I for one am looking forward to another Affliction event
by Randomus on Feb 13, 2009 8:12 PM EST
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PrintAffliction had its sophomore MMA event at the end of last month, and there has been a lot of talk that the company won't be able to afford to host a third MMA event again. I'm not sure about Affliction's financial situation, so I won't speculate about whether or not the company will be able to promote another show.
As a fan of MMA, I truly hope Tom Atencio and company will be able to find the cash to host another show, as I look forward to seeing Fedor Emelianenko fight Josh Barnett. Fighting off all these rumors and speculation of Affliction Entertainment's operations must be mentally tiring for him, but he's going to have to get used to it even if there is a third event this summer.
"We're looking at three to four months when we'll do the next fight," he told MMAJunkie.com. "The bottom line is we're here. We're coming up on the next event, and we'll give the date pretty soon."
I've attended a lot of MMA events, ranging from local smokers all the way up to UFC and Pride events. I've also gone to Strikeforce, EliteXC, and WEC events, so I'm used to seeing live events -- and there were some basic kinks that need to be fixed, but I think Affliction is willing to sacrifice more time, effort and money into having another event.
Although I highly respect Georges St. Pierre, B.J. Penn and Anderson Silva -- all of whom I've seen fight live -- it's just not the same when Emelianenko fights. Each and every time he fights I truly believe I'm watching an MMA legend solidify his legacy, and definitely felt that when he fought Andrei Arlovski in January.
For the sake of better competition -- and the fact that the Day of Reckoning event was highly entertaining to attend -- I hope a third event will take place sometime this summer.
Until another possible Affliction event, there is a lot of great MMA for fans to enjoy in the UFC and other events. As a reminder, don't forget that Diego Sanchez and Joe Stevenson headline UFC 95 free on Spike TV on Saturday, Feb. 21.
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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Absolutely
Putting finances aside, their shows have been getting better and the last show was great.
Being there live and watching it from a PPV doesn’t do it justice.
I was there at both Affliction events and the environment in the arena when Fedor fights is unmatched.
I also hope the Affliction 3 event takes place and does well.
Even working with Strikeforce could be an option for them as well, since they already had a relationship with CBS and EliteXC. I am sure more announcements will be coming our way soon.
I think the extent to which Strikeforce works with the colossal failure that is Affliction is strictly limited to getting some manner of receipt for allowing Strikeforce guys to work on Affliction shows. Coker mentioned bringing in Hieron. To that extent, yes, it could happen in the not-too-distant future.
However, the longer things go without any sort of working relationship between the two companies post EliteXC asset grab, I submit that the liklihood of Scott Coker wanting to work with Affliction diminishes.
Also, the likelihood that Affliction remains in the fight promoting game also diminishes.
"BJ on the BE" - Kierkegaard
by Brett Jones on Feb 14, 2009 12:18 PM EST up reply actions
Some people seem to be jumping from fighter exchange to full on partnership (or even merger) and there is a big difference there. They should end up with good relations between the two organizations but I doubt we will ever see them jumping into bed with each other (unless it’s through a future asset buyout).
The only stories I ever read that say Affliction needs money to put on there next event are here. No one else has reported that news and it’s only speculated here.
I have read it at all sorts of different places but a lot of it does seem to be speculation. Of course with Affliction where the money is coming from obviously is going to be an issue because they aren’t making any.
I’m not going to argue that. I’m starting to believe it’s more an advertising campaign but a campaign that does seem to be working. I’m not sure the events are making them more customers. I think they are using the sales and attendance numbers to convince potential retailers there clothes are popular to a lucrative demographic.
MMA is only a part of what Affliction aims it’s clothing line at. Honestly they have more cross over appeal with heavy metal fans than they do with MMA fans. Lets face it they aren’t Tap Out they are clothing producers that just happen to target a similar demographic to what MMA does. The Affliction MMA events get no mainstream coverage that potential retaliers would notice and they are basically marketing to the same fans that they were already reaching before when they were sponsoring fighters on UFC shows. It would of been a heck of a lot cheaper to buy advertising space to put a giant Affliction logo in the middle of UFC cages for two events than it was for them to put on two on their own and they would of actually had the banner in the UFC cage seen by way more people than both their shows combined. Affliction the apparel brand has experienced great growth but It would be interesting to see if Affliction running MMA shows had any actual affect at all on their clothing line’s sales growth or if it’s more in line with what other fad clothing lines have attained in their day. If your looking just to advertise your clothing line a freaken Super Bowl commercial only cost 3 million and it will get you exposure to 80 million viewers. You can run a very successful advertising campaign for a lot less than it cost to create a whole company to run MMA events from scratch and put on two very expensive PPVs (hell if you are after advertising wouldn’t you run the shows for free to a lot more viewers?).
Tom Atencio is a real fan of the sport and it seems that he runs the MMA promotion from that angle. If you look at what he does in terms of a guy who has a love of the sport and money to burn then Affliction’s actions make a lot more sense. How many of us wish we had the money and the connections to run our own MMA shows? Tom Atencio is living a fans dream regardless of where the money is going. I could be wrong but I don’t think he actually took the business side of the sport very seriously until after the first show’s numbers came back.
As he put it, the promotion side is new to him, he admits at overpaying fighters in the first show, and he learns from his mistakes. We will see.
by MMASuPreMaCy on Feb 14, 2009 4:09 AM EST up reply actions
The problem with learning from your mistakes in million dollar industries is that you are losing those millions while you learn. Tom Atencio has made a permanent impact on the sport and I’d be willing to bet that he is enjoying doing this, he is a real fan of the sport after all but there is a heck of a lot to learn and the money isn’t going to last forever. Hell if it was easy we’d all be doing it instead of talking about it.
We will see how it all works out for him but I just don’t think he is doing it to push his company’s clothing line he is promoting MMA because he wants to be a MMA promoter. You can successfully advertise a product a hell of a lot cheaper than running a top tier MMA promotion but it’s hard to put a price on following a dream.
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