HBO: No Affliction Here

by Kid Nate on Sep 11, 2008 1:31 PM EDT

MMA Rated has the scoop:

...we have spoken to HBO's Director of Media Relations, Kevin Flaherty, and he had this to say about HBO's involvement with Affliction or any other mixed martial arts promotions:

"HBO is not in discussions with any MMA organization presently. Our sports programming plate is full."

Surely, this doesn't rule out the possibility of a Golden Boy/Affliction union but that would seem to end speculation that HBO is also in the mix.

Also, when we asked Affliction COO, Michael D. Cohen, whether the huge announcement he promised yesterday would be released this weekend at the boxing event, he quickly shot it down. Cohen reiterated that the announcement will be made within the next two weeks at the Trump Tower in Manhattan.

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Good.

Not for Affliction, but for me. I don’t want HBO and the antiquated executives anywhere near the sport of mma. Over the last few years, HBO has lost the “edge” off their programming and is no longer the leader in their field. If not for Entourage and Curb, I would drop them completely. They run the same 20 movies over and over, and their original programming, just isn’t that original at this point.

On the other side, i see co-promoting with GB, as hardly Earth shattering. An HBO deal would have at least appeared to be big, considering Dana was working towards that at one time.

"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"

by BJJDenver on Sep 11, 2008 1:22 PM EDT reply actions

Affliction is Partnering with Golden Boy.

Translation: Affliction is divesting out of the MMA business…

They expected 250k buys on the first show and it got less than 100k.

The second show stunk right out of the gate with less than 700 tickets sold in a 19,000 seat arena so it had to be canceled (I thought the payroll was half but meltzer reported the payroll was 75% of the first shows).

Atencio is getting his ass handed to him shortly.

They will be putting on mixed events with Boxing and MMA.

This ladies and gentleman is THE “HEX” announcement.

They will try to renegotiate some contracts and try to honor them through boxing/mma events… and write it off as sponsorship for affliction.

by mmalogic on Sep 11, 2008 2:17 PM EDT reply actions

Hasn’t Affliction had a growing sponsorship in boxing as well? Seems like I remember them pasted all over the ring a couple of times recently.

And God, thank you for the HEX, lol. This is going to rank up there with “jumping the shark”!

"The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'"

by BJJDenver on Sep 11, 2008 2:19 PM EDT up reply actions

mmalogic, can you explain what Golden Boy is getting out of this deal? Are Affliction covering a lot of the expenses, or is Golden Boy actually planning on sticking around in MMA even once Affliction is completely done?

by Michaelthebox on Sep 11, 2008 2:28 PM EDT up reply actions

Putting on events is a cost onto itself… Then you have fighter contracts.

From what I understand:

Golden Boy gets to test the MMA waters without much outlay as they already put on events… all they would do is add mma fights to it.

Affliction will cover most to all the mma fight contracts. they will try to renegotiate some contracts and honor whatever they are committed to. They will write if off as very expensive sponsorship deals.

If Golden Boy gets any traction in MMA then you will see them try to work a tv deal… Affliction is all but done from fight promotion. They will go back to sponsoring in places where they haven’t burned any bridges.

I suspect Golden Boy will go back to just focusing on boxing and affliction will have to live with less of a presence in the MMA world.

by mmalogic on Sep 11, 2008 2:49 PM EDT up reply actions

This is just a general, hypothetical question:

If Affliction shuts down the MMA promotion side of their business, will they be allowed to sponsor UFC and EliteXC fighters again (visibly, that is)? I ask because when I was watching the last UFC, I noticed clips from old fights had the “Affliction” patches on fighters’ shorts blurred out and it just annoyed the shit out of me. I almost want Affliction to get out of promoting just so I don’t have to feel like I’m looking at a hip hop video on MTV everytime they show an old fight…

by AJB on Sep 11, 2008 3:33 PM EDT up reply actions