Looks like the Trump partnership, after a lot of hype, might slowly be paying off for Affliction. Larry King did a web only interview with Donald Trump Jr. discussing the Affliction Day of Reckoning Event.

Although it's a web only thing it does help raise the profile of MMA among the mainstream public (Larry King is about as  mainstream as you can get).

Larry did mention it on his show earlier today.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/01/21/lkl.trump.jr.web.exclusive.cnn

Trump Sr. is a marketing genius and knew that by doing the Apprentice on NBC he would launch his 'Trump' brand into the stratosphere. Well maybe Tom Atencio also know's what he is doing by partnering with Trump. Hopefully Trump Jr. knows what he's doing.

Interestingly Larry refers to Affliction as 'Trump's Affliction Entertainment Company'. Now Larry could have his facts wrong or Trump could have a much more significant stake in the company then we might be aware of. Should that be the case it bodes well for Affliction having a 3rd and 4th show at least.

If Trump Jr. has a real financial stake in Affliction Entertainment we would really need to start taking them more seriously. Trump Sr., who has a personal networth of 3 billion plus (as of Forbes 2008), could easily afford to spend 3 or 4 million here and there on an MMA show. Of course, he would plan for it to be successful in the long run, but a 40 million dollar investment is something that he could easily afford.

For a bit of perspective check out how much Laksmi Mittal spent on his daughter's wedding:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3830009.stm

Perhaps that is why Affliction only aims to host 4 events a year rather than 8 or 10. Trump wants to build  the brand slowly and is prepared to spend a little money to do so. Alternatively he's letting his son to build a big business play thing with the 'cool kids' from 'Affliction'.

Either way, Affliction could well be here to stay.