn’t know who the hell he was prior to the UFC putting him out there against Liddell and getting him on TUF.
I just do not think the HW division is the best for Affliction to focus on to keep their head above water. Fedor, Barnett, Mirko and AA are great HW’s to get you through about 3 or 4 shows. That’s it. But the HW division is not deep enough to gather atleast $250k PPV buy’s every event to break even at the cost of what these HW’s charge (which is ridiculous) without a solid card from top to bottom.
Tito might be able to help with buys, but a fight with Babalu won’t do much. He needs some kind of feud or major match to really make it work. They could always do that with him to draw to the promotion without creating a meaningless LHW division with 4 people in it.
They could also just move him to heavyweight.
Ok so basically all Affliction has to do is get Sylvia to hook up with Jenna, then give Tito four months to run his mouth about how much hes going to pound big Tim. Gives Sylvia a meaningful fight and Tito something to run his mouth about. I don’t see a downside to this (Other than the actual fight).
“A fight like Babalu vs. Whitehead is utterly meaningless if there is no champion in the division, and there are no other fights in the division on the card. The same goes for a fight like Lindland vs. Negao.”
Were you in the bathroom when Belfort and Rogerio had their fights?
Thats not the point..
Rome’s point is that those two are not going to sell. I agree. He’s trying to focus on a specific division with a limited amount of top selling PPV fighters to keep a promotion in business longterm.
so am I to assume by that pic that fedor fights with a watch?
he’s really good.
by monkeyfightclub! on Jul 23, 2008 11:11 PM EDT reply actions
Owning the heavyweight division is one thing. Being a one-trick pony is another. By paying so much attention to the heavyweight division and only casual interest in everything else, Affliction automatically positions itself as an inferior rival. Historically heavyweights have been the best-selling, but not in the modern era and not just because the UFC’s heavyweights sucked for so long. I just don’t see it as sustainable to be so revealing with a poker hand and so limited in the range of content you offer fans.
Totally true. Even in boxing, the land where the heavyweight is king, the last decade or so the focus has shifted to the smaller divisions.
The reality is that from an excitement standpoint heavyweights are just too big to give the kind of fast paced slug fests that the lighter divisions are capable of producing.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Afflictions motto should be “Come for the Heavyweights, stay for the featherweight excitement”. If the Affliction card had a fight like Torres-Maeda (a classic and the type of fight that’s difficult to predict I know), they would have fans lining up to pay $40 for their next show.
Hell they could sign an entire division of young and explosive smaller fighters for what it costs to pay Sylvia to fight once.
Obviously, at this time, they should focus on the HWs, because that is their known commodity. However, HW fights, even featuring top fighters, tend to get boring. Knowledgeable fans will tire of this in an already lackluster division, very quickly, so they need to build the other classes. As for the less knowledgable/newer fans, they need champs. They tend to be lost without a belt to focus on, thus you see what EXC is doing, crowning their champs.
"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"
I thought his argument for focusing on heavyweights revolved around the fact they are only going to run 4 shows a year.
How many weight divisions can an organization support only running 4 shows a year?
Running 4 shows a year there isn’t no way to build deep divisions in every weight class.
So why not focus on the one weight class they have the most talent in already?
Good Call
Gotta say I agree with this completely. Boxing has been hurting in that department for a long time. One thing it has shown us is, people love heavyweights. No other org. has a dominate heavyweight class and yet, it seems it would need a little UFC cooperation to go far. Seems like they have enough of the weight class locked up to still keep Affliction from growing too far. Plus to validate the new WAMMA belt they keep pressing, again they need the UFC to play ball. Until another company brings something tantalizing to the UFC, I doubt they’ll play myself. Time will tell I guess.
With 4 shows a year, good luck establishing multiple divisions. If you try you just end up with a bunch of half assed divisions, most of which have paper champions because everyone knows the real champ is with Zuffa.
AGREE 100%
You’re making too much sense to me.
Focus on the Heavies Affliction, get the big names from the other promotions, and I’ll keep buying your PPVs.
I don’t care if their productions suck. It’s about the fights.
Heavy weights have always caught the hearts and minds of combat fans. Don’t get me wrong. I love the little guys, but the money and attention has always been with the bug guys.
Sounds Weird but why not Heavy and Lightweights? (GET ALVAREZ DAMMIT, INSTANT STAR!)
I kind of agree, they can just have isolated “superfights” for awhile, but I think you are right that if they are going to stick around then they need to assemble meaningful divisions. Lightheavy will be hard to pull off the UFC just has the Market cornered there. it would be OK to have Ortiz do a couple of fights but if he is the face of the lightheavyweight division it makes the organisation look second-tier. Welterwieght is the pretty much the same. Middleweight is just thin throughout the sport, though DREAM has managed to put together a good grand prix, but even there half the guys in the first round were scrubs. I wouldn’t mind seeing Manhoef in Affliction. Miller seems like a natural addition too, but I’m not sure there are ten free agents out there at middleweight that you could make a real division out of right now (especially Americans with starpower which is important). Does anybody know to what extent the guys in DREAM are locked up there btw?
I might recommend making the heavies the main event and then also putting together a good set of lightweights to make another actual division. There is just a lot more depth at Lightweight it is basically the division for the average male (after he cuts weight) so there are always going to be more good fighters than just the UFC can contain.
Eddie Alvarez would be a no-brainer if he is available, after Hansen gets knocked off the throne in DREAM by some dodgy Japanese decision he would really fit well in Affliction he looks like he should be playing drums for Megadeth or actually a younger, cooler band. Throw in some other dudes like maybe Calvancante and Ribeiro (again depending on how easy it is to pry them away from DREAM) and you could have a good division there, that will provide exciting undercard fights (and not cost as much as the heavier weightclasses)
by BloodJunkie on Jul 24, 2008 4:07 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Need more than heavies.
I agree that it would be best for Affliction to limit their scope, to avoid spreading themselves too thin. However, I also think that the scope needs to be wider than just heavyweights; even though you can’t build 5 solid divisions with just 4 or 5 cards a year, you also can’t fill 4 or 5 good cards a year with just one division (particularly the notoriously unreliable heavyweights).
Perhaps, because they have some top guys signed, they should keep the spotlight on the heavyweights for the moment whilst also building up interest in one or two other divisions. Try to establish some prospects. Have a heavyweight division, a welter/middleweight division and – hell – a bantamweight division. They probably can’t hit the ground running with every division, like they did with the heavies, but they can use the undercard spots to build up guys and make people want to see them again.
Why do Affliction need weight classes?
The business model they have and the business model the UFC have are polar opposites.
Let me rephrase that: Why do they need to concentrate on multiple weight classes?
Also, legit lol to the idea that American MMA fans are starving for bantamweights and flyweights.
by D.Capitated on Jul 24, 2008 10:33 AM EDT up reply actions
I like that the WEC is focused on the lighter weight classes, and I think it would be good for Affliction to do the same with the heavier weightclasses. The new promotions coming up should want to be different from the UFC. If Affliction has just the LHW and HW, that’s fine.
by lovingmma25 on Jul 24, 2008 11:33 AM EDT up reply actions
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